Swamp Girl

Agreed. Her perfect form, free of scars and wear and tear, tells me that she's a perfect huntress too, meaning she kills cleanly and efficiently and therefore grows quickly. If you catch her again, you'll yell, "YOU AGAIN!" And she'll sigh, "You again? Oh, well, at least you treat me well."

I agree with Eric. She is such a beautiful bass. Peak health. She has thrived. Alex for the win!!! As beautiful as she was in the Sun, she was at peak beauty swimming away. Honestly, she looked bigger and bigger as she left.

I would have bid on the old lures still in their original packaging! Congrats times two on the boat!

Spot on. As you listen to the woman below, contrast her voice with Madonna's, whose voice is thin and tinny. Then remember that Madonna's voice is enhanced in studios and the woman below has only a guitar behind her: Ha! You make me laugh, Tim!

So true. I kid you not: When I was first home shopping in Maine, I found a 2200 sq. foot home atop a cliff overlooking the ocean and that home had three ponds for $229,000, but it was so far from quality healthcare that I passed. I still think about being perched on that cliff, high above the waves, and having three fishing holes too. Sigh.

No doubt. They do everything way better than me except, maybe, being sneaky. A 20' boat with a 250 HP engine and a trolling motor chopping the water and electronics sending sound in all directions isn't as quiet as my canoe. Plus, they couldn't reach some of the places where I fish...and catch fish...and their electronics wouldn't work there anyway. If I ever took a pro fishing and he asked for my local gal advice, I'd say, "Shhh." That is stunning range. And here I'm proud of my rare 20 lb. largie and smallie bags. Heh.

Alex, you know that YouTube video that I referenced above? Not only was that pro casting under overhangs, but he was catching big bass under those overhangs...in current! I wouldn't even attempt the casts he landed. I'd hook the tree and then be struggling to bring my boat back to free the lure.

Not how I'd describe you, Pat. I only need two words to describe you: bass whisperer.

I might have a chance if the tournament were a canoe fishing tournament. Those poor pros would be zig-zagging across the water and tipping too. Seriously, I watched a video where a pro was fun fishing a tight river with laydowns on both shorelines and he had mad casting skills. Of course, he might have edited the video to show only his best casts, but some of those casts were beyond me.

Do you troll while paddling? I do and catch lots of bass. I troll underspins and spinnerbaits. If I have enough depth, Mepps are great too. If it's dark, I troll Whopper Ploppers.

The latter.

Now that you mention it.... Deal! Wait, I uh, there is no, err, glass?

I've bought a few homes, so here goes: I bought my last home, even though it looked like a granny decorated it back in 1937, and hadn't been cleaned since then because: A. It came with wrap-around woods. I've only had one bad neighbor in my life and that was more than enough. Now I want a woody buffer in every home I own. B. It had great bones. I didn't care about the grime and dated finishes. I cared about a good foundation and frame. So, I told the home inspector to focus on that and he gave it an a-okay and when the home was demoed, I could see that he was right. I didn't spot a single knot in the wood of the frame. Not one. And the basement is dry and crack-free. Some other HUGE pluses: Dead end road. Big trees. Sure, you can plant trees and they'll be big in 50 years, but big trees today are great. The neighborhood. Visit it at different times of the day. Get out and just listen. Do you like what you hear? Plus, knock on doors and ask your maybe-neighbors about what it's like living there in the summer. On weekends too. The degree of shoreline development. The more homes you see, the lousier the water quality will be. If you're buying lakefront, is it a lake that is used by jet skiers and wakeboard boaters? Unless you plan to jet ski or own a wakeboard boat, those are big negatives, for they're noisy and erode shorelines. LAST POINT: You're young, so buy an imperfect home and work on it. Make it yours. P. S. - That bass you're holding appears to be heavier than three pounds.

Oh, I'm just trash talking. I'm sure it's hard and I'd be happy to try it. I just wouldn't want to lock onto that screen. I like sight-seeing when I fish. There are so many wondrous things to see. However, I don't think we have FFS in Maine. We're the ends of the roads, you know. We have one freeway and it literally dead ends. Here's an Ontario Backcountry smallie, another wondrous thing to see!

That's insane, @pdxfisher, but if it weren't an FFS bag, I'd be even more impressed. Knowing exactly where to cast incurs a 15-pound deduction. Still, a 25-pound bag is more than I've ever managed.

I haven't mustered the courage to cast an A-Rig yet. It looks so awkward.

I'm just hoping that one of you guys will be willing to insure my old canoes. I can afford six bucks a year. Any takers?

I love Clayton's blimps!!!! Thank blue somebody is still catching bass.

My pond is hosting a kids' bass tournament this week. Of course, they'll do a little drilling first.

Heck, yeah! I once waded the north shore of Lake Michigan looking for a boulder that gathered bass mentioned in a 1969 Field and Stream article. The first two summers, I skunked. Then I finally found it and out of 100 casts, I'm guessing I had 97 bass hit. I didn't hook them all, of course, but they sure kept me busy. So, 99.9% of that big water was bassless.

$100,000 is chump change. I'm looking to build a $4,000,000 canoe. It will have a swimming pool, helicopter pad, and discotheque. It will, of course, be impossible to paddle, so I'm hoping I can catch a bass while it's docked.

I might see bass. I don't know. I do scan the casting possibilities...constantly. Even when I'm retrieving a lure, I'm surveying, looking for the next spot to cast. And while all the possibilities look good, there are some that make my Spidey Sense tingle, perhaps due to a bass moving the water.

Bumping this thread because it's so interesting.

Heck, yeah! And this is why I include pretty pics in my fishing reports, as well as critter counts. Yep, it's not just catching bass. I'm guessing you outfish the majority of the guys who buy $100,000 boats.

There are bodies of water where you might need a boat that big and that fast and that equipped with electronics to catch bass, but on lots of water, you can catch big bass and some days, lots of bass with lots less. See @Pat Brown, @AlabamaSpothunter, @pdxfisher, @N Florida Mike, @thediscochef, @PhishLI, @Aaron_H, @Fried Lemons, @Scott W, @Bluebasser86, and many others. Some of these guys don't even have a boat and when @Fried Lemons floats, he's fishing from a board with his feet dangling. Then there's @TnRiver46, who catches bass from every conceivable craft. If I had a hundred grand bass boat, I'd feel soooooooo much pressure to catch soooooooo many big bass and to put everyone I know on their PBs. Like the Bible says, to whom more is given, more is expected.