Swamp Girl

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."

Exactly!

I think @Bluebasser86's tournament accounts are thrilling. He's a good storyteller and I feel like I'm there.

Oh, I hated the rabbits in my Wisconsin garden. Sure, they were cute, but so destructive. They'd chop off my raspberry canes right before they were going to bear fruit and even felled two of my fruit-bearing apple trees.

You should be proud. Your garden is A+. Gardening and fishing are a lot alike in that they're both excuses the leave the walls behind. Growing the garden thanks the Earth, for it feeds the bumblebees and the other pollinators. You have a groundhog? I don't. I have chippies, red and gray squirrels, turkeys, raccoons, and a skunk that visit my feeders, in addition to the hundreds of small birds.

Tim, that video is top-notch. Top-knot? Easy to follow and I'm going to start tying that knot.

@Jar11591: Your gardening is immaculate.

Thanks, Tim. All out of reactions and off to watch the video right now.

I think you're right, Mike. Giving bad advice can leave to poor fishing and a person might quit before they ever had a real chance to succeed. So many of those YouTubers use clickbait titles because YouTube pays their bills. My title is math and I like how I counted the bass caught by each hour as it really illustrates how fishing improves as light wanes. Whenever possible, I launch on overcast or rainy days for this reason. Sunshine is for beachin' girls, not bassin' girls!

Ah, I see.

Tim, do you have a photo of one of your snelled straight shanks? Are you snelling them or do you buy them that way? Also, why snell them? Why not tie them directly to your line? @T-Billy: Tim, I'm going to buy some right now. Can you suggest a brand and size?

Tim, I'm so quick on the trigger that I figure I'd miss some with the snelled straight shanks too. I deep hooked one bass this year, but none in 2022 and 2023. One is enough. I can live with losing some to not deep hook another. @CastingClinic: I like the composition of your rock BASS photos.

Thanks, ICD, about my signature. After fishing in the rain the other night, being chased to shore by lightning, and then paddling home in the dark, I thought of it. I'll be fishing in heavy rain tomorrow morning too. The ONLY thing I don't like about fishing in the rain is that it's hard to take a good photo because rain gets on my camera lens. I am amazed at how many places I've never fished on my pond. The marsh is more extensive than I thought.

I'm baffled that you've never lost a fish on an EWG before this morning. I lose them all the time on EWGs. I do fast hook sets so I won't deeply hook them. When I do catch them, I hook them right in the lip, but about half find their immediate freedom.

@PhishLI: Your first photo gives away your location. You are fishing in the Amazon rainforest. Or the Congo.

Great news. The satellites that photograph the Earth just photographed my pond and it's a highly detailed image. I can see my boardwalk and even my canoe. More importantly, I can see the marsh that I fish and it's MUCH more extensive than I've thought. The narrow channel I fish is actually a stream mouth and it also goes back much farther than I've been fishing. So excited to fish these areas where I've never cast.

I'm about 50% too, however my landing percentage varies greatly from hour to hour. This thread has me thinking about how many I land when I'm fishing. Yesterday evening, in my first hour, I landed about 15% of the bass that hit. I think I lost some of them because the bass were half hitting. They'd grab the tail of my Crush City Mayors and run with just the tail in their mouths. Later in the evening, when they fully committed, I caught about 85% of the bass, losing a few to mostly jumps. Some of the largies jumped so high that I mistook them for smallies.

ICD, nothing outfights a river smallie. Well, maybe a tidal striped bass because they both fight current.

@Pat Brown: "Had a fun week." says it all, Pat, about your approach to life and fishing. I'm also all about fun in bass fishing. When the kid I take fishing caught some four and five-pounders, he suddenly was less happy to catch 2.5-pounders. "Never pass on happiness" is my motto, and yours too, Pat.

Thanks, Mike! I watched a YouTube video where a bass pro said that fishing early and late wasn't worth the effort, but catching just two bass in my first hour when the Sun was highest and hottest and having them hit so weakly suggests otherwise.

If a gar gets tangled up in your 250 HP Merc, you'd have to replace the prop.

Way to keep angling, Alex! You're my role model.

Thanks, @Glenn.