Christmas at the Canals

[CorsoEnthusiast]

As has become a tradition for me the last couple of years, I made a visit to the Imperial Valley on Christmas Day in search of some green and brown bass.

Hit several different spots with no luck, and finally about 1:30PM my brother and I got to the last spot. We started on opposite sides of the gate and pretty quickly he had a couple short but fat Largies on a crankbait on consecutive casts. I threw a few different go to baits without a bite and decided what the hell... strolling has been good for me lately, why not?

First cast with the 4" sakamata shad turned into a little bass, and two casts later fish on the 4" driftfry that was maybe 13" long but so fat it felt like it weighed almost 2 pounds (that's maybe a slight exaggeration but it was a heavy fish for it's size).

Next cast my bait got absolutely crushed and my drag started screaming. I could tell it was a nice fish, once I got a visual on it, it was a Smallie that looked to be in the 3-4lb class. The fight lasted a few minutes, and then she jumped... shook her head and line just snapped at the knot. Would've been twice the size of my current PB Smallie. I felt like somebody punched me in the gut. Upon inspection my line was pretty beat up after the previous fish and I should've retied. Gonna be thinking about that one for awhile..

Managed to get back in business two casts later and for another 40 minutes or so, it felt like both the bro and I were hooked up every few casts.

Still bummed about losing a new PB Smallie, but it gives me a wintertime mission for out there.

All in all a pretty fun day.

Tight lines all! Hope everyone had a great holiday!

[Early release]

Nice work on the fish. Chris (Pourboy) and I have been heading out east lately also. We fished Mohave a couple weeks back and I lost a good smallie too. Looks like you and I both have a mission for 2025. We fished a pond off the Colorado river last Sunday, got a few, it sure was nice to fish there. It's nice to have some short range trips.

[Pourboy]

Heartbreaking! Bummer and congratulations on the otherwise good outing. Keep it up! Thanks for the update. I can’t wait to get out there again soon. Cheers!

[Fishtricks]

Smb get off 5 times more often than lmb, in my experience

[VinnyBass]

Way to hang in there and glad you guys ran in to some fish. Bummer about that big smallie getting away, but sounds like he still had a pretty fun time with your brother. Thanks for sharing and always love the pics you post. Look forward to more winter stories from the canals.
Tight lines always buddy!