Swamp Girl

Z, I waffle more than Waffle House. I'll take a position, hear a contrary position, and think, "Yeah, that sounds right!" So, yeah, I get what you're saying with no buts. Me:

I'm sensing a theme here. Sadly, I have become a coward around trees. My canoe is so tippy and I am so old that I don't roll the dice anymore and try to slip a lure beneath the branches. However, you are young and as I remember, you caught some HUGE bass beneath a tree this year, didn't ya? So, if so, keep casting at wood and that's an order!

I once lived on the Wisconsin River and fished it every morning. My biggest catch was a 48" sturgeon on four-pound test while crappie fishing.

I just ordered three kinds of Owner blades like pictured below and I'll attach them with split rings, so the problem should be solved thanks to you:

I agree that motors should be freely employed by those with medical issues. I was arguing generally.

I did not know this. I'll do a Google search. However, I think their design is flawed if there's a need for replacement spinners.

Ha! However, Audie Murphy makes even Chuck Norris look soft as the Pillsbury Doughboy. ^That's^ the all-time record. Second place goes to Jimmy Stewart (10.1), who could have lounged in Hollywood during WWII, but flew dozens of bombing missions over Germany. Jimmy was the embodiment of "walk softly, but carry a big stick." Thanks for the swing bridge photo. And no, Bob, you don't score "a negative number." I've seen the photos of what you've built. Your pond and floating gazebo and fences and home all took big-time backbone.

Yes.

I've been fishing Owner shaft-weighted underspins with my Keitechs and I am unhappy with their lifespans. About ten fish in, they lose their spinners. Has anyone found a sturdier shaft-weighted underspin?

Electric bikes are suddenly everywhere in my town and I went into a bike shop yesterday that sold nothing but electric bikes. Call me old-fashioned or a purist, but an electric bike isn't a bike. There's a word for a two-wheeler with a motor: It's called a motorcycle. Likewise, I struggle to think of a motorized kayak and canoe as a kayak and canoe because they also, already have their own word: motorboat. Additionally, as we grow older, we have to find more ways to exercise, not fewer. ^Impressive^ Okay, but the more you add to a kayak, the further you get from the simplicity that is a kayak's inherent strength. Every add-on ADDS weight and when a kayak weighs a couple hundred pounds, what's the point? Why not launch a traditional V-hull or jonboat with all their room and stability? Lastly, paddling is a lovely way to move and a kayaker paddles from their core, so it exercises you from the belly button up. And paddling into current, wind, and waves is a stirring thing. It's the moment when you get to summon all that strength that you acquired from countless calm days of paddling.

^That^ guy hung onto that carp way longer than I could have. Say, is it really the season for an Alabama rig?

Nah, that 20" is solid. I'm just hoping I also catch a 20" too simply by chatting with you, that your mojo travels through the Intertubes.

I hope I do better than I did last fall. I caught bass and a few big girls last fall, but expected more from the season, given the way people rave about it. I credit PhishLI and you for much of my success. You guys gave me great advice.

Right now is the time to fish with @TnRiver46 if you want to see or catch a 20"+ smallie. That first pic is awesome. Your buddy should print it, frame it, and hang it.

Big bass, @The Baron! I fished for 2.5 hours tonight. I caught a dozen bass in that little river and another eight in the bog below it. Back in June, @AlabamaSpothunter and @PhishLI urged me to focus on fewer bodies of water than I fished last year and I've done that, focusing primarily on four bodies of water. The payoff has been 51 bass over four pounds and seven between six and seven pounds. I didn't add to that total tonight, but I sure caught some beauties, twenty in all, up to 18 inches. The last girl was bleeding a bit and I don't know why, but she sure was feisty when I released her. It's usually me bleeding, not the bass.

I'll have to wait for the ordered worms to arrive, but for this evening, I did find a black worm and a smaller blue one, so I'll be fishing those within two hours! @rodscrossed!

Thanks, A-Jay. I'm eternally hopeful. However, if I were to try skipping a vibrating jig at a dock, my hope might finally wane. This amazes me and I fish shallow bogs. Do you only cast at shorelines?

I missed @keagbassr's post. Man, oh, man, that man sure can cowboy, i.e. if cowboys actually wrangled bass.

I ordered black, watermelon, junebug, and green pumpkin. I would have ordered bubblegum too if I'd read your post before placing the order. FWIW, I'm paddling up that little stream again this evening. We got 1.75" of rainfall last night, so I'm looking forward to experiencing and fishing the uptick in current. It was already pretty swift a couple days ago, so it should be gurgling this evening. That little stream makes me so happy. Then, before dusk, I'll paddle to the bog at the end of the stream and hope to catch a big girl, a Brunhilda. Here's why:

I'll give it a try too. I have been moving my vibrating jig with my reel, not the rod.

Well, I've never been to Spain. However, I've been to Oklahoma.

I know, huh? It boggles my mind too. I have shared many times how I'm constantly switching baits to see what they'll hit, so I must have thrown chatterbaits on half a dozen trips this summer, but nothing. Not even a hit. And I've tried them shallow and deep and up against cover and in the middle of nowhere and in transition zones. I'll keep trying, like I keep trying with walking baits, which Tom (@WRB) correctly observed are hard to fish from a canoe.

Me too on the chatterbait and drop shot. A drop shot just feels like a lot of work to rig it. I have cast my chatterbaits, but nothing.

I just placed my order too. After @TnRiver46 posited that my Zoom Magnum Worm might have gobbed into a soft plastic "booger" in three basses' mouths yesterday, preventing a hook set, I ordered some shorter worms. #don'tletmouthboogerskeepyoufromsettingthehook!

Ha! Oooh! Tempting! Men who build bridges hit 11 on the Man-O-Meter, which only goes to 10. To understand that 11 score, Audie Murphy himself only scored an 11.2.