This outing covered three pools with the first featuring dingy water and uncooperative bass. After an hour without a bass, I shifted to Plan B and moved to cleaner water. Read on to see if that proved to be a good decision.

8:58am – Top Bass Runner Up at 2-4 on a buzzbait

Stats
Date: August 25
Location: Hennepin Canal (three pools)
Time: 6:20am-12:10pm (4.50 hours fishing)
Totals: 12 bass, 1 green sunfish
Weather: Mostly cloudy to sunny/breezy, 71-87F
Lures: Big Bite Baits Suicide Buzz (citrus shad) – 8 bass, Spro Flappin Frog 65 (natural red) – 3 bass, Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (snow white shad) – 1 bass
Top 5 Weight: 10-3 (2-12,2-4,1-12,1-12,1-11)

Winning Lures

Notes and Nonsense

First Stop (6:20am-7:20am) – As noted in my intro, zero bass prompted me to head for clearer water. The results on this first stop were a disappointment as I only needed a boost of two ounces to reach my goal of a ten-pound Top 5 on the stretch. My initial weight of 9-14 consisted of bass weighing 2-8,2-2,1-14,1-13,1-9 meaning that a 1-11 would have pushed me to ten pounds. No go, so I have my sights set on one more visit in the fall to get the job done.

Bonus species on a Senko, green sunfish (possibly bluegill hybrid)

Traversing a tube

Second Stop (8:10am-10:25am) – On the heels of the earlier shutout, I landed a bass on my first cast at my next spot. The immediate feedback was followed by eight more bass in just over two hours. All the fish were “keepers” (12” or better and all released) and a Top Bass weighing 2-12 bested my previous Top Bass on the pool which stood at 2-9. The solid quality bite ousted four of my previous Top Bass from the pool and boosted my all-time weight from 8-5 to 10-2. Mission accomplished in checking off another stretch with a double-digit Top 5 Weight. Adding to the fun was the fact that all were caught on topwater lures (buzzbait and frog). The odd thing about the results is that I had fished the same stretch in July and never had a single bite. Five other anglers were also shutout on the pool that day. Fishing is weird.

9:31am – Top Bass at 2-12 on a buzzbait

Third Stop (10:55am-12:10pm) – Feeling good about the way the morning had turned around, I decided to linger on The Canal a while longer even though the favorable cloud cover had dissipated. Full sun had an adverse effect on the bite in the clear water conditions, but I did manage to land three bass and had two others come loose on the way to the boat.

 

A tough start but a solid finish thanks to a change of scenery. In the end, the bass helped me meet all my daily fishing goals. Goal number one took over an hour, but I was not shut out. Goal number two consists of landing five keepers to establish a daily Top 5. In an odd occurrence, all twelve of my bass were keepers. Goal number three is to post a double-digit Top 5 for the day and this trip resulted in a weight of 10-3. Those bass are out there on The Canal no matter where you go. Some days you just must move around to find where they are in a biting mood. Talk to you later. Troy