Swamp Girl

^This!^ I lived on the lower Wisconsin for several years and there are more places without fish than with fish. However, it does hold big smallies. I'd try dunking the biggest shiner you can find in deeper water. Drop-offs can produce too, as can wood.

I hate to say it, but I couldn't crack the code this morning. I fished the backs of bays, points, deep, weeds, and flats. I fished big lures and small lures. I fished fast and slow. I tried a fluke, buzzbait, a squarebill, various surface lures, and so on. I pounded the inflow and outflow. I caught eight. My best lure was a black Senko. Last year, I was catching steadily and then suddenly my count dropped to single digits and stayed there. I wonder if I'm at the same point, that the water has literally chilled and has figuratively chilled the bite. The first pic is representative of seven of the bass. The second one was my big one. The last pic is the pond. I did love the morning. It was melancholy with the ducks and geese honking, which means summer is done and snow is coming. Thanks for the advice!

Heck, yeah, it is. Current multiplies their strength two ways, for the current pulls and bass who live in current are stronger. The strength of a river smallie or a striped bass who lives in the tides is stunning.

I think your buddy's bass has a transmitter in it.

Great photos, especially the stream photo in the valley! That's magazine quality. That bass you're holding looks bigger than your PB of three to four pounds.

I AM worried! Michigan's a powerhouse again. And for the first year in many, we don't have a stud for a quarterback.

I just clipped on a big, bone-colored Whopper Plopper. Fingers crossed.

Ha! There is so much I don't know. I like the idea of a big surface lure worked slowly. I also like the buzzbait. I hadn't considered a fluke, so thanks for that suggestion. As far as baitfish, I never see them. They're there because the local bass are fat, but I just don't see them. Pat, there won't be any sunshine tomorrow morning, but that's good to know for sunny, cool days.

Conditions tomorrow morning are perfect: south breeze, cloudy, foggy, and calm. I'll be fishing a dammed river. You might remember me bewailing losing many big bass this summer? Well, I'm fishing THAT pond tomorrow morning. The old riverbed is the deepest part and like a lot of dammed rivers, it has bays radiating off the riverbed. It has a couple flats, a fair amount of laydowns, and it's normally weed-choked, but with all the rain we've had this summer, the lilypads are about 12" down, which gives me an advantage at last since there's a little water to play them before they reach weeds. I was thinking of pulling a surface lure over the submerged lily pads and using a stop-and-go retrieve with a squarebill on the flats and in the deep water. I'll be launching in the dark. Where would you fish? I want to hook a big girl since my odds of landing one have improved. I've caught five, six, and probably a seven-pounder out of there, but I don't think I've landed the biggest ones. I was overwhelmed by some beasts there this summer.

I have no words and I'm a writer.

^This^ made my eyes leak. I wish you could fish out of a canoe too. OMG, you are so, so right. Look for a message from me.

That's when I whip out the cookies!

I've wondered about hiring someone too in ten years. I'd love to fish wilderness lakes in northwestern Ontario a couple more times before my long dirt nap. If I had a young buck to portage the canoe and gear, I could reach Heaven again. Here's my pitch: "Hey, kid, wanna make a thousand dollars to catch hundreds of bass?"

Unlike @gimruis, I don't find this thread "a little depressing," but uplifting. I love that we old timers are still casting. I'm 67, but after launching my canoe in the dark and paddling and casting for four or five hours, I feel like I'm 97 when exiting my canoe. Sitting for so long ages me. I'm just glad there's no one there to see what a bent-backed crone I've become for a few, creaky minutes. Thanks, @Captain Phil, for starting this thread. I curtsy to all you codgers who are still out there, still hoping for a bass to hit. FWIW, I wouldn't curtsy to a king simply because they were born to a king or queen, but those who've had Time's chisel whacking at them for decades, but press on, well, they're royal to me. Your majesties: @A-Jay's comment about balance is spot on. Lack of balance unraveled my parents' lives. My lightweight canoe is fast, but tippy. It's tippiness is the price I pay for its speed. It's like fishing from a tightrope. There are times I'd like a stable boat, but having my balance challenged every time I fish is good for me.

I catch fish by working hard, i.e. launching in the dark at hard-to-reach water, paddling far, and being deliberate so as to not make noise. I concede that my fishing style would be harder to execute in highly populated Texas. There are places that expensive bass boats can't go: Fish there.

@Crow Horse: Gosh, I love this, "Creator, everything we do leaves a track. May our tracks be ones we would want you to see and others to follow......" ^That's^ it. That's the way to live.

I had two goals for 2023. One was a 20 lb. bag, which I did achieve, and the other was a 100-bass day, which is likely beyond me now because of my age. I did have a 59-bass morning and several mornings with more than 40 bass. I even had a 44-bass evening a few days ago, but I'm too old to fish all day nowadays, so I'll never set that as a goal again. I do have 100-bass days in my past, so I can always revisit those. I also broke my PB several times. I just read @Darnold335's post. He is a mensch. I also love @BFS-Angler75's post. If you and your daughter ever want to fish Maine, I'll be your guide and take you to my honey holes. We'll wind down rivers in the dark to bogs and roll canoes across meadows. My young fishing pal, who is about your daughter's age, loves the adventure in Maine fishing and I think she would too.

I'm glad you enjoy my posts. Back at ya. I did understand your point and I'm a less expensive version of you, but still pricey, for I'm fishing from a Kevlar canoe with a carbon fiber paddle, but both you and I actually find our fish and our fish aren't fattened and then sited and starved to trigger a hit. And no one is deceiving us about the bass we catch. Even if your lakes are stocked, you know that they are. The guests weren't told that they were casting to fattened and then starved trout. The deception is what bothered the guides. The guests would celebrate their big catches and the guides were expected to play along. The guides wanted to teach the guests to catch trout that weren't prepped to be caught.

To me, the story is one of deception and pretension. The rich guests were deceived into thinking they were catching huge trout so they could pretend they were skilled fishers.

Thanks for sharing the details of the catch. I caught my biggest bass this morning bumping a big Senko on the bottom in the current at the pond's outflow. When she hit, I didn't feel it, but saw the line head up current. I waited one second, set the hook, and saw her turn down current. If she ducked under the liedown, I would likely have lost her, so I used the strength of my MH rod and 20 lb. braid to turn her. When she saw the net, she ran again. She was just hooked in the upper lip. She's the one on the bump board. See the hump of her midsection? I love when they do that, when they're not flat bass, but a hill of muscle.

Amen.

Big bass, @gimruis!

Gorgeous sunfish and 15-16" smallies will stretch your line, for sure. I like the bridge shot too, Bob. I've been including water shots for you in my trip reports, Bob.

Yep, you know me better than I know myself. I feel less alone knowing there are other bass addicts out there. However, I'm so glad I returned to the water this morning. I had so much fun.

"My name is Katie and I'm a bass addict." I'm imagining you guys saying, "Hi, Katie." Yeah, I'm addicted. I said I was done for 2023, but then it rained 5.25" yesterday and that much rain can rile bass, so I fished again this morning and I'm so glad I did. For the first half hour, I was wondering if I was going to get skunked, as I caught nothing but the sunset below. Then I started catching some Maine Butterballs in a river that flowed into the pond. There's a photo of the river followed by six Butterballs. Then a photo of a shoreline so you can see how Maine is browning. Then I caught a bigger one. I'd caught 18 bass at that point, using a bone-colored popper, a chrome Whopper Plopper, and a bluegill-colored squarebill with a fast retrieve/pause action. I tried a spinnerbait too, but nada. I was headed home and could see where I launched. The water was roaring out of the pond. I'd never caught bass there, but I guessed that today might be different with so much current. Boy, was I right! The next two pics are where I was fishing, an area 25' across with two strainers/laydowns. Using a wacky rig with a 7" Senko and my reel/pause squarebill, I caught another 13 bass, including some thick ones and there are photos of the biggest. I loved pulling those fine bass out of that tight spot. You can't see the current from the photos, but beyond the two laydowns, it was all whitewater. My final tally was 31 bass, a pretty good count for a browning and blue fall day.