Swamp Girl

A SUP! Impressive. Impressive bass too.

@BluegillsTightlines: Its great to have you posting in this thread. Keep it up! I love your story about your reel. @Bazoo is back! Missed ya, buddy.

Exactly!

@The Baron: I just fiddle with the numbers until I get the file between 40 and 100 kb.

No lie. I have them too. Weird, huh?

I kid you not: I had a mile of paddling north and the wind and rain were in my face. Then I had half of mile of paddling west and the wind and rain shifted to still be in my face. I saw a bass. ICD caught a bass. He scored!

Sounds like my last fishing trip. I sat for an hour on the shore waiting for the lightning to pass. When the lightning started, the bass stopped. @gimruis better live a good life or when it's over, he'll find himself with a tacklebox full of Whopper Ploppers at a lake full of only rock bass.

@PhishLI I've been wanting to toss a fluke all year. 'Cause of you, I'm rigging one for this afternoon's fishing trip. FWIW, I know the gif looks like a Muppet, but it's not. That's actually me celebrating your catch. Was your brother with you? That's sure a pretty pond.

What would you put on your swim jig? It would HAVE to be a 1/8th ounce swim jig. Anything heavier and I'd be dredging the weeds that are under the water. I know this from tossing 3/16th ounce underspins. A buzzbait does appeal to me. I've caught muskies with them, but never a bass. I once had two muskies racing to my buzzbait. I wish I could have caught both, but I caught the winner, the first one to reach my lure.

I fish every two or three days and every time I launch, my challenge is to find them. However, if I can find them, I can catch them. I'm launching tomorrow under a high, hot Sun, so I'll try the deepest part of the pond first (10'), fishing mid-depth and on the bottom with a soft plastic crawfish, but who knows where they'll be. Not me.

Never had it happen, West Coast buddy, but since smallmouth fight like hula girls on crack, I'm not surprised.

Sounds like a good time!

@Scott F: Your yard is bee-you-tuh-FULL!!!

Smallmouth are so good at doing that. It's hard to keep them pinned with they're auditioning for Cirque du Soleil. This is the story of my fishing life. The guys josh me just like ^this^ when I only catch ten or 19 bass. 19 bass, btw, is exactly what I caught yesterday, so I was with ya, bass for bass! I likely would have caught a few more, but lightning pinned me to the shore until it was dark. I can't say that most Mainers hate bass, but some do and the trout-loving Inland Fisheries' folks sure do.

Me too. I try to have fun whatever the results, which isn't hard because being on water is my happy place. As far as being jealous, just remember that come December, I'm looking at snow and ice. I'm going fishing for a couple hours tomorrow afternoon, hoping I can pick up the pace a bit.

Because I live on the coast, I don't see temperature drops as extreme as the one you experienced, but inland, they sure do. Yeah, I know I'm lucky, but when I watch videos of other anglers in Maine, they don't catch what I catch, neither the numbers nor the consistent quality. I think canoeing is key. A kayak like yours would also work, but any light boat that can reach lesser fished water is, I think, why I catch what I do. The challenge is then to land a strong bass in a canoe that's spun and pulled in the fight. Sometimes, before I even cast, I form a quick plan for how I'll fight a bass if it hits, with reeds to the left, grass to the right, and lily pads behind me.

@TnRiver46, plus that boat ride gives you a plastic surgery Joker's smile!

I miss multi-species outings. When I fished the Mississippi, I'd have seven species days. Sometime nine species days!

That all makes sense, Tim. You know my approach, Tim: Catch as many as possible and I'll catch some nice ones along the way. And, along the way,... ...fish happy!

Upon reflection, I think all the soft water months are good. Last year, I measured, weighed, and counted four-pounders and up. This year, I just take a quick pic and release them, but I've caught a bunch in May and June of this year and I expect I'll catch a bunch in July, August, September, and October too. April and November are more challenging, but bass can still be caught in these cooler months too. ^This^ reminds me that my reality isn't everyone's reality.

WOW! That'll do it. Three, likely issues: 1. All blueberry bushes need another variety to cross-fertilize. 2. It might be a low bush blueberry. They come in three heights. 3. It might be unhappy where it is. Blueberries need LOTS of sun. Buy another bush and she'll have blueberries beyond counting. @volzfan59: I've done some writing in the automotive sector, enough to have GM invite me to meet their drivers and watch the Daytona 500 in the pits. I passed because it's not my thing, but it was kind of them to offer.

Thanks, Bird, for taking the time to free the fish.

I too like the longer days, but I don't know if June is the best, year after year. I think I'd have to log all the bass I catch and compare the data after ten years or so to know. @jamesfishing, who lives in the Northeast, wrote: I also live in the Northeast and while I fish docks, I can't remember catching a single bass off of one. Not one. I cast to them because everyone casts to them and I'll keep casting to them and likely keep failing.

I've not used Junebug because I didn't know that I was supposed to use Junebug and I catch a few without it. I don't know if color matters or not. I think @MickD is right, that color doesn't matter until it does. I know I burned through my only six-pack of Crush City's The Mayor in red craw last week and wished I had more. They did seem to prefer it, but who knows? Not me.

@BluegillsTightlines: Hooray!