Swamp Girl

I fished my final trip this morning. I know I can fish deep into November and catch bass, but I also know I can die doing so. The water is cold. Deep fall here. You can see it in the larches with their wispy, dirty golden leaves, which are the last to change. Even the oaks have lost most of their leaves. You can see some of their leaves in my canoe below. I saw three big deer drinking from the pond then bounding through the marsh and a V of geese circled and skidded to a stop, also enjoying my pond before fleeing winter, much like me. The season might be wheezing, but my pond is always in her come-hither youth: I pulled my canoe out of the water and brought my paddles and net home. I also caught a dozen bass in a little more than two hours. One of the BR gang said that color matters with soft plastics. So, I remembered that and applied it with good effect. All my bass came on an underspin with a paddletail. My first paddletail had a green top and white belly and caught my first two fish. Then I went to a green pumpkin paddletail and caught nothing. In the water, it disappeared. "Color matters with soft plastics," I was told and I listened. So, I switched to a white and chartreuse paddletail and caught another ten. This was the best, nearly 18 inches and bulky: The second best, 18 inches, but thinner: A couple other solid fish: One thing I loved about this morning was that I ended the year as I'd begun it, casting underspins with paddletails into the boggy edge of my pond. I cast well too, hitting the tight spots. I so envy you Southern anglers, who have endured your merciless heat and now have the sweet late fall and mild winter ahead of you. Enjoy it! You've earned it.

Aye, Russ is a good egg.

I'm so glad you yanked that hook, Aaron. Congrats on your seven-pounder! You catch big fish for a shore angler. Heck, you catch big fish for any angler.

I caught five this morning, two each on a popper and walking dog bait and one on a fluke. I was expecting to catch many more as I went to the stream that was a bog and pond, but when I arrived, I could see the bog and pond had returned. So, instead of the dam leaking, I learned that they drew down the pond/bog to inspect the dam and were refilling it using a larger dam and lake upstream. So, in two weeks, those bass went from a pond/bog to a stream where birds feasted on them and back to a pond/bog. No wonder I couldn't find a way to catch them: They must have been so confused! Here's a pic of what was a mud flat last week: The water hadn't fully returned: However, the water was back to being pretty: And here's the first of five bass I caught: I spent much of the morning paddling and exploring to see how much it had changed, in case you're thinking, "Ol Crick forgot how to fish."

I don't fish with electronics or maps, so I have no wisdom to share about that, however I catch bass consistently by paying attention to weather. My point is don't forget weather when looking at maps and sonar screens for bass. What shores have been windbeaten? What fishing day will give you least possible light with fog and cloud cover? What day was preceded by a string of steady temperatures? What day is before a sudden drop in temperature? When will it rain, lowering light even more? The above are all good times and places to find bass and a map or sonar screen gives you no info about the above.

I suspect an alien has occupied his brain. Look at his spinnerbait bass photos and note the green cast to his skin and his slightly glowing eyes.

Thanks, everyone! It was a fun year. I'm fishing the little river tomorrow morning and might fish my pond for one farewell hour on Friday morning. I do enjoy a busy boat and always have. My canoe has weaknesses, like its tippiness, but it's tippy because it's long and skinny, which makes it fast. So, I cover miles every morning and I cover them quietly. I'm sure I'll literally bump into some bass tomorrow morning. They don't hear me coming. When I bump into them, I note where it happened and then look for similar structure and cover up ahead and cast to that. You too, Andy, and thanks! Thanks for coming along! And we're sad to leave the party. Sigh. Thanks, Dwight. Yeah, it was a blast! Ahhh, shucks! I'm so glad you like the landscape pics. Fishing Maine is about more than just bass. I need one of those nuke plants! Another landscape lover! Cool. Gosh, I hope so! Indeed.

Heck, yeah, it was! Sorry for the cussin', but your big October bass bring out the crazy in me.

Way to go, Alex!

The end times are upon us. Run!

Same with me. If I'm not catching bass with a particular lure, I'm quick to change.

Say, pdx, what soft plastic do you use with your wobble head jigs? And how do you fish them? The water I fish is so shallow and weedy that I can't really bounce a jig on the bottom.

I believe that bass do learn lures, which is why I try to be proactive and keep switching up the lures I use. As I wrote in my year-end review, I started 2024 with underspins, switched to spinnerbaits, and finished with a popper. I'd like to change my rotation for 2025, although an underspin's weedproofness makes it a perfect lure for shallow spring bogging.

I just eat pike slowly and remove the bones as I find them. Again, they're delicious.

That's the fighting spirit! Indeed. I know that river. She's a beaut.

Wow, what a trip and what a trip report! Your abundant love of bass and your beautiful home was a joy to read. So sad you lost what would have been your latest PB, but I'm glad to know that such fish swim where you fish.

I was skunked in a similar situation in 2023. However, in 2024, fishing heavy cover, I caught some by doing exactly what @Pat Brown suggested, I.e. burning your bait back to your boat. Don't give them a good look at it. Force them to assume that it's a shad. I used an underspin with a paddletail, which is as weedless as a lure gets and I had the hook flush to the body of the paddletail. 5/0.

2024 was sharply different than 2023, when I happened upon multiple six-pounders. Here are three of them: In 2024, I only caught one six-plus-pounder and I caught her early in the spring, the biggest bass of my life: I never got a weight on the fish above, but she was 22.25". The bass below, caught in 2023, was also 22.25" and I weighed her: 6.75 pounds. Their builds are quite different. The bass above also had a BIG head, but her much bigger body makes her head look small. She was a beast in both belly and back compared to the one below: I figured I'd never catch a bigger bass, unless I cast south of 45 degrees N latitude, so whereas I tried and failed to equal her, I spent a spring, summer, and fall of joy, catching LOTS of bass. I had one 70-bass morning and a 75-bass morning. I had many 40/50/60+ bass mornings and evenings. Along the way, I caught scores of four and five-pounders. Here are five of the scores of fours and fives(I didn't weigh any of the five below. The first three are all about 21 inches. The fourth one was about 20 inches. I also didn't measure or weigh her. The fifth one was only 19 inches, but thick with a big head. So, I'm guessing they're all five-pounders. I really don't know because I didn't measure the lengths or weights of any of them. Big bass make me nervous. They're rare, so I want to return them to the water ASAP.): I also bought 4.5 acres of waterfront and fished that pond heavily. Its bass don't grow as big as other ponds I fish, but I've fished it for three years and I've watched a steady increase in their size. One strange and wonderful thing about this pond is its bass are stronger than other ponds I fish. Plus, it has extensive wetlands where the bass lodge, so I got a LOT of practice playing strong fish in heavy cover. Here is one of them: Some friends built a boardwalk and dock for me to walk over the wetlands to the water. They even extended the boardwalk to open water, but I prefer to dock my boat in the inlet, safe from the wind: Lure-wise, I fished an underspin with a Crush City Mayor heavily in the first third of the year. It let me cast into the thickest cover and that's where they were: Then I fell in love with the versatility of a spinnerbait, which I could fish high or low, fast or slow, in cover or open water. This final third of my fishing season, I leaned on a Yo-Zuri popper. I remember when it was glossy and pretty. That was hundreds of bass ago. I also learned to fish a walking bait and really enjoying making them pop and gurgle. Keep the line slack and make it snap! And I enjoyed catching several 20-lb. bags. I'd rather catch a 20-lb. bag than a six-pounder. Five times the fun and whereas I need some luck to land a six-pounder, as they're rare, a 20 lb. bag is a skill marker. You don't luck into five four-pounders in a morning. A six-year-old with a Barbie outfit can luck into a six-pounder. I also took several people fishing, guiding them to the most and biggest bass of their lives. The 12-year old beat his PB several times: I never took the beauty of Maine for granted: And I also didn't take my waning days for granted. I turned 68 this summer and know that my time in canoes is coming to an end. Some season soon, I'll need a boat less tippy and I'll likely fish my pond mostly from a V-hull or jonboat. No more dragging my canoe across a meadow or carrying it through the woods. As Frank Sinatra sang, I'm in the autumn of my life, but it was a very good year. P. S. - I also caught three doubles, i.e. two fish on one lure on one cast, and three 19-20-inchers in three consecutive casts. I also caught and released what I'm pretty sure would have been a new state record pickerel. I've caught a lot of Esox and am pretty good at estimating their weights.

If I could, I wouldn't just catch and post rock bass: I'd catch and post dinky rock bass.

Pat and Jake are hog wrasslers!

@softwateronly:

@softwateronly: Thanks, Scott! You made me laugh.

I'm wanting to belly up to my bog buffet again. It'll likely happen Thursday. It's cool today and tomorrow (high twenties to high forties), but then it starts to warm on Tuesday and it's supposed to hit 73 on Thursday. Friday looks to be too windy for my canoe, so Thursday it is.