Swamp Girl

Excellent article! I'll read it more than once.

Thanks for all that info, Alex. You have caught so many big bass that when you talk, I listen and try to learn. What's funny for me is looking at her head. It looks comically small, but I grabbed her lip. Her head is big. So is her mouth. It's just the rest of her that makes her head look small. She'll soon lay about a bluhzillion eggs, all with her genetics and that's a beautiful thing, huh? So kind of you to say, Alex, but I have canoed for half a century, so I'm at home in those little boats. And I have caught thousands and thousands of brown bass. So, I didn't start from zero. Still, I get your point, but BR helps a LOT. I didn't understand half of what you guys posted for my first few months. I still Google terms and names regularly. And I still ask a lot of questions too.

Here's a better pic showing her length. I don't even consider this pond to be in my top three for big bass potential, but the other three are bogs, which you know I'm avoiding until it gets a little warmer. T-Billy is my life advisor, as in stay-alive advising and he thinks I should play it safe until the water's safe. You would know better than me, Pat. I just know that she was ridiculously fat. Even now, she makes me laugh.

I was fighting the wind, Alex, so I ducked into a cove to call home and dropped my cell phone in the water, losing it. So, I was distracted and sad coming out of the cove into the main lake, which is only 49 acres. I think being distracted and sad actually helped me land her, as I was calm through the fight. She hit a trolled shad-colored Keitech on an Owner underspin shortly after I exited the cove. My rod went back and stayed back. I paddled hard for about four strokes to set the hook and buy me a couple seconds to switch from my paddle to the rod. As I reeled, for a second, I thought I might have hooked a floating log. She was heavy, but not angry. I slowly worked her to the canoe and then she stayed put under the canoe. I worked her up until I could barely see her, confident my long-handled net would reach her, which it did. Only then did I realize how big she was. I snapped a quick photo, but she was flopping, and then remembered I'd left my bump board and scale at my waterfront lot, so I laid her on the tape measure on the floor of my canoe to get her length. Then I set her free. I thought I'd hold her by the lip for a sec and let her catch her breath, but wasn't having any of that and scooted. Today's pond is a very good pond for four-to-five pound bass. I caught five four-plus-pounders one morning there last fall, including two on consecutive casts So, I'm thrilled that this pond grows them bigger than the fine bass I've caught there. She might be my biggest ever. She was long and fat and was hard for me to hold. However, the support of the BR crew means as much to me as catching her, and to be frank, you lead BR in being supportive of all of us, Alex, and in catching the most big bass too. Did you notice the Catchall lure in the first bass's mouth? You're right about her health, Alex. I don't think she's ever been caught. Not a nick or mark on her.

I didn't get a weight, Pat. I left my scale at my waterfront lot. My length to weight chart says she's about 6.5 pounds being a tad over 22", but with her belly, she might be seven. What do you think? You know big bass more than I do. I like her tail. Yeah, I'm weird, but it's so wide and perfect. Ha! To be frank, I wouldn't be surprised if she's my biggest bass of 2024. I expect I'll hook bass as big or bigger than her, but I hooked her in open water, which gave me wiggle room to play her. Most of the biggest bass I hook are in summer weeds atop weeds and they use those weeds to wrench free.

My big girl today. 22" and built like an offensive lineman or Octomom in her third trimester. She could have swallowed my fist. I am afraid of the fish that @T-Billy lost.

I moved my canoe off the waterfront lot I bought because that pond is the very best for producing solid fish (nearly every fish is between 16" and 18"), but not the best for producing bigger fish. So, I launched at a bigger bass pond and only caught four. Two were like the first bass below. Then I caught a three-pounder. Then I caught a 22-incher who is either pre-spawn or she swallowed a softball. It was breezy today, so I did a lot of trolling. When she hit, my rod went back and stayed back. I always paddle hard when I get a hit trolling to set the hook and load the rod with tension. I had just dropped my cell phone in the water, so I was sad about that and my depressed state kept me cool through the entire fight. I'm not going to call her beautiful because she frankly looks deformed with eggs, but she is magnificent to me, one of the best bass of my life. I start with a couple lake pics, then a sample smaller fish, then the three-pounder, and then two pics of the beast. My length to weight chart says she's about 6.5 pounds, but in her pre-spawn state, she might be a bit bigger.

Oooh, I'm genuinely excited! I'm off to fish now too, so I'm excited times two.

Let me know what you think, GP.

It was a quantity day, Murph. Those are fun too! I'm just grateful you're posting again. You could post an old can you'd hooked and I'd still be happy to see it. And I note your beard getting bigger and bigger. Watch your back, @thediscochef, there's a bigger and bigger beard on your rear bumper!

Hmmm. Maybe I did! Then I know how they fight. Ha!

Has anyone watched the movie, "Mending the Line," which is about warriors using fishing to heal? I loved it and would rank it with "A River Runs Through It," for showing what fishing means to anglers. It's on Netflix. I'd share more about my reaction to it, but I don't want to post any spoilers.

@TnRiver46: What fun! I've caught mooneye, but not skipjack. Mooneye fight like tiny tarpon, launching themselves again and again. How about skipjack?

@N Florida Mike: You've got your own big bass streak going now too, Mike, like @AlabamaSpothunter, @Pat Brown, @Team9nine, @hokiehunter373, @Fried Lemons, @deep, etc. I'm going to my first biggish bass pond tomorrow, so here's hoping I land one or two over four pounds. My three big bass bogs don't have solid shorelines, so I've been avoiding them until the water warms a little more, for if I were to tip, there'd be no place solid to swim. My pond and tomorrow's pond give me solid shorelines to hug. I keep hearing @T-Billy's wisely admonishing me to put safety first and I try to do just that. Correction: I'm going fishing today. The wind forecast just shifted. So, fingers crossed a big gal wants to dance with me this afternoon.

Beauty!

Still, given what you caught last year, you're making do times 3,000.

Me too! When I fished muskies, I would happily settle for one topwater musky instead of two crankbait/spinnerbait/spinner muskies.

Then I should go fishing with you! Rather, you fish and I'll watch.

@gimruis: Fingers crossed you get to fish your high challenge/high reward river again this summer. I agree with all of the above and this is why I avoid wacky worming when it's windy. The line tells me little when my canoe is being blown across the lake.

Yeah, huh!

I think this is clever. Fingers crossed it works for you. I think bite detection is huge, up there with being quiet and accurate casting. YouTube's NDYakAngler is an amazing caster. In another video, I watched a professional angler fish a tight, tree-choked smallmouth river. He was fishing Hula Poppers and man, he could place them everywhere he wanted. I agree with those who set the hook if they get the slightest whiff of something different.

This sounds like the magical maze in Harry Potter where the walls kept shifting.

Wind makes me easy to fool. Wind with white capping has the same effect on me as a shopping mall. I'm a woods and waters gal, at home alone on lonesome lakes. So, shopping malls overwhelm me. There's too much...everything. So, when the wind is howling and the waves are falling, there's so much sensation, much like a mall, in all that hurly-burly, I can be tricked.

I err the other way. So, yesterday, in the first 1.5 hours, I caught 11 bass, 10 on my reliable Keitech/Owner underspin and one strolling a Jackall Drift Fry. Both the Keitech and Drift Fry were shad-colored. So, I'm dialed in, right? Well, my crushing curiosity killed the bite because I was itching to see what else they'd hit. So, I tried a lipless, jointed crankbait, Mepps, and even a Whopper Plopper and proceeded to catch nothing else. You da man, then. Let us know how it goes. @DaubsNU1: Your photo is beyond beautiful. I'd love to fish that water, even though wood bass best me.

Whew! I was afraid, knowing how ornery I can be, that when he ordered me out of the house with my hands in the air, I'd reply: "You're not taking me alive, fashion copper!" And he'd likely reply, "I was hoping you'd say that!"