Swamp Girl

Carly Simon sang this song about you:

A couple of you mentioned fear, as in not being afraid, but in this season of "Alone," health challenges and emotional challenges led to contestants "tapping out." Several of the contestants reported regular crying episodes and cried on camera. My last solo stretch in the wilderness was about ten years ago and lasted 21 days, but even though I'm an emotional person, I never cried on that solo trip nor any other. I enjoy being alone in the wild. I would have stayed longer except for family obligations.

I caught a six, a five, and three fours about a week ago in an hour and a half at a spot where I'd never caught a big bass and I returned to that spot two times since and didn't even see a single, big bass. Bass are forever on the move. Good luck in your game of hide and seek!

Your boat is really producing, Joe!

Brian, I fish two ponds now, my pond and my pal's pond. Last fall, I was talking to a guy who has a house on my pal's pond and he said he'd caught three bass all summer, my point being that you can fish a bassy body of water and still not catch bass. To point, I expected to catch bass on my pond's south shore this morning, but they weren't there. And they weren't in the river. And they weren't in the back of the bay. I found some in the middle and most on the northwest shore, but only because I kept looking. Fishing is a game of hide and seek.

It has been a windy year on the coast of Maine and whereas I can catch fish on a windy day, I spend less time fishing and more time paddling to correct my boat's position. The forecast for this morning was 0 mph for the first two hours and low single digits for the next two hours, so I launched expecting to catch a lot of bass and I did, landing 43 in four hours. I also hooked and lost two on a buzzbait, but a T-rigged blue craw was my workhorse and I caught fish deep, casting at cover, and in the shallow swampy parts of my pond. I had such fun and enjoyed the singing loons and the wheeling ospreys. It was 46 degrees when I launched and today's high will only be 56 degrees. I rarely recommend lures simply because I don't know lures like you guys do, but if you haven't tried a Zoom Z Craw, it's a winner. I'm been using craws like Yamamoto and Crush City's, which came in stiff, expensive packaging, and they're good lures, but the Zoom Z Craw is cheaper and I don't have to fiddle with the extra packaging. Best of all, it's sturdy and the bass really like it. Some of my morning's bass: This one might be the longest. She was caught in about a foot of water. They haven't spawned yet, so what was she doing so shallow? I've caught 408 bass in 2026.

Gim, I think there's a lot of luck in catching a big bass. I feel like I just happened upon the six to eight-pounders I've caught. I couldn't go fishing right now and catch some more big girls. They're so rare and I just happened to bump into them here and there. Heck, even four-pounders are rare for me and I estimate I catch about 20 four-pounders for every six-to-eight-pounder.

I caught 21 this afternoon fishing in a shifting wind, which limited where I could fish. Still, it was fun. I only took pics of the first three. I've caught 365 in 2026. I'm glad Hannah fished with you again, Al. Please tell her that Ol' Swampy says, "LISTEN TO Al!"

I'm big bass fishing this afternoon, but Monday morning, I'll be quantity fishing at my pond and I'm thinking, based upon last night's steady fishing at my pond, that I might have my first 40/50 bass session in 2026. It'll be calm Monday morning, which hasn't happened much this year, and boat control will be easy-peasy. It's harder to catch bass when the wind is bullying me as I spend as much time paddling as I do fishing. It will be windy today, but I have a plan. We'll see how my best laid plan goes.

Yeah, I hear ya. I'm glad you added to the thread, Mike. I read your post with high interest and now I'm going to read it again. Did your son share any info about the winner? I'm wondering about his temperament. He should have been vetted/screened way more than he was. It's noisy in the wilderness at night. Most animals are nocturnal. If he wasn't acclimated to the night noises, that's on the casting director for choosing him. Mentality matters most. A strong mind trumps a strong body.

About a week ago, on a cloudy afternoon, I caught one of the biggest bags of my life, about 24.6 pounds, based upon a length to weight chart. In 2025, I fished a stretch of low, bushy trees and caught eight bass in eight casts, my record for consecutive bass. They were all males, from 15 to 16.5 inches, but great fun, so I decided to return to this shoreline to see if they were there again. They weren't. Instead, females were there, tucked under the trees in two to three feet of water. I used the same lure that worked with the small males, a fat, white Whopper Plopper, and I didn't cast close to the trees, knowing that if the lure landed a tree, I'd likely kill the fishing that stretch to free it. Proximity didn't matter. I'd see a line in the water as the bass came out from under the trees to attack my lure and then the challenge was keeping the bass from returning to the trees once hooked. I used the scale in my kayak for quick measurements, but the bigger the bass, the quicker I return her to the water. The big ones are so rare, so I treat them with all due respect. Here are a few of them leading with the biggest, a 22-incher. You can see the trees behind most of the bass:

Kirtley, you did an excellent job of explaining a complex situation. I'm so glad that your docs have a fix. They don't always.

My primary lure is T-rigged soft plastic with an unpegged 3/16ths ounce weight. I prefer craws over worms, but that could change in a New York minute if I hooked a worm and that outproduced the craw. I do what the others do and catch thousands of bass, but I still think it's a difficult way to catch bass, starting with detecting a strike. Sure, there are times when the bass provide a clear tug to announce themselves, but there are times like last night when they take the bite and someone manage to swim at me at the exact rate of my retrieve. There's no tug, no feeling their weight, only the slight absence of my bait's weight. Yeah, I have to detect that absence of 3/16ths of an ounce to realize they're there. Then there are times when they charge my way and I can't reel down and set the hook fast enough. I'll do and set the hook on slack line, but the bass will still have my lure and still be coming my way. I think I enjoy this style of fishing so much because every hit is different. A new challenge.

I am watching my first reality show and am surprised by how I'm hooked. It's "Alone: Arctic Circle" and it being based on the Mackenzie River is what started me watching it, as I long wanted to paddle the Mackenzie. I am surprised by how several of the participants quit because of their emotional responses to being alone. They had the skills to continue and were feeding themselves, but being alone was too emotive for them. I've spent aggregate months alone in the wilderness, largely feeding myself, and never reacted negatively to it. Rather, I loved it. My longest stretch was five weeks, but I've also spent months alone on big rivers like the Ohio, Mississippi, and other rivers with occasional human contact. I have also interviewed world-class adventurers who've traveled thousands of miles into the wilderness. One paddled from Washington state to the Chilkoot Trail, partway down the Yukon, cross-country to a cabin he'd built years ago, which he discovered was burned to charred timbers, and then out to the Bering Sea, which he paddled south. He said two things that still ring in me, one that he was still "raw" from all he'd endured and the other was that even though he was tenderized, he couldn't drive a bridge over a river in Minnesota without wondering what was around the bend. In short, he'd taken a beating, but his curiosity wasn't beaten out of him. Some people have the notion that they'll thrive alone and imagine themselves spending happy years in the wilderness, but a few of these contestants folded in days or a couple weeks. I don't have to wonder how I'd fare. I know I'd be fine. How about you? Have you ever dreamed of being alone in the wilderness? How do you think you'd fare? Why?

Is that your PB, T.J.? It's a great photo of a great bass.

You're the best.

I fished for an hour and 45 minutes at my pond this evening. It was only 60 degrees and the wind speed was eight mph, but I still caught 17 with most of them in the 17-inch range. All were caught on a T-rigged blue craw. I've caught 344 bass in 2026 so far.

The fishing and water are just warming up. You're coming at the perfect time!

I'd also buy leeches in Canada and fish them with a small hook and a split shot. If a cold front hits, leeches still catch bass.

ME TOO! The bass in the two ponds I fish are always moving. It can take time to find them. Of course, there are times I launch and catch one on my first cast too. My two favorites are a VMC 5/0 heavy duty underspin with a paddletail or craw and a T-rigged craw. Both can be fished in cover or structure, shallow or deep. And both can be trolled.

There's the rub. It's hard to find bass in just an hour. I begin the first hour of many fishing trips with none or one bass. I PMed you. What helps me reduce noise is going slowly and being thoughtful when I'm moving equipment in my boats.

@Susky River Rat: Your smallies are soooooooooo dark and beautiful!

Leverage a small boat's natural advantage. Small boats are naturally quieter than bass boats. They can be close to silent. Strive for silence. Whenever I set a rod in my canoe or kayak, I lay it ever so gently on the hull or gunnels. Sometimes my bow bumps into a bass because they didn't hear me coming. Seeing that swirl is as exciting as catching a bass because it confirms that I'm quiet. Plus, fish the water that the bass boats can't reach. They can't fish water without ramps. They can't float in 12" of water. Canoes and kayaks can and bass live in 12" of water. If you have to walk through the woods to reach the water, fishing can be nearly unbelievably good. My preferred style is run and gun. I cover a lot of water when I launch. It's miles of paddling and I troll two rods when I'm paddling from one spot to another. I don't linger on a spot. I'm searching for the most active bass.

327 bass, Alex. I have never caught an Alabama bass. Dang it! But I'm glad you're catching them!

Thanks, Al. You're the best. I'm really proud of the afternoon of fishing I described. Maine Fish and Wildlife says that less than 1% of all Maine largemouth weigh four pounds or more. Well, I caught more than four pounds per bass in my bag with a 6.25, 5.5, 4.5, 4.2, and 4.2, giving me a 24.65-pound total. And that's at nearly 45 degrees latitude and I wasn't fishing a pond with bass-fattening trout or gobies. In-Fisherman says that such a bag would be equivalent to a 37.6-pound bag in the South. And I did that with a paddle and without FFS too. I'm also proud of the fact that this was my smallest bass. 16.5 inches, but thick: I was really dialed into big bass. Here are some others I didn't share in my trip report. They're long, but not as thick as the others: I've shared before that I'd rather catch a 20-pound bag than one, especially fine fish. A 20-pound bag means you're line is being really stretched five times.