Swamp Girl

What a fine, stocky bass.

I don't use one because I'd have to carry it and they're heavy. I paddle atop lily pads when I want to stay put and that works most of the time. I even quit taking my tackle box halfway through this season and just carry one utility box to reduce my load, which I tweak before each trip.

Atta, Woody! My latest pics turned sideways too, even though they were vertical on my computer.

That long, skinny bass could be a supermodel. You could have been her agent if you'd kept her and made $$$!

Luck on the water isn't wasting anything and your bass-catching isn't luck anyway, not with your consistency. I'm just happy for you.

@keagbassr should be buying Megabucks and Powerball tickets. He's so hot he only needs to buy one of each. @AlabamaSpothunter: Sorry, buddy. Thinking good thoughts for you.

If I had a bigger boat, I'd keep fishing too, but when I tipped at the beginning of the summer and it was so, SO sudden, I've since felt the cold water beneath my hull more than ever. I want to fish next year and the following year and so on instead of dying to fish a couple more times this year. I'm not the strongest swimmer and being 67, I'm simply not strong. I'm happy you're fishing still, Baron. I love fishing Maine, but I love fishing Ontario even more. ^That's^ a man's chore (or a young woman's). I remember being so very sore from chucking musky lures. Hard to appreciate that fine bass when those even finer trees are behind you, Tim!

Well, the fat lady sang and my canoe is up on the sawhorses in the garage. Last year, my final trip was a dangerous fiasco, as I launched on a windy, wee, November morning, my headlamp failed, and I mostly bobbed in the waves, catching two small bass. This year, I ended with 20 bass, skittering around the river and lake like I learned in a video, paddling as much as casting, correctly assuming the bass were scattered. I marveled at the strength of the ones I caught and was reminded why I lost so many big ones in 2023, for if the smaller ones can fight like they do, many big ones of course overwhelmed me with hook-shucking weeds everywhere. I used my cell phone for the photos and I've tried and failed to get the bass pics to be vertical. Sorry. The fourth bass down was the best one. I hope you enjoy the fall pics too. It's pretty here. Now, it's time to make some popcorn and watch while the southern boys score touchdown after touchdown!

Well described.

Welcome, @North Florida Mike! There was another guy who used the same handle and caught BIG bass, but he wasn't nearly as handsome as you. And that's cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Pike are delish.

Ontario pike are delicious. I tried the method for filleting the y-bones away, but you lose too much meat and I just eat around them.

Double congrats, for you not only lost weight, but have kept it off for more than a year. In addition to being tough enough to lose weight, you are wise and brave to contemplate your mortality and to live accordingly. Yep, we aren't meant to live forever. We take our turns riding this beautiful rock. @Captain Phil: All great advice.

Some belugas, @keagbassr and @Team9nine!

I caught one of my biggest 2023 bass a couple weeks ago in the dark on topwater. However, the last two times I launched in the dark, I caught nothing until the Sun rose and the water warmed.

Second to last trip. I fish for the last time in 2023 tomorrow, launching around 9:30. It's so pretty right now, but it's cooling fast. I paddled seven miles and explored a new river that flowed into today's pond. I caught 18, six on a Whopper Plopper, and a dozen on a crankbait, swimbait, and wacky worm. I did lose a four to five-pounder that spun my canoe in the river. I only photographed the last five bass so you could see what I was catching, but the highlight was the pond and river, right?:

Thanks for the illuminating write-up. Mexico sounds great, but I sure would miss trees. They're my tribe. I have long maintained that the world isn't as dangerous as many report. I've lived in two ghettos and taught in two urban schools with the most violent kids. I worked on a res where white folks told me to never go unless unescorted. The danger of my being on the res, where I was nearly everyday, was that the kids would knock me over when they raced to hug me. And I taught in coal country too. I never felt imperiled. Same with solo paddling thousands of miles or living in the wilderness. Now, as an old woman, I launch in bogs in full darkness. In this case, I'm grateful that many would be afraid to do the same because I'm a bog hog, wanting the bog to myself. One morning, I launched and within the first minute, heard a heron's screech, a bullfrog's croak, a beaver's splash, and an owl's hoot. I laughed imagining a city person hearing those four sounds and thinking their end was near. #noonewillhearyouscreaminabog

Howdy!

Thanks, Glenn. I've been watching fall videos all fall and this one was one of the best.

This is my first visit to this forum. Whoa! What talent and creativity.

Is this your boat?

I'm going fishing tomorrow and Wednesday and then I truly am done, for the weather forecast after Wednesday isn't good. Even now, the nights are in the forties and the days in the lower fifties. I'll be wearing neoprene on my upper body and feet, staying close to shorelines, paddling from the floor of my canoe to increase stability, and taking a waterproof ditch bag with dry clothes and fire-starting tools. I just hope I can catch some bass. I know I won't catch a lot of bass, but one or two over four pounds would end my year with style. I'm fishing an alewife pond tomorrow and a drowned bog on Wednesday. They both hold big bass. Fingers crossed! And I'm launching between ten and eleven instead of the dark and going home before it's dark too, as the temp drops fast as the Sun sets. After this week, I'll be sending some reels to Shimano for servicing. Some are 30-40 years old and increasingly creaky, so it would be great to squeeze a couple more years out of them.

PJ, I'm elated to bump into another female basser at BR. Please keep posting. The BR guys are great. And share your catches in the latest catch thread.

That's a lot of metal, Woody. That load would tire me out even faster than I already do.

It's the weekend and there's not enough fishing. I'm going mid-day Tuesday and Wednesday. Mid-day fishing gets tricky because it's windier, but the mornings have become too cool for bass to bite. After Wednesday, the weather forecast does not look good: cool and windy.

So, you'll be fishing the Menderchuck River. I love that river!