Canal Behind My House, Help!

[CountBassula]

So I have this small canal behind my house. I check google maps and I can see that it feeds from the C-14 monster canal. I've seen plenty of fish there in the past: bass, cat fish, snake heads, gar, and other smaller fish. Last summer when my brother was visiting, we caught some fish here; I only landed on bass here, but that was before I knew what I was doing  , and one snake head on a bobber and a small hook with an earth warm on it; my brother on the other hand caught plenty of bass, even one peacock bass, and other fish.

 

Now, since I got back into fishing (bass fishing mainly), I never considered this canal I have in my back yard, it appears too small. So I always went out to other places. Well, I tried fishing in "my" canal today. I came home empty handed, but I noticed some things: 1) i saw a school of bass, 5 maybe 6 fish, but very small ones, no one over 8 or 10 inches. 2) i saw a LARGE snake head, and it even followed my top water lure for a while, but I guess I suck at working it... 3) the water level is extremely low, about 1 1/2 to 2 feet below what it should be (see attached pictured).

 

So my question: should I NOT overlook this canal as a viable fishing spot once the water levels and temperature improve? Do you think it has potential for being a good fishing spot? BTW, I can walk along this canal in every direction very easily.

 

More info; I'm on this canal about 15 houses west of the Ralph Diaz Memorial Park (the canal starts on the north end of the park and heads west): Ralph Diaz Memorial Park

 

Thanks!

[BasskingKeith]

If a storm comes through and floods it, then it might be better. More depth at least. Just because it's small doesn't mean it can't house the big one (bass), is what I'm trying to say. I've caught a 10lber out of a canal similar that size, but it was flooded and flowing. No more than 4-5 ft deep either. So, I wouldn't say overlook it, just check it here and there, and even more if it gets flooded.

[CountBassula]

One other thing, the canal is full of vegetation, most of it in every direction is weeds etc, with some clear spots. I've been casting everywhere. Also, the canal is rather narrow, maybe 10-15 feet now, 20 when the water goes up, on a good day... but after Isaac it went up so much and about doubles it's size :-) that's when I saw a large gar patrolling the water!

 

Anyways, Maybe I'll just invite LgMouthGambler for few cold ones and he can show me how to fish this spot. BTW i never see anyone else fish there, well except this one time my neighbors kids were catching sunfish, and ONCE i saw 2 guys on a small boat casting some spinners there... it was almost silly looking, the boat would get stuck sideways :-)

 

Anyways, what are your thought on smaller canals that are off shots of the large ones?

[jonnysmith]

i would not over look this canal and it feeds from a much large 1.i consider u a very luck man 2 have this lil canal behind ur house,thats a great place 2 put a line in the water on a lazy sunday after noon. the most productive bait inve used in thos lil shallow canals is,thin line, a bobber,small hook & live worms & just wait 2 see what hits it..dont judge the fishing potential of a canal big casue of its small size,fish of all sizes use those canals like a turnpike 2 travel all over..hell yesterday i was atving in the everglades & came across ( a ditch )it was about 6ft wide & about 6ft deep,it ran for miles.it was full ! im talking nice sized bass all over,bait fish all over & a few 3ft snake head fish too..so ur canal can very easy have good fish 4u to have some fun with..

[SirSnookalot]

I fish canals a lot.  I've fished Coral Springs many times and gotta say it's not one of my favorite places, I was down there a few days ago and fished a few very similar canals in that area.  I personally prefer more of a secondary canal, wider with a little better water flow, less muck and scum, not to mention all the garbage people toss in some of the little canals.  Snakeheads do give a little better fight but not good enough for me to target them over bass or peacocks in more open water.  I don't plan on going down there again anytime soon.  The peacocks have not come back all that great around my area, but catching some really nice bass.

The water level may not improve until rainy season.  

[jonnysmith]

the water levels r super low. when i was atving in the everglades on thursday, areas that have 3ft of water,were bone dry with dust like a desert .all the canals were 2 or 3 ft below there normal..

[CountBassula]

I also noticed there's a LOT of little fish (1" in size) swimming around, I'm guessing that's small BASS? I'm also guessing that's a good sign of things to come?

[BassinLou]

Looks like a nice froggin canal. Since its so shallow right now, try froggin at night. Since you said you can walk it for a while, see if you can get closer to the junction of the main canal and your feeder canal. (Assuming its a reasonable walking distance).

[LgMouthGambler]

Get yourself a 6" watermelon seed Zoom lizard and T Rig it with a 1/8oz weight. Just work it around the canal. Swim it, jig it, etc. Somethings bound to hit it. When the waters low like that, they will be in there, but they will be hanging out more than likely. When the water comes up after a good rain, look out. What I have noticed is these canals wake up after a good rain to bring the water up. The fish will then be patrolling the area in search of food. I was fishing in my canal today, with the wing making a good current, I had 4 3#ers in a matter of 30 minutes.

[GLADES]

I would walk the canal bank and look for the deepest areas, look for bass/ beds, and fish parallel to the shore buzzing frogs and swim baits right down the middle. One of the best parts about fishing these small canals is that they are ignored for better looking water. The bass have never saw swim baits or cane toads. Little fishing pressure. There could easily be 5#+ bass in there.

Also, if that doesn't work, down size your gear to smaller plastics(trick worms - wat/red)and fish more slowly in the deep spots.

just my .02

[Hanover_Yakker]

While you're walking, keep a keen eye and ear out for gators....looks like a prime gator haunt to me. Man that looks liek a fun place to test out so many things - I would be practicing my pitching and flipping, skip casting, etc. I would be using various weightless presentations like flukes, lizards, senkos, etc and just crawl them across the vegetation slowly. Then I would follow it up with a hollow-bodied frog like a baby SPRO or small Koppers. If that got me no strikes, then I would work something sub-surface like a weedless 4" swimbait in watermelon seed or baby bass color and lastly crawl a mojo rig, shakey head and wacky rig. Surely something would get it. If there are no weeds or grass mats in the center cut, don't hesitate to throw a chartreuse chatterbait - snakeheads love them!!

[jonnysmith]

a canal,creek or lake behind ur house can be alot of fun & convient too., an old buddy of mine has a wide canal behind his house it was about 150ft wide and 12ft deep,1 end would go 2 the ocean & the other end into more fresh water.last nite we put his 14ft jonboat with a yamaha 25hp in the canal,we fished from 7pm to 4am,while we were using the trolling motor,we were using topwater lures working the mangrove edges & also had a few lines about 2ft from the motor with live shrimps.,we made a killing.with the shrimps we got sheepheads,snappers,5lb grouper & with the lure we got snook & cuda,then at 2am. we headed up stream 2 the freshwater area..we got bass & catfish,it was a really productive nite all from his back yard & we only wasted 3gal. of gas.

[CountBassula]

UPDATE!

 

Looks like i've been resurrecting some old threads lately :-) Anyways, so the water levels improved a lot recently, and also few days ago I saw people on a boat that were cleaning the canal (FL state workers I guess?) and appeared to also have removed some of the vegetation... which turned the water black and caused it to stink to high heaven for about a week, like rotten eggs (and it was bubbling too, like something fermenting on the bottom). Anyways, the smell eased off lately, so I decided to take a walk and throw some hollow body frogs... the result: well I didn't hook anything, but had 2 snakeheads attack it! I didn't see the fish, but judging by the distance from the canal's edge (super close, within inches) and the aggressiveness of the strike (second strike sent my poor little frog flying 10 inches into the air) i'm guessing snakeheads for sure! this is great news to me since I love catching those things!

 

The second strike I had was awesome! Since the canal is so narrow, I would cast the frog at a 45* angle across the other side and land it on the grass. Then I pop it and make the frog jump into the water and a second later I start twitching it. Within a second or two of it landing in the water it got HIT HARD! It literally jumped out of the water! Stupid fish :-P

 

Anyways, next time I fish there I'll take the camera with me, will update this thread with pics of water level and hopefully some fish too :-)

[derekxec]

fish it hard we have pulled 8lb+ bass out of lakes you could walk around in 2 mins and if there are small bass (unless someone stocked it) those bass had to be born from bigger bass

[SirSnookalot]

One nice thing about some of the Florida canals and ponds is the available walkable shore access.  I take what I think is a lot of time, I have about a 1/4 mile stretch of canal of I fish quite often.  I fan cast a few sets, then walk about 20 paces then do a few more sets, overlaping areas I've already casted to, 1 way may takes me an hour or more, then I have to come back.  I do pretty much the same kind of routine in a pond. Casting to the opposite bank and dragging the bait back into the water has always been productive in these canals.  IMO when fishing some of these canals, especially the ones with a lot slop and weeds there are only a small handful baits and techniques than can be used, making decisions for me much easier.  It's just a matter of time until a bigger fish is scored, they are there, this is bass fishing in it's easiest form, so much different than locating them on a large body of water.