Swamp Girl

@Woody B: Woody, don't come to Maine with your Sinead O'Connor head. I'll have to call you good ol' Frosty Top.

Doc, bass that big are beyond my ken. Listen to Mr. G. Pig, Alex, and Pat. Don't listen to @WRB as he'll tell you that he never estimates of weight of bait. Yeah, Tom's bass were so big that he thinks our biggest bass are bait.

Imagine Cher singing this: If I could turn back time If I could find Clayton a way To go back to the motherlode On that day!

Bob, at the end of last year, I encountered the same problem with my photos loading sideways. I'd reorient them in my photo-adjusting program and then load them and they'd revert to sideways. Anyway, good fishing, Bob!

Three more six-pounders and yet another twenty-pound bag. Forget about the NCAA. March Madness is all about Alex!

The guys above have nailed it. The bass are c-c-cold. Their lowered metabolism means they're eating less. Fishing this early for me is mostly about being on the water and casting. Both are fun for me. Reframe why you're out there and you might start enjoying yourself even if you're skunked. Also, @Brian11719 made a great point about YouTubers, but some BR anglers also don't share when they're skunked or only catch little ones. If you were to look at their photos, you'd think they only caught big ones. We all get skunked. I've fished twice this year and am averaging 0.5 bass per trip. One time, I was standing in snow, but I still had fun. If you don't follow Alex (@AlabamaSpothunter), he's one of Bass Resource's best. So, when he tells you to find the bait, find the bait. He's our E.F. Hutton.

Fat bass, Woody! Fat pike, Michael!

Leon, there's nothing wrong with using a nice outfit when bank fishing. In fact, it's preferable.

@The Bassman: Gosh, those are big bass and double gosh, that's a small pond!

Thanks to high wind and heavy rain for the last 36 hours, we didn't have snow on the ground today, which is great. However, we're supposed to get another six to ten inches of snow on Wednesday, so I'm going fishing on Tuesday. The high is forecast to be 47, so the bass will be cold, but I'm hoping they'll feed before Wednesday's nor'easter, which is a North Atlantic storm. I won't catch big ones like @NorcalBassin, @Aaron_H, and @Fried Lemons, but if I catch one or two, I'll be happy. Heck, I'll just be happy to be paddling and casting and trying to guess what a shivering bass might gobble.

Grass carp are sturdy fish. I'm sure it's fine.

A three-foot grass carp must have taken you for quite a ride. Do tell.

Thank you. You are kind.

I wasn't joking. I truly do get overwhelmed, but I'm slowly getting up to speed.

You're not alone, Gary. I too get overwhelmed by all the info.

Since @FishTax is willing to take the time to deliver his rig to you, I'd like to pay for it. $20 isn't much for me, but it's a chunk for a college kid. If you can work out the hand-off, let me know and I'll send FishTax a check.

Beautiful bass, @FryDog62. Huge tail, deep body, and gorgeous color.

Swap those two plastic seats for a Lazy Boy recliner. You know how the Ghostbuster car has a battle seat that swings out? Well, install that for Jake!

@RRocket: That is a cool setup. You're Canadian, so you could reach some amazing bush lakes with that rig. Remember that you have property on that pond, so you don't have to fish from a light boat. When you visit, you'll only have to haul the boat to the water once and back to storage once. I think I'd fish from something like this, where you can sit and it's stable and cheap too. This one weighs 100 lbs. from Tractor Supply:

That makes a ton of sense. Heck, yeah, I do! It's like trying to set the hook while wearing ice skates. On ice. Oiled ice. When I used to fish for smallies in Ontario from a two-person, heavy, Royalex canoe that sat much lower in the water from its weight and our weight, I didn't struggle with hook-setting. Of course, I was younger too.

Are you speaking from experience?

^This^ is good advice. I went fishing earlier this spring. I was fishing a quantity pond, where the bass top out at 18". So, I thought I could get away with using a ML rod, a M rod, mono, and my 3/0 Owner underspin. I hooked three bass and two shook free. The hook fell out of the third one's mouth when it was in the net, so I don't think, despite my hearty hook-setting, that I ever made a dent in the mouths of those bass. I went home and immediately switched back to my standard MH rods and braid.

I always get nervous with the bigger bass I catch and try to hurry them back into the water. They're rare, so I treat them that way.

Well done, Tom!

Bass are scrappers and they're accessible. @Zcoker noted how they live nearly everywhere in Florida, but that's not strictly a Florida phenomenon. They live practically everywhere, well, everywhere, from the Great Lakes to farm ponds, from streams to the Mississippi River, from bogs to gin-clear Canadian Shield Lakes, from Mexico to Ontario. They're like ants and us, adapting to so many environments. As @PaulVE64 noted, when they reach five pounds, they're stunningly strong, but they're strong at two and three and four pounds too. Plus, they jump.