Swamp Girl

All this talk about hydration and heat changed me. I usually take one Hint water. This evening, for tomorrow morning's fishing, I put two Hints in my tackle box. Thanks, guys!

Thanks for replying and I do hope you stay and post lots more bass. I didn't opine because you and I are in the presence of anglers who've caught 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, etc.-pounders beyond counting, but as the site's founder, @Glenn, has observed, it's very tricky to guess weight from a photo, so our guesses are all over the place, but we all agree that it's a fine, fine fish and congrats! Wait, I just checked my first post and see that I did guess, so I'm sticking with that estimate:

So, what's your best guess?

In all my past lives, ^this infallible logic^ has tied me to many stakes. Luckily, I have a few tricks up my black sleeves.

I am old enough and have moved enough in my life to be considered a witch or old gypsy. Therefore, I place a curse on the guy in the bass boat and it shall be his fate to catch only freshwater drum and clams.

No problem. It made me chuckle and I wondered if others would post their catches in this thread too.

I bet you're right. The fish are so oxygen deprived from being posed for the cameras that they're stunned/half dead when released. @TnRiver46: Gar make muskies seem civilized and muskies are maniacs.

I'd gladly swap a three-pound lmb for that rock bass, just to enjoy a rock bass again after a half century of not catching one. They're feisty!

@Bluebasser86: So, you serve and protect even when you're not wearing the badge. My admiration for you is equaled by my disdain for the couple who did nothing to help.

Atta, girl. Atta, Dad.

Ah, the camera and bass are tricksey, as @Glenn wisely noted.

I never even saw skinnier bass, suggesting they're post-spawn. They looked the same, all through March, April, May, and June. Only this girl was clearly pregnant and she went full Octomom:

I caught one bass a couple weeks ago with a slightly bloody tail. I also never saw a spawning bed. I think Maine bass spawn on the down low.

Thanks, Alex. I'm glad I'm home too. I was snarled in three hours of NYC stop-and-go traffic, which is as un-Maine-y as life can get. Coming home, when I saw the Maine sign with "The way life should be," I gustily agreed. I struggled last night, losing a lot of bass, partly because there are a lot more weeds. One bass I managed to land ran through three kinds of weeds, including lily pads that are lot thicker now. Thicker is the new normal. I'm going to retie before every trip going forward. Even after I fight and unhook them, they're still bonkers. I watch YouTubers release their Florida bass and film them as they slowly swim away. There'd be no filming the bass I release. They're all sound and fury, signifying ferocity.

That spot looks heavier than your lmb, @Woody B. Good fish!

So true. I was fishing a rock flat today and my underspin tick-tick-ticked the bottom. Every tick felt almost like a bite, but then you get a slightly different tick and you somehow know that that tick is a bass.

I was going to go big bass hunting in a bog tomorrow morning, but I just can't. Too tired. Thanks, @GreenPig. As you know, I've been leaning on my underspins for a long time now. I didn't even cast a Whopper Plopper today. I like how the underspins go everywhere. The bass hit them a hundred different ways. They love to inhale the underspins and just swim along at the pace of my retrieve, like you're walking a dog on a loose leash. I took a bunch of other photos, but they were all about the same size, so I settled for the representative bass above. Thanks, @Bird! I've fished my pond enough to know where a bass is likely to hit on a retrieve. It's satisfying to think, "Right about now." and it happens. However, when I was crossing the pond at the end of my trip, I found some bass in the middle of the pond. With no sonar, I don't know why they were clustered, but they sure were.

I caught 38 this evening, but hooked and lost two four-pounders. Most of my 38 were in the two-to-three pound range and nearly all were caught on an underspin with a Rapala Crush City Mayor in green pumpkin. There's a narrow, shoreline slot where I hooked three fine bass last time at my pond. @PhishLI said that big bass would orient to that slot and he was right...as always. The first one I hooked jumped and threw the lure. The second one zigged and zagged and broke free. My fishing wasn't sharp after 3,000 miles of driving in the last, eight days, but it was great to be on the pond with the singing loons and soaring osprey. The bass are below. The last one was a normal bass, but I accidentally hit the shutter button after I'd moved the camera to telescope mode. @Glenn said he doesn't trust judging the size of bass that aren't on a bump board or a scale and I can see why. That bass looks huge, huh?

I actually want to catch one. I haven't caught one of those tough, little buggers since I was a kid.

That's our Tim, for sure.

Just don't go full Ahab on her!

You were the bug, not the windshield, @BrianMDTX, but you had an exciting afternoon, for sure.

Thanks, @WRB and @A-Jay. I watched Andy's videos several times and I'll watch Greg's video too. Andy, as I've shared several times in the past, my canoe weighs 32 pounds, which is lighter than any sit-on-top fishing kayak. It's a sled and the bass are the sled dogs. I'm fishing this evening from my 85-pound, two-person canoe at my pond, which I've come to enjoy because while it's harder for me to paddle, it's harder for the bass to pull.

I'm with ya, @A-Jay. I'd be happy if I never flew again, but for that bass, well, okay: Here I come, United!

Tom, do you have a video of someone doing this type of hook-set? I'd love to try it. @Woody B: Those one-second bass are not little. Not in Maine.