Swamp Girl

I like how the chair creaks as much as the codger.

It's like fishing tea! I should bring a tea cup and enjoy a sip.

3.49 lbs. is bigger than any smallmouth I've caught in Maine in two years.

I think the bulk of my gear needs to be replaced. I bought most of the reels and rods I used 40 years ago and they've caught thousands of fish. They're understandably pooped! I do have a new custom rod, AN AMAZING, GORGEOUS GIFT, paired with a Shimano Bantam XG that I'll be using soon, but I'm thinking some of my spinning reels and rods have had a long, wonderful run and need to be put out to pasture. I further think that bog fishing takes a much greater toll on gear than fishing the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers, Lakes Superior and Michigan, and the wilderness lakes of northwestern Ontario. The bog bass are heavy and surly and the weeds are heavier. No wonder my rod cracked. As far as slamming it, much of the credit goes to the BR Braintrust (TM). I remember fishing my first bog last year and thinking, "HUH? How do you do this???" So, I started asking questions and applying what you guys shared. I'm going fishing again tomorrow morning. Ha! Thanks, Alex. It is a pretty place. Once you reach the lake portion of it, the shorelines are lined with massive white pines.

You'll be fishing the China Lake area, right? I just happened upon Beech Pond, which is in that area. It's got smallmouth and maybe largemouth. You'd need to carry a canoe about 25 yards and it's right off Hwy. 3. If you fish it, let me know how you did. It looked great to me.

I'll order some tonight. Thanks, Tim!

I agree that the fourth gal on the bump board is a perfect-looking bass. However, the three gals above her a little lumpy and bumpy. They added alewife weight and weren't quite sure where to put it. I think it's the tannin in bogs that make the bass I catch so dark and striking.

I've tossed it a few times, but have yet to catch a bass with it. However, I won't quit. I was thinking of trying it again tomorrow morning. Should I toss it at weed lines? I'll have to retrieve it pretty fast or I'll snag weeds. However, there is deep water abutting the bog. Maybe I should cast it there and fish it deeper. What do you think, A-Jay?

You'll be here at a pretty time! Low humidity, cool nights, and warm days. I don't know what the purple flowers are, but they are everywhere! I forgot to share that one reel died, one rod was cracked by the last bass, and I stuck myself with a treble for the third time this year. Yikes, huh?

It's about 5 feet deeper than my favorite bogs and that extra water allowed me to land them, as opposed to the beasts I've been losing for the last two weeks in shallower weed-choked bogs. @A-Jay: I tried a wacky Senko and Rage Swimmer paddletail, but couldn't coax a single subsurface hit. @Blue Raider Bob: Anytime, Bob, anytime.

Sweet spot! I've never caught one, but I sure wanna.

N-n-ninety bucks??? Say, Blue, I've complimented your skill in the past, but I'm going to do it again and specifically: You catch quantity. You catch quality. You catch from a powered boat, a kayak, and the shore. You catch alone and with your family. You catch in the winter and summer and in-between. You catch for fun and in competitions. You da man!

The West has trout-fattened bass. The Great Lakes have goby-fattened bass. The South has year-round-eating-fattened bass. And Maine has some ponds with bass fattened by alewives, which swim into the freshwater ponds to reproduce and the bass grow fat on them and their young. I've always wanted to fish an alewife pond and I did this morning. It began as a bog and then flared into a north woods pond, with rocky shores and few weeds. I had the best luck in the bog. I only caught fifteen, but lawdy, four were so fine and two were extra fine. I caught every single fish on a Whopper Plopper and three of the fish were pickerel, but big, strong pickerel, so I even enjoyed them. All the fish clobbered my lures. KERSPLOOSH! My last big bass tried every trick: She ran like a pike, wrapped line around a submerged tree, and burrowed into the weeds. The photos start with two pics of the stone ladders that were built for the alewives to ascend to the bog/pond. Then pics of the bog. Then a photo of an average bass. Then the four fat gals on the bump board. Then a pretty pic. Then two of the fat gals in a lip and grip pose so you can appreciate how many alewives they've eaten! I've lost too many big bass in the last two weeks. It felt wonderful to finally land some.

I had the "something" this morning. I'm normally fishing bogs that are two to ten feet deep and choked with weeds, which are at Peak Weed in August. This morning's bog was deeper with an extra five feet of water and that was the difference maker for me. I'll be posting a trip report titled "Alewife-fattened Bass" with plenty of pics of this morning's fish.

Holy mackerel, Batman! You had the Day of Days! I love your leading with your shredded hand. I also love ^this.^ I wish I could launch these for real for you:

Tim, you and I think the same way. I've said many times that our strengths are our weaknesses. For example, I once owned a home with porches that wrapped all the way around it. Dream home, right? Well, it was dark as a cave inside because all the windows had roofs. Everything works that way. Pluses are also minuses. Positives are also negatives. Everything wonderful comes with costs and the cost of reaching the bogs in my light canoe is that I don't have the platform to set the hook nor the weight to keep from being pulled ever deeper into weeds. Weren't Tom's and Kent's stories of world records lost the best? And the worst!

Is kissing a bass cheating on your sweetheart? My second question: As your face approaches the bass's face, is she thinking that "he's going to eat me" or "Yeah, I get to eat him!"?

Wow! WOW! What a story. Kent, the times I want a partner are when I hook a nice bass and she pulls me into trouble, like Tom's monster upthread. I simply can't paddle with one hand and play a bass with the other. I'm at their mercy. Tom, thanks for your great tale too. I'd pay a thousand bucks to simply have seen what you two saw. @WRB, I agree that strike detection is huge. I once fished a farm pond in southern Ohio. It was gin clear and I was retrieving my lure parallel to the bank. A bass came out of cover, inhaled my lure, and ejected my lure and I ONLY knew this because I saw it. I. did. not. feel. it. I felt nothing.

Betting against ^this^ would be a sucker's bet. You've got the @WRB gene. Ernest Hemingway and JFK, Jr. both said that courage is grace under pressure. If you've ever read their life stories, you know that both these men embodied this kind of courage. Now I'm thinking that the big bass gene is just this: remaining cool under pressure. Thanks, Pat. I love your post.

I think you're right. It's not those famous fishers could practice on bass that were close to the world record since 20-lb. plus bass are super-DUPER rare. @WRB, did you ever hook and lose the world record? Or did anyone at BR do so? I only saw one titanic fish in my life, but I didn't hook it. When I was a teen, my older brother and I were fishing a river mouth in Canada when a massive pike launched itself for whatever reason out of the water. It scared us both and we left. On that trip, we'd both landed 40"+ pike, but the pike we saw was far beyond those fish.

I know you treasure smallmouth, so ^this" made me grin. Nice lmbs too! Oh, no! You got to see The Revenge of the Bass and its sequel in the same second.

@WRB has credited his mentors too. I think being in a boat with a better fisher could create a quantum leap. I know I learn much faster when I'm standing beside a master. You raise a good point: Is it convincing them to hit or landing them? I think it's gotta be both, but our perspective can be skewed by watching videos where the fishers land every big fish because they've deleted the footage of lost fish. Environment can skew the stats too. When I fished smallmouth in rocky-bottomed lakes, I caught most of them. I fish weeds now and lose half of them some days.

I was PMing a BR pal and in one of our chats, he posited that some fishers don't have that certain big fish something. I've thought a lot about this assertion and wondered what that big fish requisite is. What do you think enables some to catch big fish and others to swing and miss? I'm basically talking about the @WRB gene. Of course, many of us have never fished a lake with 17-pound bass like Tom has, so adjust the big fish size for region. FWIW, I don't think I have the WRB gene. I simply hook enough five and six-pound bass to manage to get a few in the canoe, but I lose more than I boat.

I did not know this. Thank you, gimruis.

There were large or small loops that were knotted at their bases.