Swamp Girl

170 acres, which means it has between 9,000 and 17,000 bass, mostly largemouth, but a few, fat smallmouth. I hope to eventually meet them all.

Now Dwight's red hot too. Way to go, my faraway friend! Great photo. It's not just big bass being caught, but they're being photographed in cool, creative ways too.

Pepe Le Pew found me and said, "Hello, Cherie! It is love at first sight, no?" He was kinda right. Even when I'm skunked, I fall in love all over again just walking through the woods. The boardwalk came through the winter with no problems. My pond was cold. The air was 51 degrees, but the wind blowing over the cold water made it feel colder. Still, I was happy to be there with my amor, the pond: So, skunking, shmunking. It was good to be casting again. I started slow rolling a spinnerbait, but was rolling through too many rotted weeds. I thought a Ned bait hopped along the bottom might work with cold water bass. Nada. Same with an underspin retrieved just over the weeds. No bass, but I sure saw a lot of ducks. I didn't launch a canoe for fear of the water's temp, so I stood on the platform on the pond's edge, which you can partly see in the bottom photo, and cast from it for about 20 minutes.

Agree. @Pat Brown is both one of the best anglers at Bass Resource and one of the best teachers too. He once sent me a photo of where he fishes. It's oh-so-urban. Pat, @AlabamaSpothunter, and @PhishLI all encouraged me a couple years ago to focus on fewer ponds and I did, with great results. In 2024, I caught 2,044 bass, my PB, and had one morning with a bag in upper twenties (The bass that's my avatar is one of those bass in my biggest bag ever.), which are good numbers for someone who lives at the top of the country where the fishing and growing season is short. So, keep taking notes. These guys are wise and generous. My only suggestion is fish the lightest line the ponds allow. When I used to fish crowded water, I had times where my fish catching attracted other boats. I literally had boats trolling around me, glaring at me while I caught fish after fish. My secret was four and six-pound mono. Pressured fish can be line shy. FWIW, there is no way I could fish light line today. The weeds disallow it:

That's a thing? I plan to visit the nearest trophy shop and soon I will have won five Pulitzers, a Nobel Peace Prize, and the WNBA's MVP. Cool to be me!

If you can configure a Cummins engine into my canoe, you're a heckuva diesel mechanic! However, if you do, I plan to then use my canoe to tow the only island to my end of the pond. I will, of course, troll while towing the island, as I like to keep a lure in the water.

Thanks, Alex. Got anymore old time photos? @NorcalBassin: I love your fishing trips with Pops and your kid.

The guys are so helpful, but beware of me, for I'm sneaky. I have noted that you're a diesel mechanic and I'm angling for you to install a lightly used Cummins engine in my canoe.

Atta boy, Alex!

Ha! Then there's @GreenPig, who'd have to catch a 15-pounder, @Catt, who'd have to catch a 14-pounder, and @Pat Brown and @A-Jay, who'd have to catch 13-pounders, and more. Yeah, there are some big sticks at Bass Resource.

Don't put that kind of pressure on Tom (@WRB), who'd have to catch a 20-pounder, or @king fisher, who'd have to catch a 15-pounder! 😉

Someone should let @Bluebasser86 know that someone has hacked his account. Clayton would never go fishing and just catch some "small" bass. Clayton would cast a 1/64th ounce jig into a 50 mph gale a quarter mile to hook and land an eight-pound bass. Being a Kansas bass, it would be a perfect sphere, measuring an incredible 15 inches by 15 inches by 15 inches. And then he'd hook a 100-pound blue cat to simply have it tow him back to the dock.

You have a great attitude, as evidenced by your openness to all the advice. I bet you set a new PB this year and when you do, we'll all be so happy for you.

I love the shape of the bass in my avatar, but your bass makes my bass look slender.

Mr. Ess, your avatar bass makes me laugh. She's soooooooo FAT!

How do they hit a worm that's roaring down the bank?

Gosh, I hope so, Tom! Those are two huge bass. Cool photo, @JHoss.

A four-pounder from the bank with no net is a heckuva challenge. Being your PB, your short-circuited thinking is understandable too. I've caught a lot of four-pounders and they still make me nervous! Sometimes I reach for the net too soon because I'm nervous and now I've got too much line out to net the bass. No wonder we'll all hooked: Bass are exciting!

You're singing my song! You too, @Crow Horse. Yep, Alex, I try to change my trebles hooks three times each season. I don't bother with my underspin and spinnerbaits because they don't last all season, although my Dobyns Beast underspin probably could, so I should sharpen those.

Looking at the PBs, it's interesting how they achieve their weights. Some of the PBs are simply thick and long. Others are preggers and bulgy. Some do it with length and others have shoulders like NFL linebackers. I hear ya. I'm wondering if Tom/@WRB also wondered if the party would go on forever too.

You are great at that. You shake off all teasing like a lab shakes off the rain. We don't have a local bait shop. Pity. I miss that little tug when a bass takes a minnow or leech. Luckily, lures are also fun and in couple, key ways, are easier to fish, since they cast so much farther and can be cast into thickets.

First off, @king fisher caught a 14-pound bass!!! My biggest was a year ago, in April of 2023. I caught her on an underspin with a gray and white Keitech. I didn't weigh her, but @AlabamaSpothunter has caught a lot of bass over eight pounds and he thinks she topped eight. She had a massive back and bulging belly, but did not fight much: Yes, you do, and from a heavily pressured, suburban pond, your bass was a beast. Good to see you posting again, ICD!

Heck, yeah, again, but prepare to be teased. When I first started fishing for lmb three years back, I took nightcrawlers a few times. They worked, but I was teased for using them.

Heck, yeah, everything is relative. We had more snow last night and will have more tonight, but the clock is ticking on winter. Spring is coming ever-so-slowly, but it's coming. I can see it in my crocuses and hear it in the goldfinch song. And soon, within a couple weeks, I'll feel it when a bass hits.

Me too! There be bass in the barely water, me mateys!