Swamp Girl

So true. There are places where wheels are great and places where wheels are just one more thing to carry. Cool photo, @padlin. I haven't been to that exact spot, but I've carried canoes over many like it. The thing I hate about some canoe portages is you're under a canoe and then mosquitoes join you and you're fighting them with puffs of breath. Then you inhale and suck one into your mouth!

This is exactly my experience, Alex. In summer, I could put a fellow angler in the bow of canoe, paddle them to a sweet spot, point to where their lure should land, and then I'd reach for the net because I'd be that certain that they were about to hook a bass. I own two A-Rigs, but still haven't mustered the courage to cast even once. Musky lures gave me such a beating and I fear that A-Rigs will too. I've already shared the following, but last spring, I finally started catching some of those schooling bass by RAPIDLY retrieving an underspin, turning them into nearly surface lures. I think skittering them didn't give the bass a long enough look to realize that they weren't shad.

"Also, most fish will just load up on the bait...." That was my experience in the spring of 2024 using a similar soft plastic swimbait. They wouldn't hit the lure. The lure would simply become slightly heavier to retrieve as they took it into their mouths and swam along with my retrieve. It was challenging to detect the bites.

I haven't lmb fished long enough to give you much advice, but I do remember fishing cold water last spring and EVERYTIME I launched, the bass were in a different place. I'm not saying that Missouri is the same as Maine, but if your bass are anything like our bass, your bass will be moving, so keep moving too. One day, I was casting an underspin at a shady shoreline, beneath overhanging trees. When my lure landed inches from the shore, that's where I caught my bass. I had to be that close to the shore. Two days prior, I'd found them in the deepest part of the pond. And on and on, they kept moving, so I fished on the move, much I like I do in the fall, changing lures and locations until I found them. Once I found them, I stayed with them and that lure. P. S. - @AlabamaSpothunter is like Pat Brown. His name is Alex and he's an analytical/observant angler who puts in the hours, both on and off the water, so heed his words too. I'd love to see Pat and Alex do YouTube instructive videos, but the price of doing those videos is fishing less because you're working with your camera and speaking to your YouTube audience.

I think all the lures you tried will start to work when the temps increase just a bit. I'm a pretty consistent bass catcher, but I struggle to catch them too when the water is c-c-c-cold. If you insist on fishing cold water, then follow @Pat Brown's advice. Heck, always follow Pat's advice. He's a bass whisperer. I like @GreenPig's advice too. Whenever you see 13-14 lbs. under a Bass Resource member's name, sit up straight and take notes.

First of all, congrats on buying two, used boats. Most kayaks and canoes are so long-lived that there's no need to pay full price for a boat simply because it's unscratched. Canoes do have their limitations, but I came to lmb fishing from decades of fishing for smallies in the wilderness and it would be painful to portage a tricked out kayak into a wilderness lake. Even then, a kayak couldn't carry a week's worth of food and camping gear. As stable, accessorized, comfortable fishing platforms, kayaks surpass canoes, but where the trails end and incredible fishing can begin, it's canoes through and through. The bass below were reached by carrying my 32 lb. canoe down a slippery slope in the dark one morning last fall. A young man would likely be able to muscle a kayak down that same slope, but I couldn't. If that kayak was propelled by something other than a paddle, weeds would have befouled it a hundred times. If I'm going to catch bass like these, it has to be from a Kevlar canoe: Even my NEXT canoe at 59 pounds and 13' is lighter and longer than most fishing kayaks. I will be adding two rod holders for trolling, which should take the weight to nearly 60 pounds, but since I'll be leaving my Old Town NEXT at my pond. I'll only have to lug it once and since I had a path cleared, leveled, and graveled through the woods, I can use my portage wheels to take it to the water.

Ah, thank you for the clarification. I was wondering if "essential oil" is the same. Good to know that it's not.

You had me at "paddle."

Me too, Dan. If this spring goes like spring of 2024, I'll cast and catch no bass or one bass the first few trips. Maybe three. However, I'll love anything I catch. I'm going to fish a bog that I skipped in 2024. It has fine fat bass. Here are three from 2023 (5.5 pounds, 4.25 pounds, and 5 pounds). It's a bog that becomes choked with weeds pretty quickly, but I'm much improved at landing bass in thick cover and I think I might fish it deeper into June than I thought possible in 2023: My days, @herder, those are windy days. Wind is my fishing-killer too.

Fingers crossed for you!

Here's a pound of anise oil for $41: https://wholesalebotanics.com/collections/essential-oils/products/anise-essential-oil?variant=37686377152677

I was happy to see @Glenn spend two-fifths of the video on poppers. I think that they deserve that much attention. I had a 75-bass morning with a popper last year and I'll lean heavily on poppers in 2025 in mornings and evenings, but sometimes I even catch bass on poppers when the Sun is high and hot. They're great lures and bass don't seem to learn to avoid them.

I will look for the power head! Psst. Does anyone know what a power head is?

That kid outfishes all of us if you compare the size of his body to the size of his catch.

The kid has found that hunkering doubles his success rate, so take some yoga classes so that you too can hunker!

I knew it! Now I know where to look and what to look for: 2022 Ranger Z520R | 2022 F250 Platinum Apex19 | (2)Apex 16's | Mega360 | Mega Live 2

Thank you, @casts_by_fly. Now that I think of it, the FFS-using YouTubers are in the middle of nothing. I always assumed that FFS would be worthless at a lot of the water I fish.

Here's some powerfully effective tackle, a string, stick, and old plastic bottle:

I am genuinely confused. My ONLY contact with FFS is YouTube videos where I see anglers staring non-stop at their screens, but you guys with FFS say you rarely use them. What explains this difference?

Ha! I really do need spring, but it's nearly here. 10 out of the next 15 days are forecast to be at least 40 degrees. It won't be too long before I can walk down my boardwalk and pitch a jerkbait into the cold, but liquid water. Agree. Thanks for the reminder, Mike.

No one in this thread asserted this. I've never heard anyone ever assert this.

I stand by my post. I secretly took some footage of you warming up to cast the net for shad:

BRRRRRRRR! Tough guys catching big bass!!!

Heck, no! Anyone who can't appreciate a speck had better tighten their head a turn or two. It's great to have another Mainiac at Bass Resource. There aren't many of us.

With all that fog, I figure he was fishing in Maine. We must have one of those powerplant lakes that never freeze. I just wish I knew where it is.