Swamp Girl

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

Tim, it's been the best year of my life. I'm amazed at my good fortune, both in living in a place where big bass are abundant and benefiting from the BR Brain Trust (TM). You know that I think I've twice hooked bass over seven pounds in 2023, based upon their pulling power. Landing such a fish is another story. So much has to go right for me to do that, such as the lure stays buttoned if they jump and they don't plow through lure-shedding weeds.

54 degrees when I launched and the wind out of the north might have made for slower fishing. I did catch an 18.5-incher and some Maine butterballs in my total of 19. I kept seeing a couple Great Blue Herons too. Glad you like your new tagline, @Dominat0r and happy too that you'll list your lures at the end of your streak! The 18.5-incher first:

@Dominat0r: You're like the mailman of fidelity fame: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Except, this would be your tagline: "Neither hurricanes nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night keep this fisherman from the steady completion of his daily catch." What's also cool about your streak is the great number of lures that you use. It would be cool to list them in the end.

When I fished for smallies in northwestern Ontario, because we were fishing wilderness lakes where the fish rarely saw lures, lures would work UNLESS a cold front slammed us. Then we used worms or leaches, which always worked. A cold wind would be howling out of the northwest and they'd hit live bait, again and again and again.

OMG, you're right. However, if Alex were a bass, having read my posts, he'd know that a Whopper Plopper is the Devil's instrument and he'd convince a pickerel to clobber it, which doesn't take much convincing by the way, and then he'd sit back and laugh as the pickerel wriggled and thrashed and made me ever so miserable.

Thanks, Alex. It is a great state. It's going to be 52 degrees when I launch tomorrow morning. I'll paddle a winding river to the bog and only the otters, beavers, and my fishing buddy and me will be awake. Well, here's hoping the bass are awake too! I want my young fishing buddy (He's 11.) to catch his first five-pounder.

I would be ever so gentle with Alex Bass. I'd get him back to breathing that good ol' bog water ASAP and slip him back into the water with all due gratitude. WHOA! They are rare. I think I had a seven-plus-pounder hooked twice this year. Those two bass felt larger and stronger than my five and six-plus-pounders. I hooked them both on a Stradic 4000 with 17-lb. braid and the drag tightened way down and they still took off running and didn't stop until they unbuttoned. A five-pounder couldn't budge that drag. I've since lightened the drag a lot so as not to provoke those big bass to apply their full power. I've returned to the two spots where I hooked them and my hair prickles as I cast.

I caught a few of those full fish this past spring. If Tom Brady had caught them, he would have looked for valves to deflate them.* *FWIW, I love Tom Brady. @T-Billy said that ^this^ bass cracks him up because she looks like she's astonished. She does, doesn't she? Her shape makes me chuckle. She came from a beaver dam and took line several times. I think she was astonished that I pulled her out of a mound of wood. So kind and so funny! I wrote in another thread that I'm taking a kid fishing tomorrow. He caught a four-pounder on our last outing. Fingers and toes crossed that he catches a five-pounder tomorrow. It's bog fishing, so I expect he'll hook one. Landing it is an entirely different proposition. He won't be alone, so that will increase his odds. As all solo paddlers know, it's hard to play a bass and net it too and impossible to position the canoe while playing the bass. I so envy guys in bass boats that don't rotate or get pulled into weeds when they're playing a bass. Of course, bass boats can't go where I go.

YES! Love ^this^ line. Aragorn said it best: I'm so happy for you, Pat, and even happier that your son shared your great day with you. I'm going fishing with a kid tomorrow and introducing him to fluke fishing and popper fishing. I hooked him on Rage Tail paddletail fishing last time.

Exactly!

I'm not sure if I've had four or five one-bass days in 2023, but I've flirted with skunks many times. You all have seen that Maine is full of bass, so it's pretty amazing and sad that I've struggled four or five times to catch just one. One particular bog is mostly to blame. It has big bass, but so few of them. Still, I keep going and keep hoping. This is me looking at the bog:

3.8 pounds is a wonderful bass.

Good point. However, they do get mighty fussy about the sandwich they're willing to eat following a cold front.

Thanks, Bob, for the detailed explanation. Over ten years, with zero measures from you, how do you think your pond would change?

Hair cop. Species cop. Photo cop. BR needs to hire some more cops! They're overworking you, man!

Thanks, @throttleplate!

Thanks! I'm out of reactions, so I'm thanking you the old fashioned way: with words! You and I have both had good fishing seasons!

^This^ is a great reminder for me. I sometimes forget to work these areas. Me too! The grayer the day, the happier I am.

I have never used a trick worm. Do you wacky hook them? I also don't use weights when wacky fishing. I've tried them because I like the notion of the weight making the worm flap like a bird when it falls, but the weeds are so close to the surface that weeds are all I catch when I weight a Senko.

She wasn't as filled out as most of the bass from this bog, which are convex. However, she wasn't skinny either. Her head was her most outstanding feature. I think she's an old bass and perhaps not hunting as well as she did for years and years to achieve her length. Maine.gov said that she's likely over 20 years old.

@AlabamaSpothunter: Say, Alex, did you notice the tail of the third bass? I know you love those powerhouse tails. Heck, yeah! I can't stop thinking about her! This was me when I looked down and saw her in my boat:

Thank you, Alex. I miss your posts. Your videos. Your fish. It's thundering again here. And the rain is cold. I wish I could send some of our cool down to you.

I love fishing before the storm.

I'm trying, but to be honest, I feel like I just get lucky with the big ones. Their power and their environment mean I lose a lot of them. They use the weeds to pop free. And when the weeds don't work, jumping often does. I keep track. This year, I've landed six big bass at this morning's bog and lost five. In baseball, that's a heckuva percentage, but shooting free throws in basketball, I'm Shaq. When this morning's girl breached, she confused me. I'd never caught a bass her length, so seeing a bass as long as her breach was a first for me. I knew in the single second that she was out of the water that she was different. I could feel her difference too when I gripped her lip. If I'd wanted, I could have fit my fist into her mouth. I once caught a 50" sturgeon fishing below a dam for crappies. I had 4 lb. test and the sturgeon had all that current. I've also caught a couple 48" muskies in my canoe solo. And I've caught quite a few pike over 40", but I think these bog bass are my greatest fishing challenge. So much can go wrong. All ^this^ means that when I put one in my net, I'm euphoric. I know you understand. You all do.