Swamp Girl

I had the same thought. I'd drag your little boat through the woods to launch right now and have the lake to yourself. #Idragmylittleboatthroughmanywoodstohavelakestomyself

I'm a Wisconsin girl too and I too have the knack for finding bass.

@IcatchDinks: You are most excellent at squishing fishing into all the other fun in your life.

Great points. I know neither people nor bugs will be bugging me when it's raining.

I don't always discover a pattern, but when I do, it's the best. Sometimes I can cast a lure half of forever and when it lands, I hold on because I've caught so many on my longest casts. I'm glad long casts worked for you too.

That's what you get when humans don't swarm the shorelines with houses. At least this shoreline is protected.

I wish I could give you half my brain for half your brain. Then we'd both be the ULTIMATE ANGLERS!

I'll send you all the pickerel rush photos, Bob. What you can't see are the bees. They were far, far beyond counting, Bob. I have never seen bees so thick and I'm a gardener.

Me too, jb. I love my photos, but I can still see so many fish I caught just as clearly as if Ridley Scott had filmed the moment with seven cameras and a sound crew. When I was paddling yesterday morning, I ticked off all the places I'd once hooked and landed or hooked and lost big ones.

@Bazoo: I don't think an old female, already stressed by the fight, would then survive a stringer, transportation in a makeshift container, and hanging in your cooler while you built a bigger container. Heck, many big females at bass tournaments can't survive their time in a live well followed by being hoisted for photos. There are many stories of floating bass in the release areas of tournaments. The bigger the bass, the faster I release her. I'm an old gal too. I'm not as hardy as I once was. So, I have long-earned empathy for the other old gals in this world.

SHE COULD BE A LIFE COACH TOO!

In Maine, you can own a body of water less than ten acres if your land entirely circles it. However, there is an entire class of YouTube videos where landowners across America assert that they own water, both still and moving, and challenge angling boaters and waders. If I were you, I'd launch your boat, but don't be surprised if someone hurries out of their house and challenges you because they are deluded and think they own the water too.

@TnRiver46: You could be a life coach because you really know how to live well.

Ditto for @Bluebasser86.

Ha!

@Fried Lemons: Gosh, you catch big fish! You're one of BR's top anglers.

I took a break from quantity fishing to target some quality bass. I launched at a pond that begins and ends with a bog. Here's the beginning: However, I launched in the dark, around 3:50 a.m. Here's where it started to get light enough to take a photo and you can see the bog is giving way to open water. The sky was as pretty as an evening sky. The Pickerel rush was in flower and as pretty as the sky. There were thousands of bees feeding on the flowers. And there were thousands of frogs singing when I launched. Bees and frogs might be the best barometers of a pond's health. I caught some bass too, 24 in all, the usual suspects: The biggest was 18.25", not who I was hoping would be my dance partner, but she still whirled me. I caught my bass in open water and in places like this: I'm catching fewer bass than I caught in June, just like I did in 2023, but still having fun. I saw two deer, an eagle, an osprey, an opossum, beavers, and two herons. I feel so lucky to live in Maine where I can paddle and fish ponds like this. P. S. - I fished with @gimruis today, in a way, as I usually fish from a chaotic boat, but I remembered what gimruis wrote a long time ago about securing hooks, so I did that today and quite liked not having to worry about tangles. Bob(@Blue Raider Bob) was also in the boat with me, in spirit, enjoying the Pickerel rush as much as I did.

Those are some slabs, @PhishLI.

Let's just take your little jons! Ha!

I sure would. Bass crave oxygen.

If it's pounding, I'm fine. Light rain is fine too. It's all good.

You were semi-primitive. I'm full-on primitive. The wheels of my car are stone and the engine is is my bare feet.

FFS, SpotLock, and getting a trolling motor to follow the contours of a shoreline are out of my wheelhouse. I could learn, of course, but at this point, this is me:

When you were in the Coast Guard, you were faced with life-saving challenges. In each, you had to assay your ability, your craft's ability, and your crew's ability to determine whether a rescue should/could be attempted or not. Note that I led with "your ability." So, grading your ability is something that you've done countless times. This thread is an invitation to consider how ranging or limited your abilities are. I'm a paddling, primitive angler. I do that pretty well. I'd utilize the features of a bass boat about as well as a chimpanzee.

Great analogy.