Last Sunday morning found me back on The Canal around sunrise. The plan was to get in three hours of fishing and then make a donut run for my son’s birthday. I did invite him along, but at fourteen I guess getting up at 4:30am wasn’t high on his birthday list. I suppose at that age I wasn’t up before daylight much either. Hard to remember though as that was a long time ago. Anyway, my donut mission was a success and read on to see how the fishing turned out.

5:58am – Top Bass at 2-8 (18″) on a Whopper Plopper

Stats
Date: May 28
Location: Hennepin Canal
Time: 5:35am-8:35am
Totals: 6 bass
Weather: Sunny/breezy, 54-68F
Lures: Whopper Plopper 110 (bone) – 6 bass
Top Bass: 2-8 Whopper Plopper
Top 5 Weight: 8-9 (2-8,1-15,1-11,1-9,0-14)

Winning Lure

Notes and Nonsense

Top 4 to Top 5 – In 2022, four hours on this stretch of The Canal had left me one bass short of completing a Top 5 with an unimpressive weight of 4-4. I know there are some quality fish in the spot, so my first goal was to land one more keeper. Three minutes into casting, I had a 1-9 in hand and an initial Top 5 of 5-13. Next up was a daily Top 5 which I completed via a 1-11 with about twenty minutes left to fish. This put me at 8-9 for the day and that’s where I would stay. Overall, my all-time Top 5 for this pool now stands at 9-0 so I still have some work to do for a double-digit creel.

Near real time updates are fun as Brent and I were on different water at the same time

Synchronized Fishing – I sent my brother, Brent, a text after I caught my 2-8 and was not surprised to find that he was getting ready to start casting at Snakeden Hollow. It turned out that I was not the only one fighting aquatic vegetation as his text and pic below described the weeds on his fishing hole as “crazy.” He reported back later with a 1-15 and 1-14 on a topwater frog after a short morning on the weeds, I mean water. While it is preferable to share time on the water in person, today’s communication allows for some near real time updates from our stomping grounds. Those devices are good for something after all.

I guess the weeds on The Canal may not be so bad after all

 

Check off another Canal location with a Top 5 but keep it on the list as I intend to give it a boost to double digits before the year is over. One more report to get things caught up and the monthly “Prowl the Canal” posts are in the works to put a wrap on May. I hope to get back on The Canal soon to see how the bass treat me in June. I am also looking to have some company one of these days now that school is out and the evening light is longer. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy

The Hennepin Canal offers over one hundred miles of fishing with the vast majority being off the beaten path. Those remote spots are where I do most of my prowling to get away from the crowd. However, there are several spots on my “to fish list” that are closer to communities. Having taken Thursday off work, I set my sights on a dual duty day on the waterway. This consisted of a morning visit to an “urban” stretch and an evening outing on a “rural” area. Both spots were new water for me. I had observed the areas during some scouting hikes and drives but had never made a cast on the waters. Read on for the results.

9:20am – First bass was a solid 2-6 on a Whopper Plopper

Stats
Date: May 25
Location: Hennepin Canal (two locations)
Time: 9:20am-1:10pm & 5:30pm-8:00pm
Totals: 15 bass (11 bass & 4 bass)
Weather: Sunny/breezy & sunny/windy
Lures: War Eagle Spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) with a BPS XPS double tail grub trailer (Houdini) –9 bass, Booyah Buzzbait (black) – 3 bass, Whopper Plopper 110 (bone) – 2 bass, 5” Yamasenko wacky rig (perch) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 3-2 Buzzbait
Top 5 Weight: 10-4 (3-2,2-6,1-10,1-10,1-8)

Winning Lures

Notes and Nonsense

Morning Mission – I headed west to start my day and got some quick feedback with a 2-6 on a Whopper Plopper on my second cast of the morning. While it would be my largest bass of my first stop of the day, I did fool several more “keepers” with seven of the eleven bass coming in at 12” or better and a Top 5 of 7-1. My three hours of exploring were well spent on a stop worthy of a return trip.

6:26pm – Top Bass was a long and lean 3-2, could it have made 4-0 with some bulk?

East Evening – After a break of several hours, I opted to end my day on some water to the east of my normal stops. The evening bite was tougher than my morning, resulting in only four bass in three and a half hours of casting. On the upside was posting my Top Bass of the day at 3-2. Three of my four catches were keepers and combined to weigh in at 5-2.

Ten-Pound Top 5 – As I have mentioned before, my on the water goals in chronological order are don’t get shutout, land five keepers, and post a double digit Top 5 weight. Over the course of the two trips, the bass came through with a 10-4 total to check that often elusive third goal.

 

A banged up and lean 3-2 Top Bass, possibly spawned out

Four-Pound Quest – The search for my first four-pounder from The Canal continues as my Top Bass on this outing came up well short. But the weight was the only thing short about it as it measured 19” in length. A bass of that length has all the potential to tip the scales at four pounds but this one was just long and lean. Granted the fourteen ounces it needed may be a stretch, but this bass was near razor thin, although proportionate. No big head and scrawny body but perhaps just spent from the spawn. It was also missing a chunk of its tail and both sides of the fish had sustained some sort of damage. If only bass could talk, we would have had a good conversation.

 

Great fun exploring and it is hard to beat the allure of new water. In fact, I enjoyed the pursuit so much that I headed for a couple more stretches of “uncharted territory” over the Memorial Day holiday. But those are fish stories to come. In addition, I need to work in my May “Prowl the Canal” stats and notes once June arrives. Too much fishing and not enough time to write. A good “problem” to have. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy

After separate strip mine visits for me (May 6) and Brent (May 13), we were able to team up to try our luck. For a few years now when we get together, I have incorporated some prognostication prior to making our first casts. Directly below are the pre-launch predictions followed by the lowdown on how it all shook out.

Pre-launch predictions

6:40am – First bass at 2-4 on a Mann’s Chug and Spit popper

Stats
Date: May 20, 2023
Location: Knox County, IL strip pits (1 public, 2 private)
Time: 6:25am-2:25pm (6.50 hours fishing)
Weather: Sunny/windy
Air Temp: 50-72F
Water Temp: not available
Totals: 29 bass (Brent – 15, Troy -14)
Lures: 5” Yamasenko wacky rig (perch) – 13 bass, 5 3/8” Bass Pro Stik-O wacky rig (green pumpkin) – 10 bass, Mann’s Chug and Spit Popper – 5 bass, Whopper Plopper 110 (bone) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 3-9 Senko wacky rig (Troy)
Top 5 Weight: 15-5 (3-9,3-4,2-15,2-13,2-12)

Mann’s Chug and Spit

Notes and Nonsense

Public Water – We spent 6:25am-9:25am on a public strip pit landing eight total bass which included seven over two pounds and four of our eventual Top 5 for the day. Sun and a frustrating wind pushed us to relocate after a solid start to our day.

11:01am – Top Bass at 3-9 from Little John on a Senko wacky rig

Private Water – From 10:25am-2:10pm we fished a pair of lakes at Little John Conservation Club (LJCC) landing twenty-one more bass but only one that would boost our Top 5 weight. That 3-9 would be our Top Bass of the trip with thirteen of our haul being “keepers” weighing between 0-14 and 1-13. The day ended tough with only four bass on our second LJCC lake in the final hour and forty-five minutes of early afternoon casting. The LJCC portion of the outing was my first time on these waters since November 17, 2021. Skipping out on 2022 marked only the second year in over thirty-five years that I had not made a visit to LJCC.

Whopper Plopper and Senko wacky rig

Got Pliers? – While fishing at our first stop, a kayak angler hollered at us requesting some pliers. It turned out that he had caught a bass in the three-pound range that had another hook in its gills. Brent and I were able to extract the hook and an attached four-inch swimbait. The angler was surprised and indicated that it was a lure that his partner had broken off on a fish during an earlier trip. Indeed, I had seen what his fellow kayaker was throwing on this trip, and it sure looked like the same deal. Not the first time I’ve seen such a thing but those are tales filed away for my “Believe it or Not” series one of these days.

Final results and prediction winners

Armada or Flotilla – As Brent and I left the public water we were greeted by half a dozen young anglers dragging out their kayaks and a johnboat. One of the anglers spotted our GoPros and asked, “Do you guys do YouTube?” I confirmed the YouTube content as well as a blog and dug around in my tacklebag for a few business cards to pass around. I also gave the angler looking for pliers a couple so who knows, maybe someone else will look at these fish stories. If you guys are out there, I enjoyed chats, and you have some catching up to do as I wasn’t lying when I said that there is a ton of content here on the blog.

 

Another good day on the water and always fun to share it with Brent. We’ve been doing this for a long time but don’t get a shot to do it often enough these days it seems. As reported in this week’s Top 5 Update, we were able to post four bass that helped our 2023 weight. The LJCC addition marked the first private water submission of the year. I dig LJCC, always have, but there’s an added satisfaction when you fool them where everybody can fish as we did to start our day. Talk to you later. Troy