Hit the Canal at 3:30 am.
Fish on about 3:40.
Small Bass on 5" swimmers on the banks.
After the tide turned, I heard Bass out there somewhere.
Darn fog had set in. You can hear them but can't see em.
I threw a polaris type plug about 10 times and WACK!!!!
Some more blind casting into the fog and WACK again.
2 Keepers not really big fish but nice.
I have no idea how many more were on the surface
because of the fog, but there were definitely more than 2.
The fish stayed up for about 20 min then nothing.
Not a blitz by any means but fish on the surface is a good thing.
Final total. 2 Keepers and 5 18-20".
Other fish would follow the swimmer right up to the bank but
would not take it. I tried Sloggos but they wanted the swimmer.
This was alot better than last Thursday.

No, I'm not going to say what part of the Canal.

I thought all of you that are going to fish the tourney on
Saturday would like to know there are FISH.
Good luck saturday. I unfortunately can't be there.
I would have enjoyed meeting you all.

Tight Lines..........

educate a neophyte -
what is a 5" swimmer?

my surf bag is busting open with crap that only caught me.

I fished off the canal yesterday with my convenrench and got a problem with it. I didn't fish alot. I was struggling with the backlashes. I got a bite.

I fished the canal this am and there were fish on top. nothing big, but they were fish. Saw lots of fish rolling and not smacking! me thinks there were sand eels about

Cool. I hope that they are fat.

i am getting a penn 7500ss reel with a 8ft MH rod should this be a good set up for the canal

Just me but that doesn't seem like it would balance out right. If it was me I would go with a bigger rod. But who am I to say. lol

Originally posted by CANAL RAT
i am getting a penn 7500ss reel with a 8ft MH rod should this be a good set up for the canal

I had a 7500ss it is too heavy to plug with. If you are chunking it would be fine.

Originally posted by rwilhelm
I had a 7500ss it is too heavy to plug with. If you are chunking it would be fine.

what would be a good outfit for pluging and eeling:p :rolleyes:

The 7500SS is fine for everything. its a little heavy but its got good line capacity. Perhaps the 6500SS is reel enough?

the 8 foot rod is too short for the canal IMO. You will need some casting distance and 8 feet just won't give you much distance.

Originally posted by Saltheart
The 7500SS is fine for everything. its a little heavy but its got good line capacity. Perhaps the 6500SS is reel enough?

the 8 foot rod is too short for the canal IMO. You will need some casting distance and 8 feet just won't give you much distance.

how about a 9-10 ft rod

I have a 9' 1084 and a 10' 1209 that I use in the canal. The 1209 cast like a dream with 3.5oz

the 1084 cast 2-2.5 oz nicely too.

love them both.

the 8' that you have might do okay with bombers but when those fish are bustin top and the guy next you can reach and you can't you'll be:af:

definatly up grade!

perfect tide this morning down at the canal, with very small fish to show. condtions were almost perfect, except for the fog. I have no depth perception in the fog and I was over casting breaking fish by 20-30 feet.


didn't see any else catching because I couldn't see two poles away, BUT the guys across the canal were talking so loud i could hear them, from the sounds of it they weren't catching either.

Originally posted by Saltheart
The 7500SS is fine for everything. its a little heavy but its got good line capacity. Perhaps the 6500SS is reel enough?

the 8 foot rod is too short for the canal IMO. You will need some casting distance and 8 feet just won't give you much distance.

would a shimano baitrunner 230/20 and a 10 tica MH rod be good for the canal

Canal Rat that sounds like a good rod.

I got a chance to go fishing last Wednesday so I went to the canal I was on the west side all the way out to the fog horn. I got there a little past 9am. My first cast using a swimmer one small schooley fowled it up but wouldn’t take it. After that I switched to mackerel. After about 15 min I hook my first keeper just made 28” first keeper in 4 years. After that I did not get anything else. I had to leave to go to work at 12 at that time my friend showed up I gave him a call after work to see how he made out. He stayed until about 8pm that night but didn’t get nothing!

I’m going back next week to try my luck again.

John Scap....