Hennepin Canal Crappies

[hnd]

I grew up in milan, il. and have fished the canal in that area for probably 12-13 years.

i have 1 spot that has produced crappie every year except the last 2. last year the weather was goofy and this year its been even goofier....i'm still catching crappie with eggs in their belly.

this year the water has been down inexplicably.

i've heard from many many people that they've never been able to consistantly catch crappie out of the hennepin. well i'm here to tell you its entirely possible. some pics:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/micahandari/Crappie1.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/micahandari/crappie2.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/micahandari/crappie4.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/micahandari/crappie5.jpg

all hennepin canal crappie

i grew up gill and bass fishing the canal.

anyone else fish the big island and milan parts of the canal?

[Timotha7]

Very nice batch of crappie thanks for sharing the information an the pictures

[fishin300]

Haven't fished the canal around there, but live righ here in West Rock Island. . . I do belong to the conservation club and do some bass fishing there. Are you fishing between the bridges and Ericsons or down past the conservation club?

[Schoe]

Well hnd, you have made a believer out of me as I have fished the Canal for 50 some years and never came up with a nice bunch of Crappie like that. You da man. Congrats, Schoe

[cattracker16]

Great looking group of "bait" you have there LOL hope they taste as well as they look.

[hnd]

Haven't fished the canal around there, but live righ here in West Rock Island. . . I do belong to the conservation club and do some bass fishing there. Are you fishing between the bridges and Ericsons or down past the conservation club?

its actually very close to the conservation club....

usually i start fishing the spot in mid april till the 1st week of may....there will be a few days in between that where the crappie are spawning where it slows....but then the males move back into the cover and feed again after they are rested...

amazingly this part of the canal is only 5-6 ft deep throughout....its wierd...behind ericsons there are 15 ft spots....

[Schoe]

I imagine the reason that pool on the Canal behind Ericsons is so deep is because there isn't hardly any runoff form any where and only gets its water source from the tube at the locks there at the Steel Dam thus not getting hardly any silt

[Illinoisgiller]

hnd, Good going there. Nice mess of crappie. I think you will find eggs in crappie all year long. They can hold eggs till the time is right. I've even heard of them absorbing the eggs if everything goes wrong for them. Mike

[hnd]

the area i fish the bottom is mostly made up of black mud i've found....a friend of mine's grandfather helped build the canals and he said they used to all be really deep. but have since filled up with silt over the years.

i'm close to the entrance to the rock river so i'm assuming its been quicker to fill up.

yeah i've caught crappie in the fall with eggs but these crappie are full...thats whats so wierd....

i checked my spot again yesterday and the stumps i fish usually are in 2-3 inches of water and are now in 6" of water....

[hnd]

i checked my spot again yesterday and the stumps i fish usually are in 2-3 inches of water and are now in 6" of water....

i meant 2-3 feet of water

[Rainman4u2]

I've caught a few by the old 31 lock. We went to the conservation club the last two nights to camp, and couldn't catch anything big enough to clean.

Ray

[hnd]

the club has decent bass and bluegill fishing....i haven't fished it in years though...

we might as well as gone and fished the hennepin today...

spent 5 hours out at lake george and all to show for it was a million smaller gills and about 12 4-5" fish...it was a blast :icon_rolleyes:

[harpenter]

You where on fire with those minnows...err... I mean bluegills (WHY did I have to lose that Walleye)?