I am telling ya, there are no fish in the Canal!

[Fishinfire]

Hit the water at about 11:30 last night in hopes of a cooperative Walleye or two. Started my standard practice of grabbing the UL armed with a tiny Gulp minnow on a gold Trout Magnet jig head.
Couple of bounces near the wall never fails to give up a sunny or rock bass no matter what time of day it is! Time for Mr sunny to get a hands on lesson on piercings the food chain!

A 3/0 football jig just behind his dorsal usually does the trick. I like to call it turning little fish into big fish! Down into the was it goes. About 10-15 mins of him trying to swim into the falls goes on with no results. Cross over to the tow path side and redeploy. 30 seconds later a monstrous slam followed by a determined descent to the bottom of the locks began. The struggle for control lasted about 15 minutes or so and I finally got it to the surface. Hoping to see big white pearly eyes I look down and see a bit fat mouth of a cat! I attach the rope to the line and slide the hook down like a zip line. A slight lift and I feel the weight. I continue hand over hand and the weight gets heavier and heavier. Hoist it over the top of the wall and BOOM!!! There she is! All 33" of her! I don't carry a scale so I am not sure of a weight. I can however tell you that I needed 2 hands to hold her off the ground!

The Canal is coming to life!! I was going to post pics of recent weeks catches at the Canal but they are not worthy after this pig!