Swamp Girl

I have a pal who's offered to take a crack at them. He might buy an old reel or two for parts. This won't happen until winter. I only have eight spinning reels and don't want to give up two in the thick of the season, even if they're creaky.

I already wrote a trip report for May 21st in the "Latest Catch Pics Thread," but I'm writing a stand-alone report now because it's likely to be my best outing of 2026, with both my biggest single bass and my best bag. I caught the first bass in my bag off-shore. She was slender, but long at 19.5 inches. I didn't have my bump board aboard, but my Predator 13 kayak has a measuring line molded into the hull. Unfortunately, it doesn't cradle the bass like a bump boards, so all my measurements were hasty and without photos. I used the hasty measurements with a length to weight chart to compile my weights. My other four bass were much stockier than the open water bass above and I caught them in a delirious 1.5 hours of on a shoreline of overhanging bushy trees. It's historically a small bass spot, but for that hour and change, it was a big bass spot. This was the biggest, a bass I couldn't fit into the frame without shooting down at her: What the photo doesn't convey is her depth. I remember looking at her in the net and marveling at her girth. She was 22" or thereabouts. Again, she was flopping on the raised, convex, black console beneath her and the bigger the bass, the faster I hurry them back into the water. This one was 21" and girthy too: This one was in the 19-inch range: This one was in the 20-inch range: If anything, I'm low on the bag estimate. For kayakers, it was a 100" bag. I composed this post mainly for me, so that come the winter of 26/27, I can easily find these photos and smile, remembering when the cosmic tumblers aligned and the Big Bass Treasure Box opened for me. As I've shared more than once, as much as I like a big bass, I love a big bag.

Well, that's because I have to be in the stern to take us to the hot spots. The stern paddler steers. That was cool. I remember exactly where it happened and I can see the loon still, as sleek as a seal. I remember exactly where that happened too. Weird how I couldn't buy a hit in the river last night. I'm so glad, Bob, and I hope to fish with you again next summer! If your wing is fixed, we'll fish a bog too. I'd need your strength to put the two-person canoe on the car. I can barely manage my solo Kevlar canoe anymore.

After all the logging roads they've bounced down, all the woods they've been walked through, and the thousands of bass they've landed, I finally have a couple Shimano reels that are wheezing and creaking after 40 years. Shimano should warn buyers: "Buyer beware! These reels won't last forever."

@Pat Brown believes that some bass spawn more than once and that bass don't all spawn at the same time. I agree with Pat that bass are individuals. I try to understand them and guess where they'll be and what they want, but in the end, they're mysteries to me.

I caught 32 in three hours at my pond. I was excited to return to the river where I caught my PB at my pond, which required me to paddle the length of the pond. I'd landed five and lost two in the little river, but this evening, not a nibble. However, on the way, I stopped to fish a rock flat and caught this fine fish: After I held her for the photo above, I wondered if she reached 19 inches. So close: After I failed in the river, I saw bass leaping for dragonflies. So, I pitched a popper and caught this twin to the bass above: That's two four-pounderish bass in the first hour. If the 19 and 20-inchers in my pond grow an inch this year, next year I might be catching 20 and 21-inchers next year. CORRECTION: I just Googled growth rates of lmb in Maine and AI said this: "In Maine, it can take a 19-inch largemouth bass 2 to 3 years to grow just another inch." AI also said this: "At 19 inches, a largemouth bass is considered a trophy-sized fish in Maine." So, I caught a couple trophies and so I'm happy with them instead of dreaming of trophies plus. I caught some other thick fish and my main lure was a purple Roboworm with a chartreuse tipped-tail, which I rigged with a fine wired offset worm hook and a 3/16ths ounce tungsten sinker. It's the first time I've ever used that worm and even though a YouTube video told me to drop shot it or wacky worm it, it worked with T-rigging. I caught these other thick fish too, all 17 and 18-inch class bass: I'll be fishing my pal's pond this Wednesday and Friday morning. I haven't fished it for a couple weeks and am excited to return to it. That's the stuff that dreams are made of. Those are beauties!

I've had good luck casting to the middle of nothing at night. No cover at all. I cast there because I've heard them feeding there.

Back at ya! We sure had fun and I loved how you loved Maine, my pond, and my rapscallion pup.

I love how you've so many buddies, Russ.

Thanks, F3! I'll fish my pond again this evening, but then I'll be fishing my pal's pond Wednesday and Friday mornings. T-rigged worms worked so well at my pond that I'll be using them again at my pal's pond.

@bp_fowler: Buzzbaits are fun! I just started using them for bass last year. Decades ago, I did use them for muskies.

I always enjoy Pat Brown's perspectives, but especially when it comes to spawning. Pat is so observant and analytical and he sees bass from an angle I've never encountered. He's fresh!

I have a similar plastic box in my boat. It's called an ammo box and it's watertight, so I have extra soft baits and snacks in it and it stays in my canoe all summer.

Yep, and they do a pretty good Mount Saint Helens imitation when they hit it, which has my cardiologist a mite worried for me.

I rarely fish frogs because I lose so many.

Me too! I think if I squished the tail, she would have reached the 20" line, but as my bass are getting bigger, I don't think I have to resort to tail squishing.

You and me, buddy. I have guesses about what they want and where they'll be, but I'm always just guessing and am often wrong. Amen.

Thanks, Angus. I was thinking about that $80,000 Ranger in another thread this morning. I paid $75,000 for my 4.5 acres with nearly 500' of waterfront. It's only five minutes from my home too. Sure, my canoes don't zoom and they don't have FFS and SpotLock, but I'm guessing I outfish a few anglers with Rangers and moving slowly has its charms.

I caught 56 at my pond this morning in four hours and twenty minutes. Conditions were perfect. I launched in a fog. Then came rain. Plus, barometric pressure has been falling. I caught nearly all my bass on a T-rigged worm. I fished various kinds and colors of worms. They all worked. My best five were 90 inches plus. I caught this 18-incher about five fish into my morning: I often catch just one 18-incher in a fishing trip, but this morning produced multiple eighteens. Like this one: However, I found the real treat in my favorite spot, a little river that's fed by a bog. I haven't been able to fish this spot for my last half dozen trips, as I let the hero and then Bob fish it, so I was excited and the spot didn't disappoint. I caught my PB at my pond on my second cast, a 19.75-incher: The photo above doesn't really convey her shoulders, but this one does: She had a big mouth too: Then I caught a couple more eighteens in the river: Bass weren't the only predators in the river. Here are some carnivorous pitcher plants and I saw three eagles while I was there too: I even had a baby beaver swim up to my canoe to study me. That was a first! Here's the river: I caught another thick one on the way out: A couple more eighteens: I caught many 17-inchers too. Such a fun morning! This was my last bass: I've stopped my running total for 2026. I'm over 500, but I lost count while fishing with the hero and Bob. Bob and I caught well over one hundred, but Bob caught the majority. I should clarify that the 19.75-incher isn't my overall PB, but she's the biggest bass I've ever caught at my pond. Last fall, I caught my first three 19-inchers at my pond and I caught a few more at 19-inchers this year. Now I'm nearly up to 20 inches!

80 grand is more than the cost of my waterfront land.

Indeed!

I told Bob yesterday that I wouldn't want to fish against you, Clayton. I would, however, like to net some of your beasts!

I'm a roamer, a rolling stone, a strolling crone.

"My thumb is raw," Bob just said. And I'm sad because my buddy leaves tomorrow morning, but we ended our visit dancing with bass, catching 40 (Bob caught most of them.) in about 2.5 hours. At one point, we saw four circling ospreys and we saw a loon swim underwater beside our canoe. Bob hooked an 18-incher in tight quarters and played her masterfully and a V of geese flew low overhead. I didn't even try to photograph the sunset. I couldn't capture that much beauty.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!