Swamp Girl

Again, Pat ponies up clear, succinct advice. Thanks, Pat. And telling us that if we can fish T-rigs, we can fish jigs is encouraging. So, thanks again, Pat. More good advice, plus it sounds like it came from a sensei.

You and me, brother. I've caught a few bass with a jig, but nowhere near enough to feel confident slinging it.

Why not consider a motorized kayak?

^This^ is generous of you to say, but I'm not competing with commercial fishermen and reeling bass through barbed wire and old nets, which make my weedy bogs seem like open water.

I look at that fern-covered tree and hear Jeff Goldblum intoning, "Life finds a way." I enjoyed all your photos, but my two favorites are the bass by your spinning reel (good composition and a solid fish) and the one of your friend with the fly rod in his mouth.

Whoa, King. You toss the tacklebox! Given your big bass success, you have me rethinking my approach.

@Functional I love fishing wind too, but my current boat, being 15' 6' long and only 32 pounds, is so easily pushed by the wind. If I had one of my V-hulls with a heavy motor and anchor again, I'd prefer windy days.

Looping back to the opening quotation, I don't think any of us can descry who does or doesn't have the right stuff...unless you've fished with that person...again and again and again, in varied environments and varied conditions. Even then, you'd need input from others because we all have our blind spots. There are strong indicators, of course, that someone has the right stuff, such as consistently pulling fine bass from water that's pounded (@Pat Brown and @T-Billy) or catching multiples in the high teens,(@WRB), when countless other anglers attempted the same and failed. @AlabamaSpothunter long ago linked to a guy who'd caught more than a thousand DDs. That's a very, VERY strong indicator, even stronger than some golden arches indicating a Big Mac is near.

Well, we have stealth in common. I'm scooting, but it's sneaky scooting. I remember one time fishing the Mississippi in northern Minnesota and surprising some native people who were wild ricing. I scared a moose in Ontario another time.

How many lures do you primarily use and what are they? If you want to explain why those are your primary lures, please feel free to share. So, are you a 52-lure Fred, diving deep into your tackle box each year, or are you a 7-lure Sally, using just a few confidence lures each year? I'm the latter. I use: Whopper Plopper Popper (I use many makers, but I don't care which one I use because they all work equally well.) Mepps brass-bladed spinner Senkos, mostly wacky T-Rigged worms of various sizes and makes Keitech paddletails on Owner underspins Squarebills Of course, I use others like frogs, flukes, jerkbaits, lipless crankbaits, jointed crankbaits, floating Rapalas, etc., but 90% of the time, I'm using one of the seven above. I target aggressive fish and cover a lot of water with my seven lures. I never anchor and rarely linger in an area. I keep my paddle on my lap and some days, I'm using it nearly as much as my rods. So, my lures serve my style of fishing, which is cast-and-scoot. Some mornings, I'll fish up both the inflow and outflow rivers and six or seven miles of shoreline. So, I use lures that scoot like I do.

This comment made me laugh because...it's SO TRUE! There are times when I'm a wonderful angler and then, the next trip or even the next hour, I don't have a clue why I can't boat bass. And whether I'm successful or not, the bass have SO MUCH to do with it.

Now that you mention it, I think I do the same thing. I'm always scanning the water, looking for anomalies. Even if I'm retrieving a surface lure, I'm still scanning, for I can always feel and hear a surface lure hit; I don't have to see it. By looking, I'm setting up my next cast. ^This^ sort of comment is one of the most useful I encounter at BR. I like to hear the reasoning behind decisions to use this lure or that.

@Functional: A. I had a couple jaw-hooked bass bleed in 2023 and I don't know why. B. However, I did read that bass blood can't coagulate unless the fish are in the water, so releasing them ASAP is best for the bass. C. Unlike @gimruis, I'm happy to see pics of bass that aren't bodacious because this thread isn't a bragging board. It's a trip report board and if we don't catch big bass, well, that should be in the report if the report is to be accurate. D. Congrats on it all coming together! E. The whole notion of locating the bait is beyond me. I'm guessing that's for sonar-owners. I fish more by light, chasing the shadows rather than the bait that I can't see.

@T-Billy: What do you think happens to braid when using big baits that it needs to be retied? The last time I was in Canada stretching my mono for three weeks, by the third week, my mono was seriously compromised.

@Catt: Heartbreaking. I was in a tent that was sorta hit by lightning. It melted the tent's guylines.

Last month, after using my old Gore-Tex jacket for 40 years, I bought a new, albeit used, Gore-Tex jacket and pants for $35 on Ebay. What a deal! And they both look new. In 2024, if it's going to rain, I'm going fishing. Skipping a rainy morning is like passing on a slot machine with a 110% return on your money.

Sure, there's always someone who's a sledge hammer, but at the very least, you're a framing hammer.

Don't do it, Woody. American men spend $3,500,000,000 on hair loss, i.e. to replace the hair that you already have. Thanks for the trick worm info. I have some shaky heads and I like the look of them, but have never used one because my ponds and bogs are soooooo weedy and shallow. 10' is about as deep as they get.

Me too. I watch YouTubers catch two bass and they start using the word, "pattern." Woody, what did you have on your shaky head? I'm glad you're feeling better, Woody, and I'm also glad you didn't push it.

If I lived in Florida, I too would fish the Everglades and nowhere else. I hooked and lost what might have been a couple Everglades bass, for I saw them both coming for my bait through wild rice reeds. Wild rice, if you don't know, is like bamboo in its stiffness, so parting it takes a honkin' bonkers bass, so bonkers that both of them overwhelmed me when they hit my lure, spinning my canoe with their power. I see you position your net exactly as I do mine. I've tried laying it other places, but across the bow works best for me. However, what's more impressive than the bass you catch and the bass I catch are the fish that @T-Billy catches. I'm from Ohio. I know the water that Tim fishes. It. gets. pounded. And still, he catches big bass, sauger, and muskies. He's a heckuva fisherman, the true hammer.

@thediscochef: Happy birthday, buddy!

Good idea, @RipzLipz.

@RipzLipz: Yeah, but...bass...big bass...biiiigggg basssssss!

Well done, @gimruis! You and @Bluebasser86 make the rest of us look like slackers. That's you on the left telling the rest of us to get up to speed and win some awards:

Like motocross and music!