Canal Observations by yours truly.....

[hyefisherman2]

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)?

why would fishing die if there is a temp. drop? dont these fish become more active with cooler water?

[Diggin Jiggin]

What I observed this weekend was just a lot of dead fish on the bike path.

With one exception, all of the jigging guys that I've met and fished with over the past few years throw pretty much everything back, but the topwater crowd always seems to try and keep their limit.

Every keeper sized fish I saw caught on sunday was kept.

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by Diggin Jiggin

What I observed this weekend was just a lot of dead fish on the bike path.

With one exception, all of the jigging guys that I've met and fished with over the past few years throw pretty much everything back, but the topwater crowd always seems to try and keep their limit.

Every keeper sized fish I saw caught on sunday was kept.

I haven't kept a fish yet this year and the guys I fished with haven't either so..... If it's legal and you eat them then go for it, I don't so I don't.

I am pretty sure that almost every fish I have caught this year is still swimming unless they got stupid and made the same mistake twice.

And Professor M. any spare eelskin jigs you might feel it in your heart to part with I take!!!!!!!!

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by hyefisherman2

why would fishing die if there is a temp. drop? dont these fish become more active with cooler water?

Bass, thru documented research, have been found to responsive to temperature changes as little as an 1/8th of a degree.

Not unlike any other creature, including us humans, a rapid ten degree temp drop can affect behavior and make them, or us, look for more hospitable surroundings.

In a basses case it's more likely to affect thier metabolism being cold blooded creatures ( kind of like Numbskull), the slower thier metabolism is working the less active they are and food is digested slower which in turn means longer periods of not eating. Most times they just take off to find warmer water and the bait with it.

[hyefisherman2]

so your saying a steady temp. is best? because it keeps them more active?

....but what about the spring and fall runs? how does warmer water arriving/colder water arriving make them feed more if you said a change in temp. slows their metabolism.

[Mike P]

Boat traffic this year is way down for obvious reasons.

Best surface fishing in years.

Coincidence?

[pmbrac]

I will say that ever since I stopped fishing live herring, I've been into more and bigger fish. I 've taken a couple 40#ers in the canal on plugs since last spring. When herring were legal, I spent most of my time chasing those things through the woods. Now I just fish. Lots of bait in the canal this year. Lots of good fish too. btw, I fished side by side with my buddy throwing skin jigs and I was jigging with black Ronz, and i outfished him 5 to 1. man I love the ronz. I bought 100 black ronz tails this winter and made my own jigs. very effective.

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by pmbrac

I will say that ever since I stopped fishing live herring, I've been into more and bigger fish.

I agree. Wish the rubber stuff was around in the early 90's. Used to get 20,30,40 plus fish some days on herring with only a couple large mixed in. Now a good day might be 3,4,or 5 fish, but all good sized. Of course you still get some blitzes, but I feel there were bigger numbers of real large in the canal 10 plus years ago. Thing is though, I catch more of them now than back then without all the smalls to weed through.

[Swimmer]

I agree with every observation you've made here. The water temp especially during those tides were cool. I usually stand in the water without boots on during early evening and morning hours during the summer. One night, after fishing for three hours, I got out of the water, which I was in up to my knees and couldn't feel anything. Like many people here the canal is close and I have been doing my best to really learn how to fish it this year (see gas prices), and not just go to the canal to fish any old time. I have had some good mornings and some great mornings. I love plugging there, and learning new places to jig in the ditch. I would have been there this morning, but I cut quite a bit of cordwood yesterday, and my body screamed a loud no at 3:30 a.m. Now I am pissed because I can't cut wood in the rain. Too much of a chance on slipping on the log pile, but I could have fished. Cause the fish don't know its raining. I use to think the canal was extremely difficult to fish. Its not extremely difficult, but it is challenging. Those fogging morning, top-water, pencil popper smashes are exhilarating and worth the trip.