I live 300 miles from the canal most times it takes me just under 5 hrs it has taken as many as 8 hrs.. I have been fishing it since 2002..I have come as many times as 4 per year.Last year I made one trip for 3 nights..This year one trip for 5 nights.Most times I come in the mid summer months.Not the best time but I have confidence.I truly believe after may when they enter there are large fish that just stay in the ditch till they leave in the late fall.
In my illustrious career I bet I have a little over 50 nights fishing the ditch..Thats less than a season for many good ditch guys..If I lived near there it would not even be a half a season...
Like I said I am NO Expert..I catch suicidal fish.,I catch em out of sheer determination.My first quality ditch fish came from a all nighter of casts..I must have casted 300 times.I have learned the better tides thru trial an error.
It's fishing thats all.Fishing in current..Some make it out to be something so much more.Getting your gear right to fish 50 ft depths at 5 kts is half the battle.The current puts the fish where they are supposed to be.I still think the canal is a wonderful fishing hole. Seven miles long with 2 sides chock full of mysteries.I have only just begun to unlock em..That is why I come back..

i wanna be like Mister powers some day. :love:

I got the clothes from Keyser Soze.

nib..... 4 a guy from the jerzy coast ,,u understand the canal very well ....for the last 25 yrs i,ve had a lot of time on the ditch . from pre hay days w/ live herrin and live pogies through the hole season .to fishing only w/ fake bait and tins and plugs ...my advice is get the bike watch the regs ,propper rod n reel,
keep notes and spend time there..its all about what you know and where to go next .and yes i,m a knowitall....???

Thanks Dave, I have done that with the bike..My earlier trips I did lots of legwork.
Low tides.Looking for turbulent water, upsides and downsides of mussel beds.Marked fishing locations..I did hook a good one in spot one time they told me it was the wrong tide??
Had em hooked for 30 seconds or so when she came undone.
Thats ok,while your landing ratio with a jig is as close to 100 percent of any artificial you can use.In them currents if you don't have em hooked right your not gonna land em. Good thing is,she told me I was doing the right thing..
Seems like last few trips I am getting a little complacent.
More cherry picking easy to fish spots.
It's all good..

This is a good How-To on the Canal.....I also took the liberty of copying Saltheart's and NIB's post from this thread into it...kinda like a living "How-To"

http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...ad.php?t=14919