Canal Observations by yours truly.....

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

Now to the observations, has anyone else besides me noticed that when it gets too be hot and muggy and the wind is heavy southwest in mid summer the water in the canal can drop to abnormally low temps and fishing just dies ( the last set of breaking tides was like this)?

Uh, Flap....the fishing didn't die. Its actually been good in the canal since May 15. Have there been a couple lulls? Yes, but I usually discover my "lulls" are another man's blitz, albeit in another part of the canal using different techniques.
As for bait versus artificial this year, the plug and jig guys have done extremely well on large fish of 30# size and up. Most of the regular eel guys I know have done below average. Most of my large 30# plus eel fish came late last year though, so I'm hoping to repeat last year's post labor day success.

Originally Posted by Flaptail

I must say I really do enjoy the herring ban and hope they never rescind it.

Me too. The rubber actually catches much better believe it or not. If they come up with an eel imitation that works like the real thing I'll give up eels too and start fishing with you and Numbskull.

For the record, I'm your average canal fisherman who puts in many days/nights for nil, but I manage to stumble onto fish occasionally. I'm pretty rigid with my approach to canal fishing, thus the numerous skunks and slow nights. Been doing a bit more jigging this year though.