Saved by the Canal Catfish! 4/20

[FASTEDDIE29]

Woke up to rain and garbage conditions yesterday. Didn’t wake up early because I didn’t really have a plan for the day. Took off for the Big D only to find it was a filthy mess just about everywhere. Shad guys aren’t happy with this water level. It’s just not doable. Had breakfast in the truck and checked a few more spots. No good. Friend of mine was up on the Flatbrook but ahhhhhhhh, I’m not going there for 10 inch Rainbows. Not this guy! Where did I wind up? Drove about 130 miles yesterday to take a few casts in the good ole Raritan River! She’s a little too high, now what do I do? I’m eyeing up the canal and see some fish boiling around. The waters murky but the visibility is pretty good. I have no bait! Haha! Back in the truck and off to the Sporting Life. Picked up 18 large Shiners from Tommy, got lunch and set up on the canal for the afternoon bite. Took a while but the Channel Cats came to life thankfully. Landed 2 good ones while missing a bunch of run offs for whatever reason. In between bait and waiting for the Cats I was casting the 3.5 inch Keitechs killing the Pickerel. Damn things are savages in the canal. Best part of the afternoon was hooking a 20+ lb. Carp on my ultra lite Walleye rod. Holy shit I fought this thing for 30 minutes. Couldn’t land her, I could’ve landed her if I had one of those weird net things. Oh well, the battle was EPIC anyway! This Carp was huge. Pretty good afternoon session on the Canal. 2 Channels around 30 inches but not very fat unfortunately. Probably weighed about 8-9 lbs. each. 5-6 ruthless Pickerel and a fight with a big ass Carp. Good times!!! TIGHT LINEZ!!!

Happy Easter NJFers!!!

[icebadger]

now that is covering a lot of ground to find fish at least you did not get the dreaded skunk for all of your efforts.. nice kittys and a bunch of slime darts saved the day, way to go eddie

[thmyorke1]

I dont think I ever seen a canal report from you but im not surprised you succeeded in catching a bunch of awesome fish. Way to go! These mild spring days are great for the pickerel in there.

[JDTuna]

That thing has catitude! Very nice dude, great fish in tough conditions.

[AndyS]

Trying to figure out what was the right place at the right time promoted me to start a fishing log book. I could look over years of information for just about every day of the year. The log book helped me not make the same mistakes twice. Throw in a 2 inch rainfall and it really gets interesting, the Raritan is a fickle one, nice bail out on the catfizzzz !!!

Nice cats Eddie, impressive looking fish. Like you said, long and lean. Those are some long whiskers on those two........pretty amazing fish. You certainly have the drive (no pun intended) to catch when you make up your mind, some very well earned fish. Great job in less than ideal conditions!

[Mikey topaz]

Bbbbb bbbbb bbbbbbbbudddddyyyyyy!!!!! There you are, gotta catch something!

[Chrisper4694]

nice one bro, i haven't caught a nice catfish in a while

[Hookmanski]

Sweet report man! Those are some nice cats. Hopefully we can get a weekend without rain at some point

[JimmyL]

damn, you caught more fish in one afternoon than I have my whole life. ha!
though, the canal has been very nice to me lately...