Swamp Girl

Pretty close. My pond is about six miles from the ocean. Fingers crossed for soft water sooner rather than later!

Yikes! I'm north of you, which has me wondering if my guess isn't way too optimistic.

That's a sneaky Pete bass!

If you live in a place of snow and ice, what's your best guess for your first 2025 bass? I'm guessing March 20th, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't happen until March 30th. It'll likely happen at my pond. The boardwalk now extends to open water and there's a shallow bay there, so I can stand on the platform and cast. I don't think I'll launch that early in the spring because I don't want to tip and die. I just don't know if bass prowl that bay in the early spring. One advantage I'll have is that I can cast on a windy day. Because I'll be casting from shore, the wind won't be a problem and I can cast when the wind is blowing into the bay.

I like the way you label your lures. "Flap Slap" made me laugh. What does it mean?

I shared above how all my tackleboxes have disappointed me, so for 2025, I'm going old school and basically bought the box I used as a kid. Here: It'll be easy to open to dry my lures after each trip and there's only one latch to open and close it. Plus, it has a handy handle for trips through the woods. Unlike my past tackleboxes, I won't have to pull a utility box from another container and my waterproof utility boxes had three latches. So, to simply find a lure, I had to release two clips, unzip, extract a box, and release its three latches. I could have caught a bass in the time it took to do all that! I know I won't look cool in my old school canoe with my power fishing spinning rods and old school tacklebox, wearing my deeply stained pants, but I'm cool with being uncool.

That's my kind of fishing! I'm happiest fishing bogs for lmbs. And I catch some fat bass in them. But when I was younger and stronger, I fished bush lakes in northwestern Ontario off of logging roads for smallmouth. Anyway, welcome!

Nope. There are a number of us tied for the smallest bass, i.e. those of us who have yet to catch a bass in 2025.

Me too!

You catch river smallies, which will always be leaner than lake smallies and bog largies. Numbers-wise, we're neck and neck!

If I were a game warden, I'd ticket you for having excessive fun. If excessive speed and excessive fish in the livewell are crimes, excessive fun should be too.

Did they return to help you? What if you have to cross open water and someone is coming at 70 mph?

I have tried many tackleboxes and didn't like any of them. The waterproof tackleboxes are the worst. They're harder to open and close and inevitably, some water gets inside when you do open them in the rain or to stow a wet lure. Then, because the box is waterproof, the water is trapped inside and every hook starts to rust. You can, of course, open your box at the end of every trip, but if you forget one time, your lures are stored in Rust City, U.S.A. Not even the silica sleeves will save those hooks. Caveat: I do fish from a wet canoe and I love to fish in the rain.

Wow, Tom. That really surprises me. Just to be clear, you caught all your biggest bass on a falling spinnerbait, right?

After reading the thread about the greatest danger bass boaters face, here's a thread about paddling dangers. There are videos of canoes and kayaks going over waterfalls, both intentionally and unintentionally, being swallowed by whales, stalked by Great White Sharks, etc., but tipping without a PFD and falling into cold water with or without a PFD has to be the biggest killers. Then there are boats with motors:

@GreenvilleSC_fishing: Your boat looks sooooooo fast! @Rockhopper: Did you catch anything that day?

Back in the saddle:

I'm so glad you've got so much grit. If Rooster Cogburn had true grit, you've the truest grit. Even Rooster would agree: You can probably tell that you're one of my favorite posters at BR. I love the way you fish, where you fish, and your gin clear love of fishing.

You're a funny guy!

That makes sense.

So sad your mom is gone. Sigh.

Here's my workout room:

I use big nets too.

So close to my own rig! See: Seriously, I'm glad you resurrected your love of fishing and I look forward to reading more of your trip reports and seeing more of your fine fish!