Swamp Girl

@Tennessee Boy's stats surprise me. I though FFS was a big bass fingering machine. 2.35 pounds is about a 15" bass. I catch a few that size, but most are bigger. The average weights per angler are also lower than I would have expected. It must be a LOT harder to catch bass during a tournament when the lake is being pounded.

I've discovered that a neighbor has a pond. It's almost an acre and has bass. I'm going to ask her for permission to fish it. It'll be my first pond fishing in about 50 years.

Did he get a glimpse of what broke it?

Heck, yeah! I pity the famous.

Mine too! I also love "River" and "The Last Time I saw Richard."

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

When I was young, I'd cut across the wakes of lower Mississippi River tows that were longer than aircraft carriers and headed upriver. Big wakes. Big fun. It was also fun paddling Class III rapids in open boats and rappelling into caves. Nowadays, I enjoy quiet places. I think someone should build giant swimming pools filled with beer for jet skiers and wakeboats. Their wakes would do little damage to the concrete. The concrete lakes could be surrounded by giant speakers playing ACDC on a loop. Luckily for me and the shorelines, if a jet skier or wakeboater launched where I fish (not an easy task with no ramps), the rocks just under the surface would soon restore the peace and quiet and the sunken watercraft would be good structure going forward.

I've only solely owned two dogs counting my current Joey. The other was Manny, who knew scores of words and could understand simple sentences if he knew the verb and object. If you'd placed a stethoscope on his chest, you would have no heard no "thump-thump," but "Mama-Mama."

I have made this point in the past, but I'll make it again now: I catch a LOT of bass when I paddle across ponds. Slow is a productive way to go. It's awkward to troll two rods at once, but once in 2024, I hooked two bass on two rods at once while trolling.

Ha! So true. Sadly, I don't own a tractor, but someday, maybe, fingers crossed.

Yeah, our New England winter has been historically normal, which seems abnormally snow and cold when contrasted with recent winters.

Then they should be loved like bluegills and crappie. Targeted. Treasured. At least by anglers who love to eat them as much as bluegills and crappie.

That's my plan. However, come fall, I plan to target big bass again. I caught a lot of four and five-plus-pounders last fall. Summer is when I'll kick back and simply catch bass.

Here are my spring totals for last year, taking me into early May, at which point I started catching 40-75 bass per morning, but you averaging 40-60 fish per morning way surpasses my cold water catches: 1, 3, 2, 11, 3, 14, 6, 13, 15, 11 So, what's your tactic? I'm not looking for the names of lakes and ponds, but merely what lure(s) you throw and where you throw it/them. I'd love to see your bass pics too.

Great advice. Thank you.

I hope so, Alex, but if I don't boat one, don't be disappointed in me: It won't be for lack of trying.

Are rock bass as tasty as bluegills and crappie?

Ha! I wish, but I started slowly last year and expect to do the same this year. It's hard for me to catch bass with the water is still c-c-c-cold! It's even harder when I stay close to shorelines because I don't want to be far from the shore if I were to tip, so I can't fish the whole pond/bog, but since you're often fishing from the shoreline, you might just want to play a tiny violin for my sob story. Anyway, come the thaw, I plan to target big bass for once. I caught my PB last spring on a cold day. She was one of three bass I caught that day, which taught me that early spring is more quality than quantity. Break your line or cut it? I have pickerel cut my line, but I don't think I have more than one bass in a couple thousand break it.

I have no reactions left, so I squeezed all my reactions into one and here it is:

They should fiddle like the Roman emperor, Nero, as they destroy the shorelines.

Whoa! Care to share?

Thankfully, I've yet to encounter one.

Fingers crossed, Buddy! So, you have open water or are you fishing one of those power plant lakes?

@Crow Horse: You're as organized as @A-Jay!