Swamp Girl

I like my soft plastics with salt and anise. Tasty! @DaubsNU1: I have a couple Curados too.

I hope he's not kidding. It's hip to be square and that's a seriously square thing to do.

Me too! I troll a LOT because whenever I'm traveling to my next fishing spot, I want a lure in the water. I've caught a lot big bass trolling. I once caught a four-pounder and a three-pounder trolling at the same time trolling a Whopper Plopper. I love the sound of a big bass eating a trolled surface lure behind my canoe in the blackness and my rod snaps back. However, I troll subsurface more than surface lures. I think ^this^ makes you utterly normal.

Well then, I'm a weirdo in this same way. @DaubsNU1: Hey, we share weirdness in a couple ways! Old reels and spinning gear. Cool.

As much time as you've spent outside, you must have seen some animal doing what that supposedly don't do or some phenomenon that supposedly doesn't happen.

I do it too, Alex. We're like the Juliette Binoche character in the movie, Chocolat: We're restless. The wind shifts and we're using a new lure, regardless of how good the bite is right now.

@Tennessee Boy: In the comment thread for your video, lots of other people shared stories of seeing beavers eat fish. So, I'm a believer now.

Tackle-wise, how are different than other anglers and why? My most obvious way is that I fish power baits with spinning gear. Why? I can cast farther and I catch some of my best bass at the ends of my longest casts. I also use older reels than most of you, as some of my reels are more than 40 years old. Why? They work fine. I use a big net with a long handle. Why? I like to be able to reach bass I can't even see to net them and to net wallowing bass a few feet from my canoe. Lastly, I don't fish water with ramps. Why? I like to fish without engine noise, wakes, and chatter.

It's cool in Maine and the water is cooling fast. When I dip my fingers in it, it's just tepid. The last few fishing trips, I've worn long pants, fleece atop my wicking tops, and wool socks. However, the cooling doesn't depress me. I need to hibernate after fishing hard through the spring, summer, and fall. Sure, I'll look out the windows at the glittering white and sometimes sigh, but I'm a northern bear, built to rest through the winter.

Wow! I have never done ^this.^ Glenn, you know where a beaver hut slopes into the water and there's wood inches below the surface? Is that where you're catching them or farther from the hut? Or both? It's a good thought. Thanks for being thoughtful of the world's hardest workers. I caught this gal off a beaver dam, but unlike Glenn, I'm lucky to catch just one. I always assumed that all the splashing and thrashing scared the others:

Stealth rules! Yee-haw! Congrats, Bazoo! And I'm proud of you too, pal.

Had to return to my pal's pond to flip the canoe with rain coming. While there, I fished the last 1.25 hours of light. Caught eight with a spinnerbait and popper. All the same size. Only photographed the last four, as I was hoping for something bigger with the first four. When I realized it was going to be a Same Size Night, I thought, "I better photograph something!":

Smaller than the Spook, for sure. It was the lure that caught the vast majority of the 70 bass on Monday morning too. It's a Yo-Zuri that's clear with gold and black. I added extra 0-rings and changed the hooks. Thanks! Here's a typical small mouth bass from my pond. They are built so much thicker than the bass from my pal's pond. I wish there were more of them, but I'm lucky to catch one smallie for every 40 lmb.

That's the worst thing about staying home: There's extra work when you do return. Sorry you've got a stone, buddy, but I'm happy to read that you're a bit better. The bass in your lakes are all wondering where you went.

Replicas look better than skin mounts anyway. And they last a LOT longer. On a MUCH SMALLER scale, I released what was likely the Maine state record pickerel this summer because I won't kill an exceptional fish just to have my name in some book.

You've fished northern bass, Tom. You know they're slow to grow. We've got to get some of those California trucks of trout. That'll giddy-up their growth, as would gobies! One thing that wouldn't work this morning, Tom, was a Heddon Spook. I had high hopes for it. One strike was all it could muster. All the bass came on two lures: spinnerbait and popper. They wouldn't even sniff my little pink wacky worm.

It's cool that you're not cool. That toilet seat bolted to a car hood sounds like wicked fun! I also am not cool. You've seen the photos of my weed-streaked canoes. Imagine roaring across a lake at 70 mph in a bass boat bristling with electronics. That is utterly not me. I'm pretty close to sitting on a toilet seat bolted to a car hood and paddling that. Remember that I fish with spinning outfits, some as old as 40 years. So not cool. To be serious for a sec, one thing that's really helped me improve as an lmb angler is fishing my swampy pond. It's wide-open water in the middle, but it's got swamp along three sides and that's where the bass most often lie. There are a lot of woody bushes and laydowns in the swamp, so there's wood with the weeds, meaning you have to control your fish or they break free. Plus, the bass in my pond are stronger than the bass in the other water I fish. They top out at 18.5 inches, but they're thick, muscular, and strong and playing them all summer makes landing 19" and 20" bass in more open water nowhere near as hard as it once was.

If you do schedule a trip, I'd be happy to take you fishing if you're not too cool to fish from a canoe with an old swamp gal. My only rule is no paddling. When two people paddle a canoe, it's too fast for trolling, plus my job is to put you on fish and I know where they lurk, so I don't need a paddling partner. Your job will be to catch bass. My jobs are paddle and net. Exactly why I like lip and grips.

I took a break from swamp fishing to fish a pond. I caught 24 and the five biggest were close to 20 pounds (19.71 pounds on the length to weight conversion chart). I launched in the dark. It was cool too. I know some of you believe that fall fishing is best when the Sun warms the water a bit after a cool night, but the 47 degree night didn't suppress their appetites. I headed off to fish a bay, trolling a Dobyn's Beast spinnerbait with an orange Crush City Mayor along the way. This girl hit: I chucked my spinnerbait back to where I caught her, hoping she had a big sis. She did! One more cast and one more big gal: The next bass was smaller, but I photographed her with a lip and grip to show you how dark it was: Then I caught another two, one on the spinnerbait and the other with a Yo-Zuri popper: ' A gal pal with a home on the pond waved me to shore for coffee and cookies. Yum! I'd caught 13 at that point. Returning to the pond, I wondered if I'd left my mojo was killed by the coffee and cookies for I couldn't muster single hit for about 20 minutes, but working a reed line with my popper started to trigger some hits, including this double: This was the bigger of the two, about 17 inches: Then I caught a 17.5-incher: And another solid popper bass, thick and long, over 18 inches: At this point, I'd caught four smallmouth, but didn't get any photos because they're on the skinny side. So, I took a photo of this standard-sized one, between 15 and 16 inches: And then I caught a rare 17-incher smallie. Rare for Maine and me, that is, as I don't catch big smallies in Maine: I've caught heavier smallies in Maine, as my pond grows thick brown bass, but most of my Maine smallies are 15 to 16 inches. Anyway, I finished my trip with a couple solid lmbs, the first 17.5 inches and the second, 18.25 inches. Until last spring, I felt I was mostly a one-trick pony, i.e. a bass angler who only excelled in the summer. Then I fared well last spring and now I'm faring well this fall. It's good to be improving. Thanks, @Glenn, for your videos and thanks again to the rest of you who've coached me over the years. You might remember that I caught 70 bass on Monday morning, but this morning's 24 sure didn't feel like a letdown. It was great fun! I know a couple of you guys want all my bass on the bump board, but those photos aren't nearly as pretty...to me...as the lip and grips. So, I did a mix of lip and grip and bump boarding. P. S. - So, I go out and land a five-bass bag that's around 19.5 pounds and am feeling pretty proud and THEN I remember that @WRB landed a 19.5-pound bass. And I imagine Tom chuckling and saying, "Yeah, keep pluggin', kid. Keep pluggin'." P. P. S. - I fixed my camera by replacing the battery. The rechargeable battery was about 25 years old and evidently had lost its ability to recharge. Easy-peasy fix.

If I'm taking someone fishing, my main task is to help them catch fish. So, I don't catch nearly as many fish when fishing with someone. Alone, I'm focused on fishing, not my partner, and catch accordingly. I enjoy both ways.

@4n2t0: That's a BIG bass for Canada. Change your PB. It's more than four.

It will take zero persuasion to convince me of ^this.^

Heck, yeah. Outside is my happy place. Yonder is my bliss. I have slept in tents for years of my life. Even as a teen, I pitched a tent in our suburban backyard and slept there. Walls aren't for everyone.

Hmm. Interesting tactic. I wish I had the patience for it. I am forever spooking bass and I'm a seriously quiet angler, but when my canoe is within a couple feet away from them and advancing, they swirl away. I appreciate the swirls because they're teaching me where they are and I'll cast to those spots on the return paddle. I was thinking about the pressure that Tom experienced and upon further reflection, I've experienced similar pressure while fishing for walleye, smallmouth, and white bass. With all three species, I'd locate a school and start to swing fish aboard and first one boat and then another and then ten to twenty to park beside me, BUT in all these cases, I continued catching the fish while the interlopers mostly didn't. You can't just be atop fish to catch them. My trick with all three species was four to six-pound test.

@Pumpkinseed Lizard: You caught the Hunchbass of Notre Dame. @NorcalBassin: Thinking a good thought for Pop's surgery. @N Florida Mike: Those drone shots are cool. @Woody B: How ya feeling, Woody?