Swamp Girl

More of the same, i.e. continuing to learn the pond where I bought land and fishing four other ponds/bogs. I'd like to break my PB, of course, but I think it's unlikely. Looking out the window, I see snow and it'll be white here for three to four months, limiting the growth of bass, so my 2024 22.25" bulging girl might be the biggest I'll ever see at 44 degrees north. Rarity-wise, In-Fisherman compares her to a 12-pounder in the South and you guys know how rare 12-pounders are, even in Texas with forward-facing sonar. I've caught thousands of bass in Maine and a fish like her is so rare, so rather than chase Moby Dick, I'll enjoy my busy boat and I intend to use my baitcasters more. I see that you guys sure love yours and I used them to musky fish, so I'm comfortable with them. I do hope to catch dozens of four and five-pounders and I plan to use some new lures, like creature baits and burner worms. I especially enjoy the challenge and thrill of 20-pound bags, so fingers crossed I can land a few. I'd love to fish with @Glenn, but like Glenn, I hate to travel. Airports and traffic jams are my unhappy places. See the wild shoreline in the photo above? That's my happy place. Lastly, I hope to catch some more drop-dead gorgeous bass like this one:

Thanks, Alex, I was just about to buy some.

At my pond, 12" bass are rare, maybe 2% of my catch. If you ever come fish it, you'll have to settle for 15 and 16-inchers in your skillet.

I'm also happy when I'm casting too, Pat. I love the movement and watching my line extend and settle.

@Catt: I'm surprised that your successful colors are so similar to mine, given the distance between us and the differences in our literal water. I'm also doing best with white and orange (and chartreuse too) and blue lizards. However, I do want to try more purple worms in 2025. I've done well with black worms, but mostly use green pumpkin worms when I do worm fish, which isn't often. I cover a LOT of water when I fish fast and worm fishing is slow fishing. I'll enter a bay with 100 great places to cast and only hit 25 of them. Then I'm off to the next bay.

I just bought one too. Planning to do more baitcasting in 2025.

@Lottabass rocks!

Twice a year, I add composted manure to my yard in case I ever want to turn it into a farm field. Atop that, I have seven, raised beds in my front yard that produce fruit and veggies. So, I'm glad that anti-yard-gardening people aren't my neighbors and they're likely glad I'm not their neighbor. At the same time, I have ornamental flower beds that wrap around my house, including a Japanese garden. And I laid a 60' flagstone path with boxwoods on both sides. Here's a bit of it and what a puzzle it was: @king fisher: Thanks so much for telling the story of your lake in such detail. I think your post is my all-time favorite. That lodge owner's lake sounds a lot like my pond, i.e. a lot of two-to-four-pounders. There's a fishing derby held there every year for kids. I hope they keep their smaller bass!

When I invite people to fish my pond, I also invite them to keep bass. "But keep them the small ones," I say. "They taste better anyway." And they do.

It helps, but I always fish from the back of my canoe and it's rare when someone can outfish me from the bow, even when I'm positioning the canoe to give them the first cast at the best spot. If someone were outfishing me, I'd pepper them with questions and study their casts and retrieve.

3,000 > 2,044 is the way I see it. Actually, the way I see it is we both love catching fish and have been lucky enough to spend many, many days on the water, my bass brother!

Hey, I kid you not. I know five colors: loon (Whopper Plopper), and green pumpkin, Junebug, PB&J, and watermelon in soft plastics. After that, I'm saying orange, white, etc.

@RRocket: You are so attuned to color. And you remember all the names of the colors. I'm always amazed that you guys remember all the names of the lures and their color names too.

The soft plastic I use 90% of the time are paddletails, so if they're imitating baitfish, that's probably why white works, but lawdy, I sure can see those white paddeltails from a long ways away and I expect the bass can too. Good to know.

I have never tried PB&J, but with a couple you using it, I wanna use it too.

In Tyler Brinks' article on lure colors, he wrote: "When it comes to soft plastic worms, creatures, and others, one color is a clear favorite for bass anglers everywhere: green pumpkin." I own many soft plastics in green pumpkin and on one particular day in 2024, that color was so effective, but most days, I'm reaching for a soft plastic lure in white and chartreuse or white and orange, usually a swimbait. Maine's lakes are both clear and tannin-stained. I can often see the bottom six or more feet down, so my white plastics are also really easy to see. I wish I could explain why my local bass prefer the bright and white soft plastics. I've just determined that they do with trial and error. One day in 2024, I caught 24 bass on a bright blue lizard. I never tried that color again, but I should in 2025. What color/colors do your local bass prefer?

I should have put "breezy" in bold!

I both pee and occasionally poo in my canoe. I'm always in the stern, so when there's a guy in the bow, I just ask him to not turn around. I use a plastic cereal bowl with a lid and wet-naps. Easy-peasy fresh and breezy! Going ashore where I fish would be real challenge. It's either boulders, bushes, or reeds.

I try to establish a firm grip on my canoe paddle. Wait, that wasn't the least bit helpful, was it?

I bought an old Gore-Tex jacket for $20 on eBay and spray coated it. The quality is high and fingers crossed it keeps me dry.

@Junk Fisherman's post reminds me of how I switched from brown bass to green bass and how I stopped throwing F13 Rapalas on six-pound test. That was my main lure for 30 years and I still have scores of them, but never throw them now, even though I caught thousands of brownies on them. I should try them again. They might work on green bass and our brown bass too.

Yep, their high sides work like sails.

@The Baron: Canadians talk smack? Love that net, @BrianMDTX. I'd order it if I didn't already own six nets.