Swamp Girl

And you're both consistent in boating/banking bass.

Another whopper! Congrats, Woody. What a fish. What a fisher.

Pat's a scrapper. And fearless. Pat really does Pat, deviating from dogma to go with his gut. @The Baron; I'm pining with ya. I too miss fishing, but our three coldest months are December, January, and February. January is almost done and February is the shortest month. I've been studying the first bog I'll fish using Google Earth, zooming close to look at rocks, spending time following the feeder streams to see how big of an area they'll drain and infer how much warmer water they'll deliver, and so on. They I plot my path in my mind, where I'll fish in sequence and what I'll use. So, in a way, I'm already on the water again, already fishing.

Nostradamusish.

I ran the numbers on these responses and here's the crunched data, with a few exceptions, of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaalq3RYAyw @T-Billy: Did you read what Leonard Cohen wrote about your linked performance by Sid Vicious? "I never liked this song [“My Way”] except when Sid Vicious did it. Sung straight, it somehow deprives the appetite of a certain taste we’d like to have on our lips. When Sid Vicious did it, he provided that other side to the song; the certainty, the self- congratulation, the daily heroism of Sinatra’s version is completely exploded by this desperate, mad, humorous voice. I can’t go round in a raincoat and fedora looking over my life saying I did it my way — well, for 10 minutes in some American bar over a gin and tonic you might be able to get away with it. But Sid Vicious’s rendition takes in everybody; everybody is messed up like that, everybody is the mad hero of his own drama. It explodes the whole culture this self-presentation can take place in, so it completes the song for me."

Cool story. Thanks. I like the way you think and fish.

To be frank, I never even considered insuring my boat and tackle. I didn't consider it as a possibility. I hope you get some good advice.

Of those who post at Bass Resource, who do you emulate and why? For me, it's @WRB, and not because of the peerless, enormous bass he's caught, which are beyond me, but his peerless appetite for learning, which isn't. Tom has shared again and again how he tapped (the masters) like a thirsty frat boy at a kegger. So, I ask questions of so many of you. I admit when I'm stumped. For example, I didn't know how to pull bass out of weeds, I couldn't catch ravenous wolf pack bass, I didn't know what every other lure mentioned at BR was, I didn't know many of the techniques, like rolling and strolling, etc. So, I asked and asked and asked and still ask. In this way, I'm like Tom. I know he's Yoda now, but he was once Luke, eager to learn.

Bass whisperer.

Me too. There are few movements as right in this world as working a paddle.

We sure do differ.

Ho and oh, that's ANOTHER big one! Well done. Thanks for the road pic. You should see the logging roads I used to drive in northwestern Ontario. I wore my Muck boots and every time I encountered water, I'd walk through it. It I found mud under mud, I turned around. Rock under mud and I drove on.

I love that the got to share your joy and that the big girl thundered away to fight another day.

Say, Pat, you know how I love the story of a fight and you're a top tier storyteller. When you have time...

Pat, I love that photo. That bass. Your joy. This day. The challenge met of catching that beast on the ole pressured pond. I love too how you gave Alex his due.

A ned rig is another good option. It's so cool that you're just starting out. You have so much excitement ahead of you. Where do you live?

Hey, you've got the shift right before mine! I'm guessing we've passed each other at the time clock a few times, but both of us were too blurry-visioned to notice.

I'm just thrilled for you, Glenn. What a perk!

Hi, Astro. Welcome to Bass Resource. If I were you, I'd fish with light line, a worm, and slip bobber. Or light line with a spinner if you want to walk and fish. Warm weather is good. I've also had good luck with high water, but it can get cloudy and bass are sight predators. However, they can feel a spinner and a worm under a bobber will eventually have a bass swimming past it.

@Team9nine and @Jmurphy87:

Oooh, @king fisher, I love your post.

I like @Catt's post; it's a solid summation. And I like @WRB's post, for it acknowledges the mystery in bass fishing.

@Jar11591, you make a compelling argument. Bass aren't bees or ants with a queen controlling them with chemicals. They have shown an ability to learn and therefore some know more and some know less and some are better hunters, which means some are hungrier and some are full. And so on. In the end, I think a pattern is us merely pretending to know more than we know. Me too. I'll toss that frog and other lures just to be sure. I like the mystery. I never settle into the assumption that I know what the hundreds of individual bass are going to do.

I always launch with six or seven rods recently rigged for where I'm going, the weather, and time of year. I cycle through all the rods, but when I establish a pattern, I don't just stick with that pattern. I figure there's another pattern and so I keep using the other lures too. I'm happier with a fishing session where I catch bass with four lures than just two. Catching bass with different lures in different places adds to my understanding of the bass in that lake at that time of year. I have an excellent memory for how and where and when I catch fish.

Man, I admire your discipline. When a bass hits one of my poppers, I'm Ms. Cool, waiting until I feel their weight. But when a bass hits my frog, I nearly scream and throw my rod into the air. Heck, yeah.