I was able to hit The Canal for the second day in a row and doubled my totals from the previous day. The chatterbait continues to shine as it has landed every bass of 2026 thus far. The sun was also shining bright on an unseasonably warm day but being March in the Midwest, it was not meant to last quite yet.

Stats
Date: March 9
Location: Hennepin Canal
Time: 2:00pm-5:00pm
Totals: 8 bass
Weather: Sunny/windy, 71F
Water temperature: Not available
Lures: Z-Man Chatterbait (white or sexy shad) with a Yamamoto Zako (Tennessee Shad) or Bass Pro Shops Speed Shad (sight fish) trailers – 8 bass
Top Bass: 1-8 Chatterbait

Starting lineup

Tune of the Trip
Limelight – Rush (1981)
“Living in a fisheye lens, caught in the camera eye, I have no heart to lie…”
I tried some new angles with one of my Go Pros on this outing, The resulting footage was both rewarding and a bit embarrassing as shown in the clips included in today’s post.

2:01pm – One minute of casting and one bass

Notes and Nonsense

Hot Start – On the spot I chose, there is a good-looking submerged log within casting distance of the parking lot. I suspect that everyone and their siblings have worked that log over with countless casts. And yes, if there is not a crowd, I usually give it a go as well. On this day, it produced my first two bass of the day in a span of three minutes. Such a pace was impossible to maintain but those two quick bites made for a positive outlook on the day.

2:55pm – Top Bass at 1-8 (14.5″) on a chatterbait

New Trick – I pack along a couple GoPros these days to record my time on the water. The oldest of the pair was a birthday gift from Julie and the kids back in 2017 and features a self-contained rechargeable battery that is losing stamina. This year it has been “demoted” to an auxiliary role to grab remote shots while the other camera is my sole first-person device. I fooled around with a couple new angles as shown in the video below. The first part of the clip captures the approaching bike and angler while the second and third parts of the clip are alternate views of the same catch. If I ever get around to making some more YouTube posts, I figure that these angles will come in handy for a different look. Upon viewing, I just found the bike clip to be fun while the remote catch clip was a wake-up call to shed some pounds.

 

Blooper – The new angle also provided an alternate view of a rookie mistake by a guy who has been wielding a fishing rod for a long time. The stretch of The Canal features limited shoreline trees on the towpath side that I was fishing. However, my back cast found a limb of one of those trees resulting in breaking off a chatterbait. Unfortunately, the lure had enough forward momentum that flew into The Canal rather than dropping on the bank. Both GoPro angles are featured in the clip below.

 

Combined with my outing the previous day, my 2026 bass total sits at an even dozen. Not knocking them dead but a decent haul to start the year. The twelve bass boost my all-time total on The Canal to 916 bass in my quest for Canal Bass #1000. Call me a fair-weather fisherman but I will probably sit out the cold snap before getting back on the water. Hopefully I’ll have another post or two in the meantime as I wait to land some more bass. Talk to you later. Troy