Swamp Girl

@Glenn: That's one of the two I ordered. Your recommending it tells me I guessed well that it might be a good replacement. Let me tell ya, Glenn, I felt pretty weird at first casting a green pumpkin Crush City Mayor because bait fish aren't green. Shows how little I know about what bass like! 😉 I was reflecting on my ability to control bass better in tight corners on my pond and I attribute this to my heavy, tandem canoe, which weighs 85 lbs. The bass can't pull me into weeds as easily as they do with my 32 lb. solo canoe.

No fees in Maine. At the bogs and ponds I fish, there are also no ramps.

I too can barely fathom it. It is so much easier to simply untie the canoe and start fishing than having to lift it off the car and carry it or cart it through the woods. There are much more popular ponds in my area. One such pond, 20 minutes away, would list a similar property for more than a million. It has developed shorelines, which means lower water quality, and more noise, with powerboats and parties, but...that's what many people prefer. A pond with extensive wetlands doesn't appeal to most people...and thank. goodness. for. that.

I used to live on the Wisconsin River. Clear. Sandy. Good current. Its smallies were also lean...and strong. The bass I caught in Ontario, Lakes Superior and Michigan, and the Mississippi were footbally. They were strong, but not as strong as fish that fight the current all day. Nice catches, @bp_fowler! Good bellies on those bass.

That's what I use and I do fish them in one foot of water. Perhaps this is why my underspins only last for about 50-100 bass.

Thanks, guys. I'm a chuckin' and windin' gal then.

I could have caught 100 today. I quit at 8:30 a.m. I've caught 100 bass many times, but that was when I was younger and much more energetic. Agreed. I ordered two, new brands. Tim, what is chuckin' and windin'?

Thanks, ICD. Catching big bass at my pond is, well, a big deal to me. If there's one fat bass, there are more and the pond's just five minutes away. Yeah, paradise is five minutes away.

Your wife is funny! I'm glad you've come to love it. That's my kinda fishing too.

I think my braid is about 20 years old. I bought some Cabela's braid a long time ago and that's what I use. It works just fine. Me too! I do use mono with my wacky worm rig. I figure a lure as slow as a wacky gives bass a real long look at the line. Thanks and it was a special morning. There were really hitting. I lost about 30 bass too. I think the way I rig my Mayors on my underspins leads to more lost fish, but it also gives me the confidence to cast everywhere. Yeah, they're tough too. I've lost many bass to lily pads.

Thanks. I'm often fishing in a foot of water. If I'm fishing rock, I let the underspin tick-tick-tick across the bottom. If I'm fishing a weedy bottom, I speed up my retrieve so that I don't pick up slime, but it's pretty good at slipping through most weeds. When I hook it, I position the point flush to the back of The Mayor or Keitech. I bought a BUNCH of underspins this past winter. The spinner of the last one fell off this morning. I have more ordered. I thought my hoard would last all summer and fall. Ha! I didn't know it was a deep water lure. I share this revealing my ignorance. One way I'm not ignorant is casting. I hit two woody plants this morning, which is rare for me. I usually hit none or one, but I also made so many precise casts to exactly where the bass were and that always feels good. I love casting.

I have always wondered why they're drawn to the color of plants. I'm sure there are bigger bass. I'll try to find them! Will do, coach!

I had one of the best fishing sessions of my life this morning, but I want to begin by thanking @Glenn for suggesting green pumpkin EVERYTHING in one of his videos. I'm a match the hatcher, so I use shad-colored Crush City The Mayors, but after hearing Glenn say that green pumpkin works in all soft plastic, I bought some Mayors in green pumpkin and lawdy, lawdy, did they love them. I went through the entire package. I also want to thank @T-Billy for encouraging me to join the Straight Braid Brigade. I was in a couple situations this morning where braid saved the day. And I want to thank @Pat Brown and Tim again for coaching me to keep their heads up in reeds. Lastly, I want to thank @PhishLI for instilling in me a belief that there are bigger bass in my pond that I'd been catching. That kept me hopeful and searching. Well, today, I found them. I caught 56 total, starting at 4:30 a.m. and quitting at 8:15 a.m. I have dozens of bass photos and I'll share them later today and amend this report, but i want to share three of them now as a trailer of sorts. I keep finding new places to cast due to the pond having bog on three borders with many canals and inlets. One canal had reeds at the entrance. Reeds are my mortal enemy. Bass go in and don't come out. The canal was only about 15 yards deep and maybe four yards wide. It was lined with woody bushes. Here's the inlet/canal: The bass below hit my green pumpkin on an Owner underspin and immediately ran past me to the reeds. Again and again, she tried to enter the reed field, but I kept her head up so she couldn't dig into water. There was a lot of thrashing and splashing and I netted her between reeds. She is special to me because she's proof that there are bigger bass in my pond. My pond is a Q & Q pond, both quantity and quality. Here she is and you can see the reeds she wanted to reach: The very next cast yielded this girl, who ran past my canoe in both directions, burning drag, and under the boat too.: The next cast yielded nothing, but the fourth cast produced this girl, who ran into the woody bushes twice, catching both times. She was bigger than she looks in the photo. Yeah, those three bass in four casts. I also caught two other bass in that little inlet and I caught many other fine bass, which I'll share later. I have to get my hair cut and visit a friend. NOW, THE REST OF THE STORY: I began the morning fishing like it was 2023, using a chrome Whopper Plopper. That's what they wanted. I caught 20 bass fishing a marshy shoreline and a rocky reef with enough grassy plants to attract bass. I was quite pleased with their size. Here are some of those fish, including a smallmouth: After I fished the inlet, I worked my way along more marshy shoreline. You know how exciting it is when you see a V as the bass beelines for your lure? Well, for the first time in my life, I had two bass Vs barreling toward my lure. I had that happen one other time with muskies. Here's that shoreline: And here are some of the bass I caught off of it. The third one down was long and plump: While poking around the swamp, I found this swamped boat. I wish I could claim it, but I'll look for its owner. Sorry about the water on the lens: A couple more bass on the way back and then three pics of my boardwalk and dock. The dock was built by the man whose house is at the entrance to my property. See the white rock in the second photo? He took an old stone wall apart and built that. It's quite stable and I love it: One last look at the pond! I am so pleased with the size of the bass in this pond, as well as their numbers. P. S. - I won't be fishing for the next nine days as I'll be traveling. Dang it!

Daubs, I know I'm going to sound like a girl here, but your boat is beautiful. Love the color.

@Fried Lemons: You are a 10 on the QQ Scale!

I post perhaps a third of the photos. I caught a few dinks, Woody. I photographed one and they were all fat like the one I included above, which bodes well for the pond, since the bass big and small are all eating well.

I read about your good day, Alex. Proud of you! Actually, I love boat rides. I have loved paddling and being on water my whole life.

Well done!

Exactly. Sometimes, I just stop fishing, look, and smile. Ha! I'm guessing we watched the same cartoons as kids.

Ha! Its hull is designed by Ted Bell, one of the best. I wish it weren't so tippy, but the narrow hull also makes it speedy and I tend to paddle miles on each fishing trip, so I appreciate its speed and its tracking. No zig-zagging in such a long, narrow hull. I love to fish water with undeveloped shorelines.

Yeah, I've had a couple floppers with a hook in me. I managed to unhook them and release them without hurting them. Then I proceeded to hurt myself, punching the hook through and cutting below the barb.

Gosh, I hope so!

Well, considering my mission was to catch that big girl again, I whiffed. Maybe it's expecting too much to catch her again, but I sure looked everywhere for her.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! P. S. - She didn't happen to mention where she'll be hanging, did she?

I went @A-Jay fishing this morning, i.e. I tried to catch the Kraken I caught earlier this spring, which was my PB. I struck out, but the pond hit a home run for me. It was just so pretty. See? I did manage to catch 28 bass. Here was the first one. And the second, a bit bigger. However, the pond was the real show. I love when the moment is both light and dark. Oh, yeah, another bass! I think it was my biggest. I cast everywhere nowadays because I never know where bass will be. This girl came out of lily pads. And this one was small, but fat. This pond has more small bass than the other water I fish, but it also has BIG bass. I didn't catch a BIG one today, but I'll keep plugging. Time to go. One last look back at the pond. There's the landing! The wheels are strapped onto my canoe and I'm ready to roll. Out of the woods and across the meadow. Back to the car and I'm already thinking about my next trip. Now, can someone tell me where my big girl is hunkering? She was so pregnant when I caught her. Maybe she's holed up in a spa and recovering.