Swamp Girl

A loon sleeping ten feet from my canoe:

It made me smile too!

@SJS: First off, I love your title. I love this too: You write well, SJS. Sorry you lost an outfit! You should fish during hurricanes. Move to Florida and when you look out a window and see this, go fishing: You don't have to go south. You're young enough to go north into northwestern Ontario's bush country. There you'll find swamps and thickets and whitewater between you and the bass. You'll be scratched and bruised and bit before your first cast. Now, to answer the question of whether bass are prima Donnas: They are always on the move and one day they'll play with my baits and the next day, they'll gobble them. They're complex.

Al is a...

Love this line. The bass in my pond outfight bass in other waters I've fished.

Exactly what I said, but I always struggle to estimate the weight of a bass thrust at the camera.

I need to try this. Thanks!

Great advice.

I fish clear water, so I can see the action that my various rod twitches impart to my lures. As I'm retrieving and trying various twitches, I say what I'm doing so that when a bass hits, I'm more likely to remember what retrieve I was using. I've found that two quick twitches with short pauses is the retrieve most likely to encourage a bass to bite.

That's a cool boat, Darren.

Indeed, plus I'm old.

With daily fishing, your total would sure add up.

I'm hoping for 1,800 for the year. If I can reach 1,000 by the end of June, I think I'll have a good chance at catching another 800. July and August are tough months for me, but September and October can produce good numbers. I do catch some dinks. Just ask Bob!

I think you'll like it if you buy one. What a deal! The beautiful thing about buying an old boat is that you don't have to worry about scratching it. They come pre-scratched!

Well put. My NEXT isn't my fastest, the most stable, or my biggest boat, but it's the best fishing boat for me. I think I paid $500 for my NEXT. Maybe it was $600.