Hennepin Canal - Big Island

[hnd]

Well, Harp took a half day yesterday and went out to the spot. Within an hour he was calling me telling me to get out there.

by the time i got there the crappie bite slowed down but the gills were on the bed and hammering our jigs.

by then end of the trip harp caught the lion share of the crappie while i grabbed the majority of the gills.

i was using small maribou jigs tipped with crappie bites, harp was using tube jigs pumped full of dough using the bait pump. to be honest, i'll be switching over to tubes because its a zillion times more convenient.

in the end we took home 11 crappie most of which were males, and 32 gills most of which were males.

harp pulled out a 14" crappie and a 13" crappie. he was on em. this is essentially what we are fishing.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/micahandari/untitled-3.jpg

harp has pics and will upload them soon. we will try and get back out there soon but who knows with this weather thats rolling in.

[Schoe]

The last two days Ray Neese, "Goofy", and myself have been on the Canal near Geneseo Illinois fishing the shoreline searching for the spawning Gills.

Yesterday we caught quite a few Males and egg laden Females here and there but no big concentration of them in one place. Except for a bedding area we stumbled on just before we quit for the day.

On the way home we decided that we had to return to the Volcano flats the next day to try our luck.

This we did and slid quietly into place 25 yards away or so and started tossing chunks of Night Crawler right on top of the first group of craters. I myself was using a stick Bobber clipped about 15 inches above the long shanked #6 hook with no weight and Ray was also using a chunk of Night Crawler on his long shanked hook with no bobber or weight.

As soon as the baits hit the water my bobber went down and across the Volcano's like a rocket and Rays pole was shuttering from the side swimming Bull Gill. This was the way it went for the next couple of hours with us not having to move more than 50 yards from where we started.

If the weather man don't let us down we plan on hitting them again tomorrow afternoon for a bit.

I want to thank Ray for the great two days of fishing we had and am looking forward to many more.

Here's a few photos from the last two days and Ray doing his magic with the electric knife.

Schoe

[hnd]

they are pretty much stacked up where we are at on the canal. but you can't see the beds at all so we basically have it to ourselves...there is no other signs that anyone else has been there :icon_biggrin:

those stumps go out about 15-20 feet and its about 50-75 yds long. so we have alot of ground to work with just 2 of us.

[hnd]

way to go! hope yer able to git back and git some more....whats this "bait pump" yer talkin bout?

http://www.thebaitpump.com/

http://www.thebaitpump.com/slideshow/images/09.jpg

[Illinoisgiller]

Good going fellas! Looks like you are doing good. Mike

[harpenter]

We're going camping this weekend, but hopefully I'll have time to get them pictures uploaded before we leave.

The Bait Pump - As far as fishing supplies go, this is about the best $15 I've ever spent. I was sceptical at first, but now I don't go Crappie fishing w/out it. It makes your bait last a ton longer, and you don't have the mess to deal with.

[hnd]

thanks fer that info!....the nibbles stay intact or does it mash em when it injects them?..ive added a lil water to a jar of nibbles and made a "dip" outta them before for ice fishing and that works well too,specially when theyre short striking but wont touch a smaller bait

it mashes them up. and you just shoot it up a tube jig...

got out today and pulled out a 9" bluegill. kept 11 other bluegill and a few crappie. aafter harpenter left i couldnt' seem to stop catching crappies that were on teh verge of keeping....

then i hooked a walleye (i've never caught a walleye in teh canal before) and that little jig couldn't take it and lost him.

[Illinoisgiller]

9" bluegill from the canal is a "BULL" anywhere I've been. Good job.! mike

[harpenter]

OK, I'm a little late, but I've finally got the pictures from the trip. My nephew stopped by to see them, and that's him in the pic with me, not HND.

[Illinoisgiller]

You have that section of the canal figured out.:confused0068: Beautifull layout of fish.:icon_cool::icon_cool: Mike

[pjwatson05]

Very nice!!!
Some of those crappies are pretty nice slabs
If you don't mind me asking what section of the canal (boat ramp) are you fishing??

[DaveIN]

When the fish fry?

[hnd]

Very nice!!!
Some of those crappies are pretty nice slabs
If you don't mind me asking what section of the canal (boat ramp) are you fishing??

its the section where it runs into the mississippi.

[cambridgefisherman]

That is one heck of a mess of bluegill. Yeah those walleye are in there, they are just really few and far between. I got a sauger in the canal at the aquaduct up around Mineral.