Swamp Girl

Your smallmouth looks dipped in the middle. I don't think I'm wrong. I know you're trying to be 100% honest, but honestly, I think you're cheating yourself out of half an inch and maybe more.

@IcatchDinks: Two things. I love when you celebrate your dinks, like "the prettiest smallmouth I've ever caught." And I also love when you don't catch dinks. BTW, I think your smallie is 16". I can see in the measurement photo that it's cupped between your two hands. I fish with 10 lb. mono and 20 lb. braid. I lose a lot of bass, but not by snapping the line. The occasional pickerel will cut it, but if your reel has a good drag, not even four and five-pound bass will snap your line. Heck, they can add three pounds of weeds and the line will still hold. And you did a great job of describing that fight. You put us on the side of that bank, cheering you on! #weallcatchdinkseventhegreatdwighthottle

Fished a friend's pond for 2.5 hours. Caught 13 and lost three. The biggest was 18 inches. I think my numbers are dropping because it's the thick of summer, but I'm just so happy being on the water. I heard owls, a cow, and had a heron fly low over me. Murph, it's good to see you post again!

They're only two, @Woody B, but they sure are purty fish. I'm going out this evening. Gonna fish a friend's pond. Two shorelines have homes and there is always fishing company, but it's still good fishing.

Roland! Now do I win a hook too?

Kistler is spot on.

Cool!

@FNGangler: You clearly want to learn and Bass Resource is the place to do that. Listen to the guys and follow their advice. Then feel free to return with follow-up questions.

No need to everworry, @Team9nine, for you're the guy who could catch bass while casting from a tornado.

Thank you, Bird. Monday morning, I'll be fishing a new 500-acre bog with a fisher from Minnesota. He's game for launching at 4:00 a.m., so we'll see how it goes, but we won't see much at first for it's going to be dark. I'm putting him in the bow, i.e. the prime seat, because I want him to catch some Maine bass. The thing that worries me is that I don't know this bog, so I hope we can locate the fish. I have a pal who fished it and he said that they're not everywhere, but if we can find a few, they might be big. It's a quality, not quantity bog. If we fail, I'll take him Wednesday morning to a bog I know and say, "Cast there. Now cast there." Wacky worms work well for me too. When a bass swirls at a topwater, I drop a wacky on their head and love to feel that tug-tug. It's even more exciting when the line starts to move! We'll start topwater and when they stop hitting (assuming they start hitting), I'll go to a Rage Swimmer paddletail. I like the Owner hooks with the underspins. I don't like when the bass bite off the tails, but that could be pickerel doing most of the damage.

I could be wrong, but at those ponds and bogs where ospreys and eagles are crashing onto bass and herons are wading to spear them, I seem to only surface-catch the bass in the black, when the dinos can't see them.

@galyonj and @casts_by_fly, I own some bass-sized buzz baits and I used to catch muskies with them, so I look forward to trying them on bass now. Thanks for the suggestion!

When I return from a fishing trip, I feel like I should simply say "the usual suspects" for my lures. I did use a fluke the other morning and caught three on it and I use the occasional crankbait, popper, or a Mepps spinner, but 99% of the time, it's a Whopper Plopper, Rage Tail paddletail, and a wacky worm. In a bog, I can't drag a lure on the bottom without dredging weeds, but with the paddletail and wacky worm, I get close to the bottom and both work at mid-depths too. @Pat Brown: You catch such big bass that I'm your fangirl. Yep, catching them on the surface is so much fun. However, as we've all learned, keeping a bass pinned on a frog in the lily pads is no easy feat. I had a big one hooked a few mornings ago, but lost it. In the fight, you're outnumbered, for it's just you against the bass and the pads. Still, the thrill! I don't know why a bass hitting my frog shakes my nerves and rattles my brain, but it does. When other surface lures, I'm cool as a bottle of beer fresh from fridge, but when a bass hits my frog, I unravel. @casts_by_fly, I like your explanations for why bass like the mornings I described.

@galyonj: I concede to you and Mr. Lee. I've also found that conditions can be perfect (foggy, south wind, overcast, early) and the bass still won't hit a surface lure. Then the Sun rises and that's supposed to be the topwater bite killer. However, I have had great success some mornings on the surface after the Sun is up and especially if they weren't topwater feeding before that. Likewise with early spring fishing before they're supposed to be surface fishing. The fish below was one of many caught on the surface long before the water was warm or there were leaves on the trees.

@GoneFishingLTN, to be frank, I feel like one of the least learned fishers at Bass Resource. I've never pitched, flipped, or cast under a dock. I know far fewer lures than most of you. I'm subpar casting my baitcasters, although that might improve with a new rod arriving today. I've never used electronics, so I've never located mid-lake reefs and humps and fished them. I've never used a drop shot or Carolina rig. And on and on and on. However, I am experienced in catching smallies and largies on the surface in the morning and have caught thousands and thousands (lifetime) on perfect, foggy, cloudy, south wind mornings. The weather forecast determines when I go fishing. Ask me any other question and I'll have to defer to the experts at Bass Resource.

These are the things that stack the odds in my favor: 1. This is the most important by far: Launching early, as in 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. Sometimes they won't hit for the first hour or so, but sometimes they hit on the first cast. 2. Fog. Luckily, the best time to fish in the fog is early in the morning. 3. Clouds. Clouds give you even more stealth. 4. No dinosaurs. By dinosaurs, I mean Great Blue Herons, bald eagles, and ospreys. I've found that bass are less likely to rise to the surface on water patrolled by flying dinosaurs and I don't blame them. 5. Being deliberate. In my canoe, I'm deliberate about moving my rods and my paddle. They can hear if something hard strikes my canoe. 6. A south wind. Straight south, SE, or SW are all good.

I always enjoy your trip reports. The next best thing to actually fishing is ready about others fishing. Like @RHOS68, I've had two smallies on a single lure. I've also had two smallies on two lines at the same time. I rented an ancient, heavy rowboat on the Whitefish River in Michigan's U.P. and trolled with two worms dangling off the stern. One rod would go down and then the other and the trick was to keep them from tangling. The strangest double of my life happened below a waterfall in northwestern Ontario. I hooked a smallmouth and as I played the fish, another bass darted around the hooked fish. No biggie, right? We've all had that happen many times. However, when I landed the hooked bass, the other bass didn't disappear. She sidled up to my canoe...and here's where the story goes from ordinary to extraordinary: On a hunch, I reached into the water, cradled the hovering bass with one hand, and lifted her out of the water, making it the strangest two-bass at once catch of my life. In my hand, she was as calm as a fish can be, as if she wanted to visit me. She was about 18 inches and so was her friend. They were both released, of course. #freethefightersevenifonedoesn'tfight

You interacted with tiger musky, bluegill, smallmouth, largemouth, pike, catfish, creek chub, and carp. I haven't had an eight species day like yours since I was a kid and fished holes in shallow streams. Thanks for the report. You have an amazing memory.

Again, your consistency dazzles me. Do you ever have one-bass days? Or get skunked? I've avoided being skunked this year, but just barely with four or five one-bass days. The first bass looks hefty.

The Bass Resource Brain Trust at ^work.^

I will now state the utterly obvious: You're a heckuva stick!

And a few gals. The thing you'll come to love about Bass Resource is how much wisdom resides here. Ask a question, any question, and the wise anglers here will shine light on the darkness that muddles you. So, yeah, they are a great group of guys.* *And a few gals.

With ^this^ attitude, you have a heckuva life in front of you. Hold on, Bazoo, and enjoy the ride!

Hey, Bazoo! What does your screen name mean? You sound like an inquisitive guy, which is great.

I was talking about it this morning! So. excited.