On the heels of a tough Saturday bite, I headed back on Sunday for “revenge.” My destination was a stretch where I had struggled to land two bass in just under two hours the previous day. Results ended up pretty much the same as detailed below.
2:51pm – Top Bass at 1-4 (14″) on a spinnerbait
Stats
Date: May 4
Location: Hennepin Canal
Time: 2:30pm-5:15pm
Totals: 3 bass
Weather: Party cloudy/windy, 65F
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: War Eagle Spinnerbait (white/chartreuse) with twin tail trailer – 2 bass, Booyah Buzz Buzzbait (white) – 1 bass
Top Bass: 1-4 Spinnerbait
Top 3 Weight (only three at 12” or better): 3-4 (1-4,1-0,1-0)
Starting lineup
Tune of the Trip
Desperado – Eagles (1973)
Notes and Nonsense
Top 10 Quest – I have mentioned before that I have a goal to catch a ten-pound Top 5 on each section of The Canal from the Rock River in Colona to the Visitor Center in Sheffield. The stretch that I fished on Saturday and Sunday is a spot that still falls short of the ten-pound mark. Coming into Saturday I had a total weight of 9-1 consisting of bass weighing 2-12,1-15,1-9,1-7,1-6. A 1-8 on Saturday pushed me to 9-3 but I could not find a bass to provide a boost on Sunday.
4:15pm – Top Bass Runner-up at 1-0 (13.5″) on a spinnerbait
Rise of the Gnats and Weeds – Prior to this weekend, I had not been on The Canal for five weeks and a lot can change between the end of March and the beginning of May. These trips featured the first gnats of the year. While not thick, they were frequent enough to be irritating and likely will only get worse. The aquatic vegetation has begun to grow just under the surface as well. Ditto on the “irritating” and definitely “will only get worse.”
Winning lures
First Topwater – After two bass in two hours on a spinnerbait around some good-looking wood cover, it was time to shift gears. Moving to the opposite side of The Canal, I was covering water nearly devoid of wood cover. Instead, there were riprap banks with a mix of surface and subsurface weeds. Having observed several social media posts reporting topwater fish, I opted to go all in with a buzzbait for the last hour. The good news was that I landed my first topwater bass of the year. The bad news was that it was the lone topwater catch.
4:55pm – First topwater bass of the year at 1-0 (13.5″) on a buzzbait
An Excuse? – I am not sure if I am in a fishing slump but two other anglers that I spoke with reported a tough bite as well. One of them said, “You know what happened?” I did not, but he proceeded to describe a winter kill and stated that he had observed a batch of quality-sized bass as casualties. The second angler noted “some large dead fish” but added that they were so decayed that he was unsure if they were bass.
Who knows what’s going on out there, but The Canal has been stubborn for me in 2025. But that will not deter me, and I plan to get back after them real soon. Talk to you later. Troy