I had a couple evening hours free and decided to take a drive to The Canal for a quick hit to try my luck.

Stats
Date: April 15
Location: Hennepin Canal
Time: 6:10pm-7:40pm
Totals: 2 bass
Weather: Sunny/breezy
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: Z-Man Chatterbait (sexy shad) with a BPS Speed Shad trailer (pro blue) – 1 bass, Strike King Red Eye Shad (red craw) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 1-3
Top 1 Weight (only one bass at 12” or better): 1-3

Winning Lures

Notes and Nonsense

Bike Back in Business – I barely even promote myself let alone have any advertisers. But I would like to give a shout out to Wright Cycles in Moline for getting me back on the bicycle by fixing a flat tire. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of a timeframe when I pulled into the lot but the fellow on duty said to bring it on in and he’d see if he could get it repaired on the spot. And that’s exactly what he did. An added bonus was talking fishing as he performed the repair and then for several minutes afterwards.

6:54pm – First bass at 11.5″ on a lipless crankbait (catch video below)

Unpleasant conditions with stained water and abundant floating debris

Ugly Water – I had not been on this stretch for nearly a month and I was surprised at how nasty the water looked. In mid-April, it already had ugly chunks of vegetation floating down with the light current. Much of the crud was right in range of my casting and made for some frustrating fouled lures. As this report is a bit tardy, I will add that I drove by on my way back from an April 27 outing and the water looked much cleaner as I took a brief glimpse from the road.

Harmless little guy, prefer them over ticks any day

7:15pm – Top Bass at 1-3 (13″) on a chatterbait

Hand Fishing – At a former job, I worked with a couple people who would engage in handfishing. This involves wrangling large catfish out of holes or strategically placed structures by letting them chomp down on your hand when it is stuck in the fish’s mouth. No thanks, those people were crazy, although good guys. However, on this outing, I got about as close as I’ll ever get when my first bass went flying as I lifted it out of the water. It flopped down the bank and promptly wedged headfirst in between some chunk rocks. Wanting to avoid the shutout, I had no choice but to go after it. As the video below shows, I was successful.

 

A pair of bass in an hour and a half was not up to my expectations but at least not shut out. I am still waiting for The Canal bass to come to life and deal me a winning hand with a combination of quantity and quality. 2024 has been tough on both accounts. As always, I’ll keep on casting. Talk to you later. Troy