Swamp Girl

I'm seeing some thick bass. Go, guys, go! I just want to give @Lottabass a shout out for sending a box of lures to my fishing buddy, The Kid. So, Al's like @ATA, helping a boy catch bass.

Having worked in a hospital, a word that is always used with cancer patients is "courageous," whether it applies or not. Well, it applies to you. You are so clear-sighted and forthright. Crying when you talk or write about bass fishing shows how much you love it. Your passion humbles me. It makes me want to love it as much as you do, to be worthy of my dwindling time on the water, to not waste a single morning or even a single cast. Thanks for the update. If I still lived in Wisconsin, I'd take you fishing for sure.

Thanks Dwight. The Chef will sleep well tonight.

Here are some gifs of @thediscochef doing various jobs: He's not the drivers. He's the machines.

@GreenPig: Guilty. I love to troll for bass. You just paddle along, enjoying the day, and land the occasional bass. What's not to love? And sometimes, when both rods snap back, you get to be part of this!

My PB didn't fight much. No head shakes nor jumping. She was just heavy and felt like I'd hooked the bottom under the canoe. I knew I hadn't, but she had the weight to be stationary.

@Dwight Hottle and @king fisher: Does ^this^ sound like it could have been a DD?

Now all Avengers mad at @king fisher:

She-Hulk mad at Brian!!!

Wow! About ten days ago, we hit 60 degrees for a couple hours, but other than that one day, we haven't any temps like the Midwest has enjoyed, so our water is still solid.

Thank you for clarifying, Mike. I assumed that they needed to held horizontally and supported beneath the belly, which I can't do, as I need a hand free for the camera. I was going to photograph all my 2026 bass on the bump board, which has its advantages, but as with all things, disadvantages too, such as keeping them out of the water a little longer, loss of slime coat, and the real possibility that they'll flop off the bump board and thrash in the bottom of my canoe. Plus, bump board photos aren't as pretty as lip and grip photos and not as useful too, since you can't see where I caught the bass, like here: I pay attention to where other anglers catch bass WHEN they provide that information and look for similar spots in the water I fish.

Note my happy face.

My apologies. Is this better?

@thediscochef: 'Bout time you weighed in, Buddy!

Yeah, I skunked again. Now, I didn't even launch because IF I had tromped through the snow, the pond would still be frozen, but given that I WANT to fish, I'm calling it a skunk. The view outside my front door:

He sure does. He's also known as Dwight of the North.

Huh? You had a great day!

Joe, @Lottabass caught his Iowa bass shallow too. I just looked outside and it's white on white on white here.

I've got the same prognosis.

All great ideas. Like @geo g, I too change my cadence, but I found that I often couldn't remember what retrieve I was using when a bass hit, so I now I say the cadence as I change it. For example, "Slow and steady...Yo-yo...retrieve and pause...." Just hearing the cadence increases my change of remembering what cadence triggered a hit.

I also don't like their look and all-cotton hats are comfy.

I had my surgery done with local anesthesia and I strongly recommend that. I got to drive myself home. I also recommend staying away from fire for the first week when you're bandaged. I was tending the burning barrel yesterday. Due to the splint and bandages, my hand was about as big as a boxing glove. One of the bandages was loose with air beneath it and at some point, it touched the flame and caught fire too. Boy, did it burn! No damage done to me as the flames were many layers from my skin, but my bandages sure were charred. So, I removed them and went to my brace a day early.

Mighty neighborly of you to offer, but I'm not supposed to lift anything heavier then two pounds for weeks because of last Tuesday's carpal tunnel surgery.

Holy mackerel, Al! You've landing the beasts in the north and Dwight and Aaron are landing the beasts in the south. Like I said to Dwight, you sure can cowboy, Al.

Yowza, Dwight! You sure can cowboy.