Swamp Girl

Rockhopper, I admire your sharing the skunk. Sharing the bad times makes the good times that much sweeter.

Well, this morning reminded me a day last fall where I managed to catch some fish, but never managed to find their pulse. I caught 25 total, all on a Dobyns spinnerbait with an orange Mayor and my Yo-Zuri popper, but nothing over 18 inches and eight of them came in two flurries. The first flurry happened when I was paddling across a rocky flat and a couple bass bolted from two reeds. "Hmmm," I thought, "so that's where you hang." So, I cast my popper to five other tiny stands of reeds and caught five smallies. The other flurry happened when I was paddling back and saw two loons diving and diving. "Hmmm," I thought, "bait." Yep, I hooked four lmb in four casts, but only landed three, each about 17 inches, all on the spinnerbait. All my other bass came here and there. No pattern, no pulse. My stupid, old camera stopped working (AGAIN!), so I used my cell phone, which takes much better photos. See? Then the Sun rose. To take a photo, I had to remove my cell phone from its waterproof pouch, rouse it, and then shoot, all while the bass was drowning in air, so I only took two bass pics, the first a typical fat bass and the second, a longer, skinny one that I caught in weeds. ^See^ my stupid, old camera? I shouldn't complain. I've used it for about 35 years. However, it is a slacker compared to my bike, which I've ridden for 53 years.

Maine might be at its most beautiful when it's snowing, Alex. I've planted a mound of red twig dogwoods and another of yellow twig dogwoods, which are bright red and bright yellow in the winter. They're both backdropped by giant arborvitaes, so the red and yellow stems are frosted with white, glistening snow. I just smile thinking about it.

Well, my drift and cast idea didn't work. I did catch nine in two hours, but none of the four-plus-pounders I was targeting. It was pretty choppy with the occasional whitecap: I was mostly using a spinnerbait. My lipless caught nothing. This was the average size: When I was blown into a shore, I saw a bass feeding and pitched a popper to it. It was my biggest. The fish are fattening for the winter. Even this short one was well fed. Pretty pic! I'm launching again tomorrow morning in the dark. Fingers crossed I find a big one!

Now I'm wondering if all Mainers have been bit by radioactive spiders. Or radioactive ticks?

I know I'm about to step into the Twilight Zone here, but do you ever know when a bass is about to hit your surface lure? I do know, about once or twice every trip. I'm not talking about the obvious line in shallow water where a bass is charging your lure or FFS, where you see a bass rising to your lure, but that little flutter inside, much like Spiderman's tingle, where you say, "Hey, a bass is about to hit." and then it does. It could be I'm seeing a shift in the water made by a bass around my lure that I can't actually to define it with words because it's so subtle. It could also be that my lure is sitting, structure, cover, and weather-wise, in a situation so similar to others where I've caught bass that I'm making a very good guess that one is about to strike. Or it could be straight-up Spidey-sense. Whatever it is, it feels a little like a pigeon is fluttering inside of me and I prepare to set the hook because a bass is about to strike.

@DaubsNU1: Swell fishing, Daubs! Good size too. I'm going fishing this afternoon. Gonna drift and fan cast, hoping to stumble on a big girl wolf pack. When I reach the end of a windblown drift, I'll troll back and begin again. Fishing tomorrow morning too. If today's drift fishing works, I'll do more of the same tomorrow morning. If not, I'll do the old plug and grind.

Please tell me more about your kit.

Welcome from the old, swampy gal in the scuffed canoe!

I like the variety of fish he catches. Nowadays, when a fish hits, it's going to be a lmb, smb, or pickerel. Pretty predictable.

Whenever I see an @throttleplate report, I think, "I'd like to fish there."

@king fisher: Your writing reminds me of Patrick McManus's columns. You're so funny you could write professionally.

It's great. Funny and mysterious.

Another good Bass Resource article. I keep feeling like I should write another article, but I feel like I know less than, well, all of you.

I had the same thought.

Yahoo, Bazoo!!! Anglers like you and @Pat Brown who fish pounded city ponds have my respect times ten.

I'm returning to my pal's pond tomorrow to fish the afternoon. I avoid afternoons because of wind, but it'll only be 6 mph and I've a plan to use the wind. I'll let it blow me across the pond and fan cast along the way. Then I'll paddle back into the wind and troll along the way. Then repeat. I've done a lot of drift fishing for walleyes and white bass. I'm good at setting up a drift, I.e. reading the wind and picking the right starting point. There's a big girl school out there somewhere and with enough passes and some luck, I might find it and land another 20-lb. bag. I'm different than a lot of you. If I could choose between one six-pound bass or a 20-lb. bag, I'd take the latter. I take pride in consistency of fishing, rather than happening upon one rare bass. Plus, five fine bass that constitute a 20-lb. bag is five times the fight. It's been my experience that six and seven-pounders don't fight that much harder than four-pounders.

I have never cast there. Never. I will now. Thanks, Glenn! I know this phenomenon from a little waterfall that tumbled into a lake in northwestern Ontario. We called it Ten Fish Waterfall. It was right across from our camp and every hour, if we wanted, we paddled over to it and caught ten fish, a mix of bass and walleye. I think there was structure for ten fish, no more. Catch ten, wait an hour, and it would reload. I have GREATLY underfished beaver huts!!!

Thanks, @Functional! And thanks to you too, @Jig Man, for letting me know how much you enjoyed Maine. I was sitting outside with some friends three days ago and we all agreed that we didn't want to go anywhere else on vacation, that we're content here.

You know those "bass" pics in my trip reports? All logs. Fishy, huh?

Good for you! And even better than you do it without lugging all that gear. When I fish my pond, I take two rods with two lures and I do just fine without options.

I think I could have caught more bass from that big bass school, but it was dark and foggy and none of the camps on the shorelines were lighted. So, I had zero sense of direction and the bass spun my canoe, so I lost any idea of where they were. I should have 360-cast, but I didn't. Mistake.

Got some news for you, pal: It's weird to be normal.