Swamp Girl

I agree with Scott. I launched in the dark the last two mornings and will launch again in the dark come Tuesday morning. I know many experienced anglers like to wait for the air and water to warm, but even on clear nights when it's literally frosty when I launch, I tend to do well and sometimes catch a bass on my first or second cast when it's at its coldest and darkest.

^This is how I fish too.^ Yes, nearly every time I fish. Ask the BR crew if you think I'm exaggerating. Again, I fish from a canoe on less fished water. This morning I carried my canoe through the woods in the dark and carefully down some rocks. Where I launched, the water was so shallow that I had to step into it, so my feet were wet and cold all morning. My fingers were so cold it made it difficult to unhook bass. Such challenges aren't for everyone, but you're young. You're perfect for such challenges. Yes. I'd also listen the BR brain trust. To a great extent, I fished three lures this year. In the spring and early summer, I fished an underspin with a Crush City Mayor, pitching into cover. They were tight to cover and I can pitch an underspin anywhere. In the summer, I fished a Dobyn's Beast spinnerbait with a Crush City Mayor. They were both tight to cover and in open water. The spinnerbait works well in both places. This fall, I'm fishing a popper. It works in shallow water, where rotting weeds are an inch below the surface, and also brings up bass that are feeding in deeper water. These are the lures that work in MY water. Find the best lures that work in YOUR water by trial and error. I had a 70-bass morning and a 75-bass morning and many 40/50/60 bass mornings this year and I rarely catch a 12-inch bass. I'd find a pattern and work that pattern, again by trial and error. Here are a 12-year old's bass that I took fishing this June. I caught lots of similar bass, but I'm proudest of his fish. One morning he caught three four-pounders. I think his top and bottom bass are over five pounds: Hey, that's my latitude!

Oh, it does. Whatever the lure, I'm casting it with basically the same outfit: MH spinning rod with a Shimano spinning reel. Take that, Bait Monkey!

I fished again this morning. Cold again, but with double gloves and Hot Hands warmers, I fared better. Not warm, but better. I caught 20 in four hours, which sounds like a fairly busy morning, but it wasn't, as I had two flurries and lots of dead time. This was the biggest: Several this size: Even the smaller ones were well-fed: Except for this super skinny smallie! The pretty pic: I was admiring these three sugar maples all morning, so I paddled over to photograph them: Most of my bass were caught with a Depps 6" fluke. A few were caught on my popper. I also caught three old soda or beer cans with my net, which made them my morning's best catch, as I love to remove lazy people's trash.

I think a sweep describes what I do. I do bring the rod back, but not with maximum force. I thought this thread might release comments like this, "You don't set the hook with extreme prejudice? You idiot!" Instead, I'm learning that I'm not alone, that you don't have to cross their eyes.

My thermometer broke and I'm not going to buy another because nothing stays dry in a canoe and the battery corroded and killed the electronics. We have been getting hard frosts and some daytime highs have only reached 50, so the water is cold. I'm guessing low fifties.

It used to be that I'd focus on hook setting and even set the hook more than once. Now I keep fish pinned by using braid, upgrading hooks, and maintaining tension. Surprisingly, I lose far fewer bass. I especially don't lose the bigger ones because, I'm thinking, they pull harder, so the hook penetrates deeper. The YouTuber and competitive angler, Kristine Fischer, really lays into bass, but I don't...anymore...and it works for me. This is likely why I'm a lousy frog fisher. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the wimpiest, how hard do you set the hook? I'm a 2.5.

I'll miss seeing your photos and fish, @The Baron. I also don't have much time remaining beyond fishing tomorrow morning and Tuesday morning. There are three more warm days and then the temps drop 15 degrees. Sigh. But who knows. The Maine bass pull hard...on me.

I fished my second of four Indian Summer trips. It was cold when I launched and even though I wore wool, fingerless gloves with Hot Hands stuffed into them, I still had to take a hand warm-up break to keep using them. It was foggy when I launched too. See: I rigged six rods and the wacky worm, spinnerbait, walking bait, and Sixth Sense crankbait all failed to elicit a single hit. All bass were caught on a Yo-Zuri popper and 6" Depps black and green fluke. I caught several around 17 inches, like these two: Then I caught a thick 18.5-incher on my fluke: Then I landed my biggest, a 19.25-incher: There were other solid bass in the 17 to 17.5-inch range: I caught smallies too. Some thinner: And some thicker: We catch bass so differently. I have leaned on my Yo-Zuri popper this fall, catching hundreds of bass on it. I even caught bass today with a high Sun under a blue sky on my popper. No fishing tome tells us to reach for that lure under those conditions, but it worked. Our bass want what our bass want and my trying to force feed them four other lures was fruitless. If you were fishing with me this morning and I reached for my popper at 10:30 a.m. under a cloudless sky and cast into the middle of nothing, you'd think, "Whadda maroon." And I'd reply, "Fish on." Going fishing again tomorrow morning to the same pond. I left my canoe and all my gear there! Here's the pretty pic:

I was fishing this morning. My biggest challenge was staying warm. Even with a couple Hot Hands stuffed into my fingerless wool gloves, my hands were cold. I wore three layers up top and two layers on the bottom with neoprene boots. The water and bass were cold too. The fishing wasn't hot, but it was okay with 28 caught up to 4.25 lbs. I rigged six rods and four were worthless: a pink wacky worm, a Sixth Sense crankbait, a chartreuse walking bait, and a Dobyns spinnerbait. All bass were caught on a 6" Depps fluke and a Yo-Zuri popper. The popper was still catching bass in shallow water under a cloudless sky. Go figure, but the fat black and green fluke caught the biggest bass. I've caught a lot cold water bass on my popper, both in shallow and deep water. So, here's my advice: Dress warm and toss a popper and fat fluke.

I have a slightly different approach. If I see a bank angler, I drive my longboat into the bank and send my warriors over the gunnels to pillage the chap. Really not that much different than you, Daubs. Yeah, @thediscochef is one of my warriors. Here's another, calling my men back to my canoe:

I like their look too, Alex. They're darker than your southern lmb and oftentimes, they're nearly black like this one from yesterday. I like the contrast of the white belly and dark back with green in-between.

After three fours and a five? However, I get it. That north wind has a bead on you and me. With @The Baron talking about winterizing his boat, we northerners are crawling into our winter dens and I fear I'll soon join you, as it'll be cold when our Indian Summer ends. However, I'm not going to commit to a final day as I did last year because there's a chance we could have a few warm days in November. Anyway, I get it and you southern boys are gonna have to represent for the next five months or so. @AlabamaSpothunter will soon be posting his sixes, sevens, and eights and @Pat Brown, @thediscochef, @Catt, and rest of you too.

I've been getting that too, Alex, and Google search Bass Resource and then click on the Fishing Forums link.

I had some success last night, catching 15 cold bass on the surface. I used a Yo-Zuri popper and had the best success on a windblown shore, both tight to the shore and up to 15' from it. I'm in Maine and we'd had a hard frost that morning. On the other hand, I couldn't coax a single hit at dropoffs and in holes, slow rolling a spinnerbait and using a fluke too.

@MN Fisher: The roar would be worth it!

I got your info from you. You said you lived in Safety Harbor. You didn't say anything about a second home. Great that you live so close to your beloved Everglades! It sure is. I've been there many times.

Great idea! Thanks. I own dozens of those and they've just sat in my basement, decade after decade.

@CastingClinic: What are you wearing on your hands? I ask because my hands and feet are my weak spots. Keeping my torso and limbs warm is easy-peasy, but when the cold reduces my hands' effectiveness by 50%, it's hard to fish well. I do have pairs of fingerless wool gloves and might try those tomorrow.

Now, your post made me laugh out loud because I've been thinking about casting a big, bone-colored Whopper Plopper tomorrow morning at the pond that's become a river. I think all those fish squeezed into a river might react to a big, noisy bait.

We don coats, hats, and mittens when it's cold here, just as you don Sun armor in Florida. Six of one, half a dozen of another. It's great that you love Florida so. Pity you don't live closer to the Everglades. I see the driving time from Safety Harbor to Golden Gate, FL is two hours and 42 minutes. I assume you launch beyond Golden Gate. Ever dream of moving closer to the Everglades? I love having my fishing spots five to fifteen minutes away. I remember when it snowed in Miami. They got an inch and cars were crashing into each other all over the city because many of the drivers had never seen snow before that weird day.

@Zcoker: That's a warm spell in Maine in January. You were lucky to hit that high temp.

I fish A LOT of topwater and I'm guessing I catch more bass on the surface than 99% of the BR crew. That said, I started with mono with surface lures and switched to 30-lb. test braid. I fish spinning rods and make the longest possible casts. I found that I couldn't stick a four-pounder that's way yonder with stretchy mono, not even with my MH rods. Another advantage of 30 lb. braid is you can wrassle bass out of weeds. Now, they don't all stay stuck once they're burrowed into weeds, but the line never breaks. Never.

That is a hot spot. @A-Jay has stated many times that he targets big bass and one time, he said he does so by returning to the places where he's caught big bass, but it doesn't work that way for me. I have a near photographic memory for where I've caught big bass and so I hit those spots that have produced big fish again and again and again, but rarely with success...except for one bay that has produced multiple four and five-pounders and one river headwaters. Otherwise, it's a crap shoot, but I'm glad it isn't for you. I agree with Pat. However, I also agree with @gimruis in keeping as low a profile as possible. If someone parks near you, start bragging about how you caught a 14-incher on that spot back in aught-8 and you've fished it ever since, hoping for a repeat of "the magic."