Swamp Girl

Good one!

@PhishLI: I see that fluke! And I see that big bass too. I think they call this flukesuasion.

So true. In my lifetime, I'm guessing 95% of my smallies and largies caught on the surface (thousands of them in total) were hooked within five feet of where my lure landed.

@IcatchDinks: Thanks, ICD. I'm good to go with her. I wanted to have that big bass craving, ala Dwight, Tom, Andy, Alex, Pat, etc., but I just don't. I'm content to go out and catch half a dozen or so three to four-pounders and a passel of 2.5-pounders. Of course, when I catch my next six-pounder, I'll be PLENTY pleased, but in the meantime, I'm still plenty happy.

She is and will likely be my lifetime PB. Her belly draws the eyes at first, but it's her back that most impresses me. She's like the 2023 bass below, back-wise, but longer and fatter:

@casts_by_fly: I never see beds, neither bass nor bluegills. This might be due to my lack of perch as I'm in low boats. As far as catching a PB, I don't think that will ever happen again. I caught my unicorn this spring. Pat Brown thought she reached eight pounds. That's equivalent to a 12.5-pounder in the South. Not many eight-pounders in the North and I'm not far from Canada. So, I'm happy with her being my PB. I have a three-hour wind window tomorrow morning, but I think I'll pass. I've caught a lot of 2024 bass. I'll catch some shut-eye instead.

Fingers crossed for you!

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of accuracy and response time in casting. I sometimes just sat in my canoe and waited for a bass to bust because I didn't want my lure in the water and unavailable for casting when a bass showed itself. Also, I do not walk-the-dog with poppers. The young YouTubers generally do and I've tried it and caught nada. I'm an old school sit and twitcher. They hit it on the sit.

That's quite an upgrade, @NorthernBasser. That's like trading in your Yugo for a mid-engine Vette.

I threw this, a Shimano Pop Flash in pink: And I caught this: Again, I had to land it lightly within two feet of the splash and within three seconds. Otherwise, they weren't there or they'd spook.

So clever. Hey, wait a sec, are you saying I'm the ham? 😉

I utterly failed in 2023 to hook bass in this situation. However, in 2024, I've had some success doing this: 1. Burning a lure just under the surface through the area. A fast retrieve forces their hand because they don't have time to assess it. 2. Lightly dropping a surface lure within two feet of the hit and within three seconds of the hit. You have to be fast and accurate and you can't drop a big, ploppy lure on their heads or they'll bolt.

I often experience this too, i.e. catching a bass at the farthest end of my farthest cast.

This morning's pond was a pal's pond. He has a cabin and I use his canoe. It has quite a few cabins on it, but I don't use the cabins as backdrops because they're not as pretty as undeveloped shoreline. I fish five ponds in all. One of these trips, I'm going retro. I'll use old lures like a River Runt, Plunker, Jelly Worm, and Jitterbug, as well as a Zebco Cardinal and Dam Quick reels. So, we'll see how the Jitterbug works! I will put new hooks on my old lures first. What really worked well this morning was the green pumpkin KVD worm. I'd worked a small bay with a Whopper Plopper and my underspin, but wondered if I'd caught all the active bass. So, I tossed that skinny worm and caught six more bass that had sniffed at my bigger, faster lures.

It does work. You know I fish a lot of heavy cover and I can hit tiny pocket after tiny pocket after tiny pocket with my spinning gear. Some fishing trips, I don't miss a single pocket and stout bass are in many of those pockets. It's when I start thinking about not missing that I miss.

I'm not going to show my fishing outfits because I power fish with spinning gear. I know, I know, I'm doing it wrong. Plus, some of my spinning reels are thirty years old and my braided line is also 30 years old. However, it all works, so take that, rod gorilla and reel chimp! Caveat: I did buy MH spinning rods. My whippy M smallmouth rods couldn't wrassle largies from weeds.

I would love that. Maine is 90% forested, so we don't have vistas. Lightning was even rare a decade ago, but it's more and more common now.

That's a nice one! I've caught a couple of these recently. They're the best.

Well, I'm back to catching good quantity (39) and I continue catching good quality. I launched at Crickety o'clock in a heavy rain and finished in sunshine. Think of Dr. Seuss's "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" as you read this trip report. Bright bass. Light bass. First bass. Last bass. Curvy bass. Skinny bass. Pretty bass. Reedy Bass. Small Smallie. Small Largie. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish! And now the March of the Brunhildas (The reedy fish above is actually a Brunhilda too.)! The first bass below was the longest at 19.375 inches, but a couple of the 18+-inchers might outweigh her: The great news is that I'm losing fewer fish. I'm focusing on my mechanics and I've upped my 3/0 underspins to 5/0 underspins. I caught bass on a Whopper Plopper, popper, Crush City Mayors in chartreuse and red, and a T-Rigged green pumpkin KVD worm. I close with a shoreline shot. I hope you enjoyed going on my Dr. Seuss fishing trip. And you didn't have to bail the canoe at the beginning and end of the trip! Note the two bailers in the first four Brunhilda photos. It rained all night and rained half the morning.

Thanks, JB.

@thediscochef: What a sky. Montana isn't the only big sky country.

Give Murph a boat and watch out!

Thanks, guys, and no sunset photo tomorrow. I'm launching at 3:50 a.m. and it will rain hard all morning. I'm taking two dry rags in Zip-Lock bags to keep drying my camera lens. I've rigged two, red Crush City Mayors, one pumpkin green T-Rigged worm, one Rapala popper in traditional black and silver, and one loon-colored Whopper Plopper. One great thing about launching at 3:50 a.m. in the rain is that I'm sure to have the pond to myself!

That's kind of you to write, but there's so much I don't know. Yet.

Well, I noting more and more how YouTube anglers will catch a single bass and then proceed to tell the audience how to fish. I watch those anglers less and less. My new motto should be: "Catch ten bass in a row and then teach me."