canal/bourndale herring run

[hablonski]

i was at the herring run yesterday from 4-8:00 PM...nothing happening...guys were twenty deep with buckets waiting for the game warden to give them herring...there were almost zero herring in the run...the guys that did get them got there early and they fished them, but to no avail...it seemed like some of the herring were wasted in the effort...i was concerned about the reduced numbers of herring so i fished 9" storms and tsunami's instead...the canal vets down there tell me that the soft plastics will work when the stripers come through, but if you want to hook into real cows, you need to liveline herring...so what about it? can i catch big keepers on soft plastics in the canal during the (hopefully) upcomming may blitz?...this is my first spring at the herring run...these vets told me that once the big fish come in it will last for about eight days, with keeper size fish cleaning up on the herring dropping back down the run...also, one dude who said he's been there everyday for the past 10 days said he witnessed herring stacked back 4-5 light poles waiting to get up the run...he stated that there's probably 500,000 herring in the pond, waiting to come back down...i was also there on tuesday may 11th, and no stripers were showing...both days i was there on the slack...the vets say the canal water is still too cold and most predict the cows to be in by next week...