Swamp Girl

Are they tucked under the overhang of the cliff? I used to catch muskies in that position.

Our approach and ideology are the same. Additionally, I've watched the FFS anglers watching their FFS screen as they fish, reminding me of those people who miss the glories of a city as they stare at their smartphones walking down the street. If I too stared at an FFS screen, I'd miss the glories of the water. @MN Fisher: That looks like the lakes I fished in northwestern Ontario. I'd be paddling in the middle of nowhere and a high sun would reveal a hump a foot or two beneath my canoe, just where I'd expect 50' of water. Funny!

Smart. They can hear and feel the engine, which shakes the water as it vibrates.

If either of us that small fortune, we'd do the same thing with it, although at my age, I might buy a small lake and work with what's there to take me to great fishing sooner.

You've seen photos of the streams I fish. They're so narrow that a bass can't hide. Three casts and I've covered both sides of the stream and the middle too. Since you fish such shallow water, I expect you have to be quiet too. Weirdly, the water I fish is the same. I don't have sonar to give me the depth, but I do have the Fish & Wildlife depth maps and my ponds and bogs are also shallow dish pans. When I fished for smallmouth in northwestern Ontario, there were saddles and humps and reefs and holes. On the big lakes where I musky fished, guys would lose lower units running at high speeds. They needed @gimruis at the helm.

Agreed.

If you fish without electronics, then please share why. My four reasons, with the fourth one being the big one: I fish small bodies of water, so sooner or later, I'll find them without sonar. I fish weeds atop weeds. I don't think I'd get the clear readings that so many of you do. It would be one more electronic device to learn and I have enough of those off the water. I struggle to move all my equipment to the water already. Sonar and a battery would be two more things to carry.

I've watched some of his videos and it seems like he has infinite money.

The world is topsy-turvy. I'm so far north of you and we haven't had -9 all winter. We only reached single digits (6 degrees) one night. Nice fish, @ATA.

Tom is the best.

@Team9nine, @NorcalBassin, and @AlabamaSpothunter are all boating big bass. Way to go, guys!

@NorcalBassin: Big spot! Here's a GIF of it swimming by your boat.

We do go insane. This is me:

Gosh, those are sweet fish, @Team9nine.

@Jamesg0418, that's another long smallmouth. I'd like to take a Candlewood bass (long) and breed it with a Menderchuck bass (fat). Presto, in ten years or so, a new world record!

Whoa and wow, @Zcoker!

It's the longest smallmouth I've seen posted at BR. Stay safe, Tim.

@Bluebasser86 has a police car with sirens and lights, so he can drive really fast to deliver big bass and no one can pull him over for speeding. And if delivering big bass to Bob after his Muskrat and Otter War isn't an emergency warranting 100 m.p.h.+ speeds, what is?

Rebirth! Bob, I really like this line:

I love seeing young men catch bass and there are millions like me. Keep it going, @benburkefishing!

Of course, that would be huge for a musky, but nearly unimaginable for a pike. Great story. Thanks.

I'm going to start my 2024 fishing with the Drift Fry. Alex is having so much success with it that I'm thinking of going out this afternoon. It will lie on snow atop the ice, but I'm thinking a twitch and pause retrieve might work. Even fishing it on ice might be better than fishing it in Alex's 50 mph winds. As always, I love your fat fish, Officer 86.

With these big bass, both striped and largemouths being caught, I think Alex is contagious and he's evidently communicable through BR.

@Baitmaker: WOW!