Swamp Girl

Gosh, I wish @Catt and @WRB-2.0 could read this thread.

Wow, Al! Lotta wind for Lottabass and everyone else.

I do think there's value to be gleaned from a fellow angler's perspective, even if they're fishing water a thousand miles away. For example, @Lottabass fishes about 1,500 from me, but he fishes from a small boat on water that's often swampy and always smallish. So, I have more in common with Al than an angler fishing Maine's biggest lake from a bass boat. Al recently caught some BIG bass in two feet of water, which sounds like the water I fish. Here's a corner of my pond and the water in the photo is only about a foot deep. Look to port off my bow. See the log in the water? That's the bottom. If you fish water that looks like this, please advise me how to fish, even if you live a guhzillion miles from me!:

Thanks, Brian. I caught 23 bass yesterday, my most this year, but when I reflect on yesterday, I keep returning to the sleeping goose that didn't know I was there. That was my morning's highlight by far.

What did a Bass Resource member teach you that's been a difference maker? I've got two: @Glenn taught me to cover lots of water in the fall. It's made a difference for me because I don't feel like I'm failing when I can't find them right away in the fall. I just keep moving and keep casting, keeping my cool, and eventually I find them. I don't remember who taught me this, but he linked me to a video where the YouTuber explained that you if your rod is pointing left when you hook a bass, you don't point it right and then left and then right, adjusting to where to what the bass is doing. This has made a big difference for me. I remember sessions where I'd lose half the bass I hooked. Now I frequently land 90% of the bass I hook, a success percentage that I once thought impossible.

I want to do this too this year. @gim: Did you catch what I wrote ^here?^ A year or two ago, a Bass Resource angler argued with me at length about how an underspin is inferior to the lures that pros use. He suggested I fish like the pros, using an array of lures that he believed to be situationally superior to underspins. Well, style-wise, I have so little in common with the pros. I'm fishing small water. They're fishing big water. I'm fishing from a canoe. They're fishing from bass boats. I'm using my ears, eyes, and hunches. They're watching screens. So, an underspin works for me, but I don't believe for a sec that it's the best choice for Bass Anglers X, Y, and Z. Heck, a bass boat can't even float in many places that I fish. A canoe drafts 3 to 6 inches of water. A bass boat drafts 12 to 24 inches of water. I sometimes fish water that's 12 to 24 inches deep. My point is that I'm fishing in different places and I've found lures that work for me where I fish. I don't mind, Gim. They mean well and they might just suggest a breakthrough lure. FWIW, I did catch two bass on a Whopper Plopper yesterday. Yesterday and the day before that, I had a couple bass jump. I figured it they're feeling frisky enough to exit the water, they'd be willing to hit a surface lure.

Woo-hoo, Jig Man!

I will straight up trade any of my canoes for your boat and I'll bake you two dozen chocolate chip pecan cookies too.

They're just starting to stir, my friend. And I'm going to be your Net Girl!

In my four fishing trips this week before this morning's trip, I caught a total of 22 (7, 0, 4, 11). Well, this morning, fishing from 7:00 to 10:00,, even though it was cool (45 degrees) and rainy, I caught 23. Prior to this morning, I caught bass here and there, but this morning, they had moved up to the edge of the bog, so since I found them, I landed 23. I forgot to bring my waterproof camera and had to use my Google Pixel 8, which I hate because it's too big for me to operate with one hand and that hand was my surgery hand, plus by morning's end, my hand was too cold to do much of anything. I saw a couple dozen Buffleheads and was within a few feet of a sleeping goose on her nest, which tells you how quietly I fish. I never awoke her. I know our water is too cold for most anglers to use a surface lures, but it's been my experience that bass will hit a surface lure earlier than commonly believed, so I caught two on a Whopper Plopper, but most of my bass were caught on my trusty VMC heavy duty underspin with an orange Crush City Cleanup Craw. I caught my first brown bass for 2026. She just would not be still for a photo, so that's why I took the weird photo I did. I've launched three days in a row, so even though it's going to be warmer tomorrow, I won't fish...probably...maybe. Some of the bass taken with my TOO BIG cell phone: My teeth were chattering when I came off the lake and my right hand was so cold that it barely worked. Still, I had fun! 45 bass caught in 2026. Two bass over 19 inches.

I had good luck this morning with a VMC heavy duty underspin 5/0 with a Crush City Cleanup Craw in orange. I catch more bass with an underspin than any other lure, which is NOT to suggest that you should fish it too. However, if you fish like I do, I.e. stealth fishing in close-quartered bogs, it's an excellent lure because it lands much more lightly than a spinnerbaits, can be chucked into woods and weeds, and also casts a long ways.

Spinnerbait, T-rigged craw, and Vision 110. My iipless has only caught rotten weeds. A LOT of rotten weeds.

I'm fishing one more time tomorrow morning, my first 2026 morning to fish. I'll be trying a red Cut Worm and an orange Ned rig in addition to my red T-rigged craw and my red spinnerbait. I forgot to share that I had several bass jump and I also counted 18 Buffleheads and a couple ospreys. One osprey was circling and circling. I think he was fishing too. Your fun write ups and pics have more than filled in the gap. I think I'm perhaps a week away from much faster fishing. Then I'll enjoy two months of 30/40/50/60 fish sessions before Mother Nature hits the brakes through July and August.

i caught a couple 19-inchers out of seven total on Sunday fishing from my shoreline, but I felt like I largely lucked into a school that just happened to be in front of my dock. I could only catch four yesterday, but I caught them all on a red spinnerbait, so today, I added a red craw to the spinnerbait to give me even more red and also fished a T-rigged red craw. My silver lipless, gold and silver Vision 110, and silver and gray spinnerbait all failed to catch a bass or even produce a hit today. It was red or nothing. I remember @Pat Brown saying that color doesn't matter until it does. Well, today, it did. I caught 11 total and missed what would have been my twelfth when the line broke in a laydown. So, I felt dialed in today and that felt great. Catching some thick bass felt even better! I ended with an 89" bag: And here are some more: Here's a little one: Here's another 18-incher: 22 bass in 2026. Two 19" or bigger.

All our weeds are rotten right now, so a crappie jig on light line would be doable. How do you work it? Pat, recently I've been seeing similarities between Clayton and you. You are both SO observant and you both have analytical minds.

I'm launching again today. On Sunday, I had good luck dragging a blue T-rigged craw. Yesterday they would only hit a red spinnerbait. So today I'm going to drag a red T-rigged craw. Trying to dial in, ya see. And I'm going to fan cast a lipless. I never really found them yesterday, so I want to explore a lot of water today. I might even tie on a Whopper Plopper. I caught bass on the surface in cold water last year and I'm not hitting the jackpot going sub-surface...yet.

So proud of you, Joe! It's a big deal.

We hit our 2026 high of 65 degrees today. Well, you know I generally catch more than four. I'm launching again tomorrow, hoping that the problem today was the Sun. Tomorrow will be cloudy.

I've fished the last three times. My hand is a little sore, but working. Thanks for the good thought, Alex!

I launched for the first time in 2026, but couldn't find the bass. I did catch four, all on a red spinnerbait with no trailer. I tried shallow, a couple ledges, even shallower, creek mouths, a rock flat, and a windbeaten shore. Two came from one laydown. i'm launching again tomorrow. They have to stir at some point. Two were 17-inchers: And two were not, like this one: I saw geese, an eagle, a loon, and Buffleheads. A pond pic: 2026 total: 11 Total 19-inchers: 2

I caught a couple four-pounders my first time out, but was skunked the second time from the same spot on the shore. They had moseyed. I'm about to launch for the first time, so I can go find 'em!

86 fish.

I love when you post, Alex.

@BluegillsTightlines: It's okay to move to other things. All the best to you. I returned to shore fish my pond again. Yesterday, I was the windshield. Today, I was the bug. There just wasn't enough wind in my face. I didn't even get a bite, but I did prepare my boat for tomorrow's launch. Hopefully I can find them tomorrow! 2026 total catch: 7

I spend a lot of time watching the hourly weather before I launch. For example, I shore fished yesterday because the wind was double-digit and coming from the south. I launch from the north shore, so I hoped that the steady south wind and the warmer temps of the last few days would stack bass on the north shore. It did. I'm returning today to fish the same way (north shore from the shore) this afternoon because the wind is still blowing from the south. I'm just waiting until two or three so the water can keep warming. However, tomorrow the wind will drop, so I'll launch and fish a rocky flat, a ledge/drop-off, two stream mouths, a ridge, and the north shore. Here's why: @Lottabass has been landing both quantity and quality of bass in two feet of water, so I'll fish the shallow, rocky flat to see if my bass are orienting in a similar place. @Hartwood71 had a couple 50 bass sessions fishing a ledge with a jerkbait, so I'm following his lead. I figure warmer water might be issuing out of the stream mouths, so I'm paddling to those. Last summer when the water was low, I saw crawdad claws in the ridge. I marked the ridge with a tree on the shore. I'm hoping smallmouth will be hunting there tomorrow. I'm going to cast a surface Rapala on the ridge and twitch it. If that doesn't work, I'll try a T-Rigged crawdad. I'll fish the north shore too hoping that some of the bass stacked there now because of the South wind will still be there. When I'm paddling from one spot to another, I'll be trolling an A-Rig, as suggested by @Glenn. I share all this to illustrate how I have a plan every time I launch. All my plans are shaped by the weather. My plans often produce bass, but when they don't, I fish on the fly, meaning I cover a lot of water looking for them. That''s the advantage of small water: If you guess wrong about where they are, you can go looking for them. Then when you catch one, that's your new plan. For example, if I catch a bass in Eel Grass, then I pound Eel Grass. If I catch a bass in Pond Weed, I keep fishing Pond Weed. And so on. Absolutely not. I'm always fishing heavier line with MH or H rods. Smaller water doesn't necessarily mean smaller bass. I average 17, 18, and 19-pound bags. I'll lose them to weeds if my equipment isn't stout. I have days like that, for sure, but I do begin with a plan determined by wind speed, wind direction, temp, and light. I prefer the single hooks of soft plastic lures, but topwater is fun and once it warms a little more, I'll always launch with at least one topwater lure. Fish with your head on a swivel. The bass will often reveal themselves. Again, in a smaller body of water, they can only hide so many places and because the water tends to be shallow, their ripples and whatnot are easier to spot. You know I fish with a teenage boy I call The Kid. The Kid outfishes all the local adults except for me and I credit his alertness for his success. I'll say, "Did you see that?" And he can always honestly answer, "Yes." His head is on a swivel too. Also, use Bass Resource as a resource. You can see from my post that I rely on the Bass Resource brain trust to guide my boat. I ask questions and the guys are always helpful. I caught yesterday's 18-pound bag, my biggest ever from the shore, because of @PhishLI and @Hartwood71. Phish gave me the technique that worked with my blue craw and Hartwood gave me the other lure that caught bass, including my two 19-inchers. Lastly, I emphasize long casts and being quiet. Smaller water tends to be shallow and the water I fish has many predators, such as cormorants, eagles, ospreys, and otters, so the fish are always alert. I hook many bass at the farthest ends of my longest casts and I literally sometimes bump into bass with the bow of my canoe because they didn't hear me coming. Now go get 'em! P. S. - @scaleface emphasized the importance of accurate casting. I fished for smallmouth for most of my adulthood in clear, largely weed-free lakes and the Great Lakes. Fishing small, weedy water was such a change for me and really overwhelmed me. Now I love the art and challenge of casting into the gnarliest cover. There's nearly no water too shallow or weed-congested to not hold bass. Last year I was back in a bog and came to a dead end, but I could see water over the mound of soil and bushes in front of me. So, I stood ever so carefully, clutching a branch, and flipped my lures into the Twiggy-skinny water yonder. I couldn't hear the hit, but I sure heard the eruption. Yeah, I landed it!