My Hennepin spot

[hnd]

well its a tad early but i've been aching to get out considering my spot was droughted out last year.

i headed out with my collection of maribou jigs and bobbers and fished for only the half hour i had as kind of a scouting mission. as suspected it was early for crappies, but i did catch one. it was about 9 inches...however, i did catch about 5 yellow bass. each one about 10 inches...the biggest about 11.

a quick google search and i realized this is the keeper size for these fish..i've caught many of these while crappie fishing and usually throwing them back...i like striper meat and according to my findings its similar....so now that i think they are biting i'm interested to go catch some more...they fight fairly well...

[Illinoisgiller]

hnd, Thank you for the positive report. :icon_cool: I've never caught a Yellow Bass in the canal. They must not take to the little jigs I often use. lol I did notice that the numbers of yellow shiners have been increasing in the areas down on this end.
I caught some Yellow Bass at Lake Geode and tried them. I think you'll find that they eat every bit as good as the local white bass or stripers. I try to keep the fillet knife just up off the skin and avoid most of the red meat.
I've been very concerned about the health of the canal fishery. Thanks again for the enlightning report. Mike

[hnd]

hnd, Thank you for the positive report. :icon_cool: I've never caught a Yellow Bass in the canal. They must not take to the little jigs I often use. lol I did notice that the numbers of yellow shiners have been increasing in the areas down on this end.
I caught some Yellow Bass at Lake Geode and tried them. I think you'll find that they eat every bit as good as the local white bass or stripers. I try to keep the fillet knife just up off the skin and avoid most of the red meat.
I've been very concerned about the health of the canal fishery. Thanks again for the enlightning report. Mike

the stretch of canal i fish is the one that feeds into the river.....because yeah in all the other parts i've fished, i've never caught the yellow bass.

and the reason i threw them back was because i figured keepers were like 15 inchers...

but i saw a few things online that they normally throw em on the stringer at 8 inches...

[Illinoisgiller]

From what I have heard about Yellow Bass, I guess we really shouldn't return them to the water.
They have re done quite a number of Iowa lakes to rid them of Yellow Bass. I guess they are invasive at least in a lake enviroment. I do know that Geode has a large population of them. I was told that the best way to target them is in old creek beds on the lake bottom with white curly tail jigs in hot summer.
I talked with a fella that helped with a shocking survey there and they found large numbers of large Yellow Bass. The DNR said they were the biggest ones they had seen.
I rather doubt they will hurt that section of the canal though. Thanks again for the report. Mike

[cambridgefisherman]

I have fished that section of the canal you speak of before and didnt have much luck, but i only went there once. I may have to try it again because i have never caught a yellow bass.

[hnd]

its really high right now...probably 2-3 foot above normal....it was windy yesterday and i wasn't able to get my jig where i want to...

we'll try some minnows this weekend