Swamp Girl

@bp_fowler: I can't imagine that there are a lot of shore-fishing Buckeyes outfishing you.

I wish the wind were my friend. When I fished from heavier boats, I enjoyed some great fishing in the wind, but in a canoe, the wind is my bully.

I'm fishing Sunday morning and will take my thermometer and let you know.

Old Lady Angler of YouTube recorded the water temp at 61 degrees a week ago. Our cold nights have certainly chilled it since then.

@raydomz: You're a great dad. Please keep posting your kids' fish pics and yours too!

Yeah, I learned the same lesson, mostly from my dad. Now we're both too old to reach the yonder lakes, but we can both return to them whenever we want with our memories.

@raydomz: You are rightfully a proud papa. Please rethink PFDs for your kids. I am a lifelong fellow paddler and I've seen too many fellow paddlers drown. Some of them were young and strong swimmers. Although I have paddled thousands of miles, I flipped my canoe last year. It was so sudden that I have no memory of flipping. I was in the canoe one millisecond and underwater the next. "Oh, this is how people drown," I thought. It was May and the water was cool, as it is now. And then, remembering that I was wearing my life jacket, I also thought, "Not me."

Agreed, which is why I like to launch in fog, in the rain, and in the dark. I'll take any help I can find.

I dream of SpotLock, but it will always be a dream. Too expensive and way too heavy!

Pat, I can't argue with any of what you wrote. First off, you know baitcasters better than me and I do absolutely agree that landing a lure softly on the water is vital. I have some success being attentive to the angle of my release. Like you, I want my lure to land like an Olympic high diver entering the water.

This is why I'm reluctant to switch to baitcasting outfits. My spinning reels heave like Josh Allen and I have caught so many bass at the very ends of my longest casts. I wince whenever I bump my canoe. I try to be slow and deliberate in my little boat. I soooo agree. I am a consistent bass angler because I am quiet and paddle well. I launch from a pal's camp at the pond I fished yesterday morning. His family has owned the camp for five or six generations and he said that he's never heard of anyone catching what I catch there. "To be frank," he admitted, "when you told me what you caught, I didn't believe you. Then my son and grandson went fishing with you and they came back saying, 'Yeah, she really did catch 40.'" And I put my pal's grandson on his biggest bass ever, all from this past June, three PBs, one after the other. I put the kid in the bow and ease him up a choice spot (good paddling) and tell him to "Wait for it. Wait for it." until he has the perfect position to cast and then I whisper, "Now." And then the water erupts. And that all came from being sneaky...and patient.

I actually had some company on the lake and both the canoe and kayak set up near me. I chatted them with them and all three were from California, renting an Airbnb on the pond. I'm guessing they figured the old local gal knew where to fish, so they'd fish there too. Of course, knowing where to fish and catching fish are two different things: I caught three bass and they caught none and moved on. Calling a bass up from 15 to 30 feet would be quite a trick. I was stretching the limit at five feet of water.

Usually when I launch, I'll find the lure that works best that trip, but this time, I wanted to catch them on my popper and only cast that. I caught my two spinnerbait bass paddling to a new location and trolling them because I can't troll a popper. When the clouds cleared and the Sun was high, I stuck with the popper even though I knew it wasn't my best choice, but it still caught bass, even the 19.25-incher. It's a little lure and it was weird seeing its tiny hooks in that big girl's thick jaw.

Same as me! East and West are tied.

I love bass with hunchbacks, but my favorite look would be the first one, where they look like they're about to pop.

@pdxfisher (John) asked me the same thing. I do have a thermometer. I'll have to take it with me next time and see. It's not warm to my touch.

Here are my bass totals for my last four trips: 25, 20, 22, and 19 this morning. A significant drop from my 35/45/55 totals in late May, June, and early July, but still plenty of fun. Yeah, I'm consistent. I am amazed at the thickness of the 16 to 17 inch bass. That class of bass is feeding so heavily. See? She looks like she'll explode if she eats another shiner, but that's what she was trying to do in eating my popper. I caught 17 of the bass on a Yo-Zuri popper, to which I'd added red trebles and an extra split ring. I caught the other two on spinnerbaits. I hooked a lot of the Yo-Zuri bass in four to five feet of water abutting shallow water. My landing percentage is MUCH improved from earlier in the year thanks to three changes: 5/0 instead of 3/0 underspins Not flipping my rod right to left or left to right in mid-fight. I keep it on the side where I hooked my bass. A focus on my mechanics as I'm fighting the fish. I land at least 80% of my bass now and many mornings, 90%. And I land pretty much every four-plus-pounder I hook. I cant remember the last time I lost a big gal. Here are some of my longer fish: I caught my biggest bass about a foot from a shady shore on a sunny morning. It was a rocky bottom, so I was expecting a smallie. According to my length to weight chart, it was a 16.31 five-bass bag. And here's my pretty pic! It's calm in this pic, but the wind sure picked up and gave me quite a workout. However, the bass still kept hitting my little popper in the chop. As always, thanks for going fishing with me!

Perfect gif, @Fishlegs!

Ha, Bob! Our PB stories are sad. We're supposed to hook a PB on a foggy morning and she tail walks like a tarpon and shakes her head like a terrier with a rabbit in its jaws. Then she's supposed to run under our boat...twice...while making our drags squeal like just-branded pigs.

I want the story of your PB too. Here's the limp story of my PB: Hooked her trolling an underspin. Wasn't sure she was even a fish. Just heavy. Thought I might have hooked a water-logged log. When she was directly under the canoe, I still wasn't sure. I saw a flash of white and went for her with my net. When I pulled her up, I thought, "Huh. Who knew. Not me." She's my avatar. Yeah, I own the worst PB story of all time.

I don't know my water temp. Sorry. I tried a Ned bait once and caught about 15 bass, but I didn't enjoy it as much as covering water with a moving bait.

Parts of Ontario also have a 54" minimum, but not where we fished. Like pike, which tastes like chicken. 😁

Yeah, I know we committed a sin (but not a crime), but on one lake, we couldn't catch anything but muskies. We eventually chose hunger because we forced ourselves to eat an entire 40" fish and no matter how tasty, forcing that much musky down your throat kills your appetite as surely as we killed a couple muskies. The following times we visited that lake, we always took enough food to not need a musky meal.

Amen, John. Amen. Say, that was an exciting read. @Bluebasser86 is turning the BR crew into top shelf storytellers!