Swamp Girl

@Pat Brown: Would you classify the 169-acre pond where I own property as little and in need of culling or big and just fine on its own?

Do tell! When someone has caught a bass bigger than 13 pounds, I'm all ears.

Like Tom, I only use Daiwa and Shimano, but when I was younger, I also used Mitchell, D.A.M. Quick, Abu Garcia, Zebco, etc. Not me. I trust Shimano and Daiwa and just buy one on sale.

@Glenn: "You don't need a bass boat to catch bass. You don't need electronics to catch bass." Swamp Girl: "Yup." Swamp Girl's P. S.: "When I arose this morning, it was six below. I do need a little heat to catch bass."

To be clear, my hair is always a mess, so attributing it to my 70 mph hitchhiking ride is hasty and might not be prudent.

One wicked cool thing about bass fishing is that I'm on edge of a continent and you're in the middle, I'm surrounded by trees and you're surrounded by corn, I smell salt in the air and you smell hay, but we fish, more or less, the same way. We both bounce down dirt roads with little boats and launch where there are no ramps and few other anglers.

@T-Billy: I just want to be sure: By blade bait, you mean a chatterbaits, right? If so, @Siebert Outdoors is making me five of them, as well as spinnerbaits in the colors he suggested. That is comforting.

Is it largely casting and retrieving? I can't imagine bumping a jig on the bottom because a lot of Maine's lakes have jagged boulders on the bottom, boulders as big as cars or buses. I can see the big rocks on sunny days.

I too love swimbaits and spinnerbaits. And I've caught them with lizards. But jigs still intimidate me. I've caught a LOT of walleyes with jigs, but with walleyes, of course, you jig a jig and so I really don't know how to catch bass with a jig without jigging. I am so open to a little direction.

I used them on Ohio farm ponds to catch lmbs as a kid and tried them in northwestern Ontario, but never caught a smallie up north on one. I have yet to try one in Maine. I should and can because I own some.

I will never forget the first time I walked into the Art Institute. I felt like I was walking into an art history book, "The World's Greatest Paintings." And walking downtown feels like I'm walking into a book titled "The World's Greatest Buildings." Then there's the food! And the blues and jazz clubs. And the lake. And....

If I were you, I'd fish Iowa's rivers, streams, and farm ponds. Is the Mississippi within reach? That's a fish factory. I Googled Pond Prowler and it looks like a real comfy way to fish. I'd like the high seat. It's hard casting from the low seat of a canoe.

It's great to hear from someone who has actually lived there and lives there still.

I carry two to six rods, all spinning, but that might change in 2025 as I'm thinking of adding a casting outfit or two to the mix. I carried just two rods if I'm fishing my pond for an hour or an hour and a half in the evening, where a canoe, paddles, and net await me. I have tried a couple soft-sided tacklebags with Plano utility boxes inside. I did not like those. When I return from a fishing trip, I usually remembered to open all the utility boxes to let them dry, but not always and I lost some hooks to rust. So, for 2025, I'm trying an old-fashioned hard tacklebox with two trays like a kid 50 years ago might have owned. Instead of removing and opening all the utility boxes, I'll just have to open the lid. If a canoe is already at a pond, I carry all my gear in one trip, with the rods in one hand and my tacklebox in the other. I strap wheels to my canoe at one pond and just load all my gear into the canoe and pull it. The water's a long walk from my car at that pond, thus the wheels. If I can't use the wheels, it takes multiple trips to carry the canoe, net, paddles, and fishing gear to the water, which is a lot of work, but sometimes bass like these await me: I do retie and change my lures before each trip, depending upon where I'm going and the weather will be. I rarely retire during a trip.

Ebay. There are many old catalogs for sale. I'm thinking about framing it and adding it to my collection of old fishing mags. Here are two of the old fishing mags. All the old fishing mags that I collected have canoes, female anglers, or both on the covers and some are more than 100 years old. I have a couple old fishing signs too (99.9% of the "old" fishing signs for sale are replicas.): Alex was also surprised by how vivid the colors are. I expect it's because it's sat in an attic or box for decades.

@TheSwearingAngler: I thought your fat bass was one of @Bluebasser86's Kansas hogs.

I wish I could place an order and pay 1937 prices. The cover makes me laugh, since they're pushing fishing as a way to stay fit, but 1937 was a time when many anglers were rowing boats, which does take muscle.

I bought a 1937 South Bend fishing catalog. Oh, how times have changed. The catalog is a hybrid of a book about fishing, as it shares info about different species, a fishing magazine, as it has articles about fishing, and a catalog. Here is the cover and four pages. I like how they put the species beneath their lures that the lures might attract. There are pages showing rods and reels too and photos of big, recent catches. If you'd like me to share anything I just mentioned, let me know and I'll photograph and post those pages.

I'm glad they're trying this new format.

There are unpressured bass in other places. It's just that most anglers either aren't willing to do the work to reach those places or have purchased boats that can't reach such places. However, there are easily reached places that are also great. I had fishing sessions in Wisconsin that equal what I've enjoyed in Maine. The Mississippi River is a fish factory. I caught big bass on Lake Pepin, as well as big walleye, pike, crappie, bluegills, and white bass. Lakes Superior and Michigan are great too. Living in Minnesota, you sit right below northwestern Ontario, where I enjoyed the greatest fishing of my life. 100-bass-days-per-angler were common there, but those weren't lodge lakes. They were bush/backcountry lakes with portages and running whitewater rivers and crossing swamps, all challenges that many anglers avoid, but if you're willing to do the work, you can reach Nirvana. Up north, Pain = Gain. I have observed other anglers catching far fewer bass than I catch while fishing the same water. It's not just where you fish, but having a knack for catching bass. You've heard my stories of being surrounded by other boats on the Mississippi and the Great Lakes when I was catching fish and they weren't. Not everyone has the knack and sidling up to a craft where fish are being boated is no guarantee that you too will catch 'em.

Whew, @Pat Brown! Unfortunately, there are no bass still in Maine. I go down to my dock, cast my popper, twitch it across the ice, and fail to provoke a single strike.

I keep inviting folks to fish at my pond and keep fish to eat...and I'm thankful it has acres of wetlands.

If you had looked behind you as you roared away, you'd have seen that I'd attached a rope to your stern cleat and that my canoe was bouncing along in your wake. I was thankful too, for I got to compete without buying gas. I didn't even have to bother with prefishing, for I simply fished near you and you didn't even bother to notice an old woman in a canoe. You didn't actually notice me until I held the trophy aloft. Note: This story is not entirely true.

Welcome, Mr. Zero. There are some guys here who whisper to bass. I've learned so much from them..