Swamp Girl

Oh, Pat, you're the best.

46??? It's 48 here, halfway to the North Pole, at 4:58 a.m.! ' And, yeah, I'm going fishing. I'm hooked deeper than any bass. Nice catch, @Dominat0r!

It's cool that you branched into two, new lures. I added T-Rigged Zoom Trick worms, underspin paddletails, and poppers to my bag o' tricks.

Love that! You guys are so kind and funny.

Swag? I'm hoping that SWAG abbreviates Surface(lures) Will Always Get('er done).

I'm actually pleased when you guys mention fighting the wind. I don't feel all alone then. Nice bass!

I like this: Trout sip. Bass inhale. Muskies bite.

^That's^ it, the challenge. Rod Sterling wrote a Twilight Zone episode about a gambler who thought he was in Heaven because he won at every game. He wasn't in Heaven.

Fingers crossed for you, Golden Gopher-buddy!

Agreed! I always enjoy @TnRiver46's accounts and photos. It's clear that he loves fishing and being on the water. A frank assessment by an honest man. On my less-fished water at the same latitude, the bass are still slap-happy to hit topwaters.

Angus, I once fished the Whitefish River on Michigan's UP for smallies and caught quantity and quality. So, I invited two pals the next year, regaling them with tales of what we'd catch. Well, the weather and fishing were foul and day by day, I felt guiltier for promising, but not delivering. So, one morning, I rose at 3:30, went into the gray rain, and looked and looked. Fish have to eat, right? And I found them, smallmouth and walleyes, clustered on a point. I caught ten quick ones and motored back to my buddies. It took three days of delayed gratification, but when I returned to that point with my friends and we caught them two and three at a time, our joy was beyond the ken of some people who don't have to wait, who don't have to find their way to the fish. ^This^ story is everyone's story at BR. We all can tell tales of failing, but not quitting, and then FINALLY finding fish. These stories are our best stories. Failure is the path to true joy.

Thanks! They actually came from six ponds and bogs. I have a list of more than 40 more local bodies of water I want to fish, but following @PhishLI's and @AlabamaSpothunter's advice, I focused on fewer ponds to learn them and that gave me the greatest fishing year of my life. I'm pretty good at fishing. I'm pretty good at writing. What I don't do well is technology, so finding all the bigger bass in my scores of files with photos of hundreds and hundreds of bass eventually overwhelmed me and I quit looking, but next year, I might create a separate folder for the bigger fish and just add to that over the year.

The thread about FFS reminded me of this true story: For a magazine article, I once fished with a couple guides who told me a couple unsettling stories about how some rich and powerful people "fished." The guides had worked for a billionaire with one of those gargantuan Montana ranches. The billionaire's guests were rich and powerful, from Barbara Walters to Dick Cheney. The billionaire raised rainbow trout in ponds and those fish were fed by underwater feeders until they were monstrous. When guests arrived, some were captured and moved into the stream, where there were more underwater feeders, but not operating. The rainbows, by conditioning, would wait at the inoperative underwater feeders, waiting to be fed and growing hungrier and hungrier. The guides, knowing the locations of the feeders, would play the game and say to a guest, "That looks like a good spot. Why don't you cast there?" And...kaboom! The guests occasionally caught a native fish, which the guides considered a true catch, so it thrilled them, which confused the guests, for why would a guide thrill to a relatively tiny cutthroat after the guests had been catching giant rainbows? I also have a story about how they "hunted," which is even more off-center.

Pat (Sajak), I'd like to buy thirty likes for this post. Holding bass at weigh-ins turns these magnificent animals into props. #catchweighreleaserespectsthebeasts

Yep. When I kayaked the Mississippi, drunk boaters were a greater threat than tows the size of aircraft carriers.

I think every bass fisher other than me should have TEN FFS units, as well as Aegis radar and helicopter pads aft. Their rigs will then be so big and heavy that I'll never see another boat on the backwoods ponds I fish. FWIW, I rarely see another boat as it is, but Aegis will seal the deal.

With topwaters, I just keep working the lure through the hit until the rod loads.

You sure catch big fish, Aaron. And you catch them from shore!

I caught two on a big wacky Senko and the other 42 with a small, silvery, translucent Whopper Plopper. I've downsized my Whopper Ploppers steadily as the water has cooled. If I were you, I'd look for streams like the one in my third pic. Lots of them are overlooked. If the stream empties into a swamp, even better.

I'd been watching the weather all week, thinking that Friday would be good, since the wind kicks up today and we're getting 3.5" - 5.5" of rain. So, I fished for three hours and I was right, the impending storm made the bass go all rock-em-sock-em on my lures. I caught 44 in three hours, which is a total I associate with June, not October. I didn't hook or land any of my beloved 19"-plus bass, but I did continue my fall streak of landing pretty much every bass I hooked. I include some pond pics for @Blue Raider Bob! I know I said today was to be my last trip, but I am eyeing next Wednesday, when a south wind + rain could = a big girl! I caught 12 in the little river and 32 in the pond. I looked everywhere for a big gal: deep water, the very backs of bays, heavy weed cover, laydowns, rock, a flat, and so on, but couldn't find one.

Thanks for taking us with you!

Your story is my story, Pat. I bet I own a dozen different walking baits. Maybe more. I had a couple muskies blow up on one, but that's it. And I'm throwing walking baits in water chock full of bass that are hitting other surface lures. I don't fish water with herring, so you might be right.

All this talkin' 'bout walkin' baits has me wanting to try them again. Here's how many bass I've caught on a walking bait: Muskies: 0 SMB: 0 LMB: 0

Best post of the day. Likely. Unless someone posts a photo of taking their kid AND dog fishing for the first time. Seriously, I love that photo and your solid dadding.

@DanielG, I had treble hooks driven into me three times in 2023. All three times, I used my hook cutters to free myself, after punching the hook out my skin so I could cut under the barb. The two in the thigh weren't hard, but the one in my finger was because I was down to a single hand to free myself. I now unhook my fish by holding them over the water and wear gloves too. I also bought a clamp that I'll use one of these days. #slowtotrythenewfangledgeegaws