While I still have one pool remaining in my quest to post double-digit Top 5 weights on a stretch of twenty-five contiguous pools, I chose to give the pursuit a break for this outing. Instead, I selected a pair of pools connected via a tube that each had starting weights in the ten-pound range. The aims were to knock any of the one-pounders out of the creels and boost the Top 5 weights beyond the ten-pound range.
10:51am – Top Bass #3 weighing 2-1 (16″) on a spinnerbait
Stats
Date: October 4
Location: Hennepin Canal (2 pools)
Time: 10:50am-2:25pm
Totals: 7 bass
Weather: Sunny/breezy, 55-72F
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: War Eagle Spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) with BPS double tail trailer (Houdini) – 6 bass, Booyah Buzzbait (white) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 3-8 (spinnerbait)
Top 5 Weight: 11-0 (3-8,2-13,2-1,1-5,1-5)
Winning lures
Notes and Nonsense
The Hennepin Hundred – The first full weekend of October sees an ultramarathon along the historic waterway called “The Hennepin Hundred.” The top tier of the race covers one hundred miles along The Canal with the finish line being in Colona. The race begins on Saturday morning and for several years I have tried to be on the water Sunday morning to observe participants as they work their way towards the goal. I got a late start on this trip and ventured a bit further from home, but I did get to observe one runner plugging away with over a dozen miles to go. Impressive, and a little crazy.
12:03pm – Top Bass #2 weighing 2-13 (18″) on a spinnerbait
Pool One – The starting Top 5 Weight on this stretch stood at 10-1 (2-8,2-2,1-14,1-13,1-12), so my aim was to see if I could land three two-pounders to knock the one-pound fish out of the creel. On my fourth cast of the morning, I had one of them in the boat, a solid fish weighing 2-1 on a spinnerbait. Roughly an hour later, with three more one-pound fish added to the log, I had my second two-pounder hooked on a buzzbait, but it wrapped me on a lily pad stem and got loose. That one stung but ten minutes later a 2-13 would ease the disappointment and establish a new Top Bass for this pool displacing a 2-8 caught in 2024. I left this stretch with five bass in two hours and one two-pounder shy of meeting my goal. All good though as I got a significant boost to end with an all-time Top 5 on the pool of 11-6 (2-13,2-8,2-2,2-1,1-14).
1:31pm – Top Bass weighing 3-8 (19″) on a spinnerbait
Pool Two – Heading through a tube, I took a shot at an adjacent pool that had a starting Top 5 Weight of 10-12 (3-0,2-5,2-0,1-14,1-9). In an hour and a half, I would only land two bass but the first of those catches would establish a new Top Bass for the pool tipping the scales at 3-8. A bonus aspect of the catch was that it came with an audience of two shoreline anglers, one of whom was quite congratulatory about the catch. We had an entertaining, shouting conversation from about fifty yards across The Canal but it was loud and clear that we were both enthused by the catch. The bass knocked the 1-9 out of my existing Top 5 creel for a nearly two-pound boost up to the current weight of 12-11 (3-8,3-0,2-5,2-0,1-14).
Well, I didn’t quite knock out all the one-pounders, but I will take these results any day. A daily Top 10 exceeding ten pounds and establishing a new Top Bass on each of the pools was a winner. The seven bass for this trip pushed my 2026 total to 474 bass and set my sights on hitting the 500 mark for the year. Stay tuned as there are more fishing reports to come, including a pair of guest anglers. Talk to you later. Troy