Swamp Girl

Pat, you know those puddles in the street after a downpour? I think you could catch bass in those.

Your grandpa could have been a one-man SWAT team. All he'd need would be his bare feet and a stick. I can see it now: "Come out now or we're sending Gramps in!" "You mean that old man with a stick? Ha!" "That's all we need."

Ha! Haven't thought of that place for years. Yeah, I'd watch the gulls and jump fish too. I wonder if we were ever there at the same time.

@FryDog62: Those are huge white bass. I'd sometimes sit on top of schools of 18+-inchers on Lake Pepin, but they were so strong that I could only fish with one rod at a time.

I wish they had GoPro back then too, Buddy. Then you could watch your striper videos and we could too!

Okay, you made me laugh out loud twice now!

Been there. It's a bummer. You fish is fighting, your fish is fighting, and then suddenly, no more pull and you pull only a head out of the sea. That striper fishing sounds fantastic. It also sounds like something for the young.

Ha!

I loved catching white bass in the Mississippi River (Lake Pepin) and on the Fox River (Wisconsin). As far as I know, there aren't white bass in Maine and I sure miss them. Why? Well, they fight as hard as smallmouth and I caught them two and three at a time. I'd drift with two minnows, set the hooks on both, and then cast a jig to hook a third. What a circus when you have three fish hooked at once! I also miss bluegill fishing. I caught them with a worm and bobber in Ohio farm ponds. I'd love to see a bobber dance again. I don't miss muskies. They're too scary from a canoe and casting billy club-sized lures was just too hard on my body.

Did you read how this guy has broken the Alabama record TWICE, but preferred releasing the bass rather than claiming the record? Pat, please let me come fish at your private lake.

^This^ is one of the best things I've read at BR. Thank you, Pat, for reminding us that the tools of fishing only take an angler so far. As far as my passion for fishing, as @TnRiver46 said, switching species has really helped me stay focused, as has switching fishing locations. Fishing Lake Superior, wilderness lakes in northwestern Ontario, the Mississippi, farm ponds, and bogs in Maine is like five different sports, as is fishing for muskies, white bass, bluegills, smallmouth, and largemouth.

Rods? Reels? Lures? None needed. This is how you catch bass: https://www.fieldandstream.com/fishing/watch-a-man-catch-a-16-pound-bass-by-hand/

Ha! Me too! I've long inferred that your lake is "very pressured." Heck, there's a dock every ten or twenty yards. And the developed shorelines will also, as I recently wrote, reduce water quality, which is another kind of pressure on the bass. Plus, when you hook your seven-pounders, you don't do it in a secret cove. I'm sure people see your great success and people talk. Like @Pat Brown and @PhishLI and @Woody B and others, you fish in a fish bowl, making all of your successes even more praise-worthy.

@Carolina Pines: Man, I'm happy for you. Your day had it all: quantity, quality, mid-seventies, and your father.

Me too. The wind tells me when I can go fishing. 15' 6" of canoe means I sit high and my hull acts like a sail.

It's still dipping into the teens and the occasional single digits at night here. Even if the water were wet and I could catch a bass, I'd be shivering more than fishing. I'm a couple months out.

I appreciate trip reports where nothing was caught. Last April when the water was still cold, I caught one bass three times. When I read that others struggle, I know I'm not alone.

Nah. I have a bag of ways to find bass without FFS fingering them for me. And I catch bass steadily, so there's not much hoping. When I step into my canoe, I can rely on catching bass, except when the water's too cold for the bass to be perky, as in mid-April. To answer the question, I think they're about equal. I fished for smallmouth for decades, so I've caught many, MANY more of them, but they're both eager to strike, except during howling, cold fronts. Even then, smallmouth will still hit when the water is whitecapping, but you better be quick and sure with a paddle and clamp onto it, for the wind has blown my paddle out of my hand more than once. I don't launch and catch 100 largemouth in a day like I once did with smallmouth, but I think this is mostly due to my being old and not having the stamina to launch in the morning and the late afternoon of the same day. And Pat has to dodge kids on bikes and Frisbees while fishing.

Dang it, Woody! I once was paddling across a lake and trailing my lure off my stern. A bass grabbed it and pulled the rod and reel overboard. I still worry that the bass couldn't free itself from my outfit.

There's nothing like the jolt of a Figure 8 musky when there's 24" of line between your rod tip and the fish.

I've literally seen where @Pat Brown fishes. Imagine if a shopping mall turned its rear parking lot into a pond. That's pert near where Pat fishes. And @PhishLI and I have talked at length in PMs about the challenges of where he fishes. There are gangs and poachers. No lie. However, there are challenges in the best of fisheries. I've read about the days when @WRB landed his world-class fish and that was a fishery where I wouldn't dare launch. Too many boats jostling for those bass. And I'm guessing VERY, VERY few of those boats saw bass like Tom's. Likewise, I watch videos of anglers fishing the Everglades and nearly none of them catch bass the size of @Zcoker's. Same with the videos of anglers in Maine. Few catch the quality of my fish and even fewer catch the quantity. Maine Fish and Wildlife says the number one determiner of water quality is development along the shoreline. When I look at @AlabamaSpothunter's shorelines, I see mansion after mansion. I'd bet money that nearly everyone of those over-sized houses is polluting that lake, with pesticides or herbicides or whatever. Then you look at @A-Jay's shorelines, @Zcoker's shorelines, or my shorelines and you see far fewer to zero houses. Heck, @Zcoker doesn't even have shorelines. To be frank, I do fish where there are shoreline houses, but I don't photograph them because I think undeveloped shorelines are prettier. But my point is that I agree with @Team9nine, that the playing field isn't equal and in my reactions, I pay all due honor to those are fishing in more challenging water. I'm not the only one who does this, as @Pat Brown kindly noted that my biggest bass have to measured with our long winters in mind, as do @A-Jay's, @gimruis's, and all the BR anglers who fish near 45 degrees north. Maine Fish and Wildlife says that a five-pounder in Maine is 20 years old, aka an old woman. On the other hand, with prime conditions, a Florida bass can reach seven pounds in two years. That's a toddler, albeit an enormous toddler. This reminds me of musky fishing, but with muskies, this is never in play: With muskies, there's ZERO certainty that you'll get your chance, but you still have to muster the concentration to give yourself the best chance.

I had a day similar to this in northwestern Ontario. There was ONE lure over two days that the smallmouth would hit and we only had one of that lure. Sure, they'd hit other lures and my fishing partner caught 50-75 bass per day using other lures, but I was catching two, three, four, five, six, and even seven bass on consecutive casts using that one lure. The fishing was so hot that I didn't want to waste time bringing bass into the canoe, so I pinched the barbs on the single treble hook and unhooked the bass with a twist of my wrist in the water. No net, no posing, no pics, no mid-day nap. Just my memories of two days of non-stop brown fury. Muskies are fearless. They'd suspend under a Navy sub because they fear nothing.

Pat, when you land your huge bass, I'm simply happy for you, but when you get to SEE bass, I envy you. In all the water I've fished, I've only seen bass twice. They were both little and they were both at a ramp at a lake I was scouting. I was thrilled to see those two little bass, but you don't just get to see bass; you've seen three-to-four 8-10-pounders at once. Alex, consider this: 99.something% of all anglers will live and die without ever enjoying the month that you've had. TWO sevens and it's just another day for you! I've never seen your face. You're so young! I crack up whenever I see your boat. It's your version of my skinny, scuffed canoe. So, that first day, the bass there would hit one lure, more or less. Wow! Daunting. It makes me think that the Bait Monkey isn't our curse. He's our blessing. He's the one who gives us a chance to catch bass IF we choose well. Gosh, I miss fishing. I'd just like to be on the water again. I would seriously be happy with a skunk just to be there once more.

Atta, Chef!

Every single time that Tom (@WRB) posts, my eyes flit to this: 17.4 & 18.6 Casitas, 17.4, 17.6 & 19.3 Castiac And I think, "Tom doesn't even list the sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, and thirteen-pounders."