After waiting out several hours of Saturday morning rain, I headed out for a few midday hours on The Canal. For this outing, I left the boat behind and hit an area that is angler friendly for those on foot. Several quality bass turned out to be friendly, too, while Mother Nature dealt some additional rain.

Stats
Date: September 19
Location: Hennepin Canal (2 pools)
Time: 11:30am-2:30pm
Totals: 6 bass
Weather: Overcast/calm/light rain, 70-76F
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: Spro Flappin Frog 65 (nasty shad) – 5 bass, 5” Yamasenko wacky rig (strawberry cream) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 2-7 (Frog)
Top 5 Weight: 8-13 (2-7,1-15,1-13,1-10,1-0)

Winning lures

Notes and Nonsense

Before The Rain – I opted to start with a lengthy walk and then fish my way back to the truck rather than fishing my way out and taking a more rapid pace on the return. The latter is my normal approach, but I wanted to spend some time on a more distant portion of my route and there were a pair of anglers already present near the parking lot. As best I can, I try to give fellow bank anglers plenty of space rather than leapfrogging and fishing in proximity ahead of them. After a twenty-five-minute walk and nearly forty-five minutes of casting, I finally landed my first bass weighing fifteen ounces and coming on a topwater frog. Not exactly how I envisioned starting my day. And then the rain showed up.

12:22pm – Top Bass of the trip weighing 2-7 (17″) on a frog

During the Rain – When the rain returned, I was over a mile walk from my truck. For a great many miles of the walking path that typically leaves a pair of choices. Choice number one – find a place to shelter if you have sufficient tree canopy across the path away from the bank. Choice number two – stand out in the rain and keep casting (I failed to bring rain gear). Fortunately, as the rain began to fall, I was only a few dozen yards from a massive, sprawling cottonwood with some of its branches extending over the path. A perfect setup to not only keep me somewhat dry, but also placing me near enough to the bank to keep on casting. Lucky for me, the rain doesn’t matter much to the bass as they are already wet, and one was in the neighborhood that took a liking to my frog. And it gave my Top 5 on the stretch a solid boost. The fish weighed in at 2-7 and knocked a 1-8 out of my creel.

Rainy release of the day’s Top Bass

After the Rain – Luckily, the rain did not last long but the effect of the slight weather change doubled my results with four bass landed over the remaining time on the water. Each of the catches were “keepers” (12” or better and all released) with weights ranging from 1-10 to 1-15. Three came on the frog while the other hit a wacky rigged Senko.

1:17pm – Top Bass Runner-Up of the trip weighing 1-15 (14.5″) on frog

Top 5 Update – The addition of the 2-7 and 1-13 on one of the two pools boosted my all-time Top 5 Weight on the location from 10-1 to 11-3 (culled a 1-10 and 1-8). One of my aims on this trip was to boost what I call a “low ten” limit. Pools with a “low ten” have a Top weight anywhere in the ten-pound range. As I only have one of twenty-five pools that lacks a ten-pound limit, this is one of the next stages of my quest. These next steps include bumping low weights beyond the ten-pound range, getting rid of any one-pounders in my creels, and giving any “cheap tens” added legitimacy. The latter aspect kind of goes along with knocking out the one-pounders. For example, the starting weight of 10-1 on one of these pools was anchored by the largest bass I have ever landed on The Canal (3-10,1-11,1-10,1-10,1-8). This skews the total in a way and leaves me with ample room to improve the weight in bumping those lighter fish.

 

Mission accomplished as I was able to eliminate a “low ten” on the pool that needed that type of boost. The 2-7 Top Bass for the day came from that pool and inspired me to visit the stretch again to see if I could find three more similar bites to get rid of the rest of those one-pounders. That is a fish story for another day as I continue to catch up on the fishing reports. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy