Swamp Girl

I was struggling when I first started bog fishing. I started a thread seeking advice about a year ago. I came to bog fishing from catching smallmouth in clear, rocky lakes and sandy rivers, catching muskies with near winches for rods and reels, and catching white bass in big lakes. Fishing between, over, and sometimes on weeds was so challenging at first. Heck, it's still challenging.

That's a beauty! Next time, let me catch her, okay? You've caught her twice and that's quite enough for you for now, mister. ?

I fished a bog again this morning. The approach to the bog was cool, as I paddled down a twisting river in the near dark. Today is the start of our first heat wave, i.e. six days in the low to high eighties. I know that's not hot for some of you, but Mainers aren't acclimated to the heat, so I probably won't fish until it breaks this coming weekend when we're back in our typical seventies. Or maybe I'll fish a couple hours one evening. I didn't fish as long this morning, but still caught 25 bass and only lost four. My lures were my usual suspects: wakebait, Whopper Plopper, a wacky Senko, a paddletail, and a plopper. Most were caught on the wakebait. I caught another 19-incher with a softball tummy, but there were other chunks too. The photo of the fifth fish down makes me wish I'd measured her. Same with the last one. The first two photos are my big girl.

I fished again this morning with MUCH better results. I caught 25 and lost four. Of the four I lost,...: 1. One jumped by the canoe. Suddenly. I didn't have a quick counter and she threw the hook. 2. One burrowed into weeds under the canoe. 2. Two simply unbuttoned. However, I landed 25 using this advice: 1. Last night, I lightened all my drags. A lot. 2. I didn't horse fish. I simply maintained tension. In short, I didn't pick a fight and in turn, they were pretty cooperative, largely steering clear of weeds. I kept reminding myself that for every action, there's a reaction. I even got to land a big girl using less drag, not provoking her by pulling, and just maintaining steady tension. Here she is on the bump board and hanging from my hand. She has a nice belly, huh? I caught lots of other chunks too, which I'll post now in the Latest Catch thread. It's great being able to tap a collective hundreds of years of bass fishing knowledge. Thanks to all of you for advising me.

Heck, yeah. I'd never bet against @Bluebasser86. Plus, he takes his wife and kids fishing, so he's all that and a family-sized bag of chips.

Well, I dialed back the drag on my rods and like Big Hands' suggestions too. I'm leaving now, so we'll see! In a PM, I told PhishLI that my bogs remind me of miniature golf. Other than the windmills, there's every imaginable obstacle between the bass and me. The photos I take don't really convey what's in the water.

You can catch 30+ fish. Just come north. A lot of them jumped. To be honest, I don't count the ones I lose, so I might have overestimated. Each loss feels like two fish lost, ya know.

I'm afraid I brought their generosity to a skidding, screeching halt when I ordered one BB per week.

Ha! @PhishLI: Yanking it out at home sounds MUCH worse to me. You have to drive all the way home with sharp steel embedded in you.

Thanks, Woody. I'm all out of reactions, so I'm thanking you now.

I'm gonna keep fishing with it, @T-Billy. It is my favorite rod.

Will do. And got it. I've just had so many bog bass burrow like groundhogs and I kept tightening the drag more and more to keep up in the water column. Yikes, I just read @T-Billy's contrary suggestion to keep fishing the rod. I feel like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz just gave me directions.

So many weeds! And I agree that I'm losing too many. I'm going to try Tom's suggestion tomorrow morning, i.e. less drag. I noted that the canoe does make it harder to play fish, but I've seen kayak fishers land DDs. I am taking a bait caster tomorrow too. I'll keep experimenting. One more question for all y'all: When I hooked a freight train bass this morning, the one that also straightened a treble hook, I heard my rod crack...twice. I'm certain it's stress fractured. I can see the fracture line. Should I junk it?

And the veal is very good this evening! That last bass is a beee-uuuu-teee!

Two pounds of drag, Tom? Whoa! I have way more than that, thinking I needed it to set the hook and control the bass. You just turned my fishing world upside down, Tom.

I know I catch a lot of fish, but what you guys don't see is how many bass I lose. For example, this morning I landed 36, but hooked and lost at least 20-25. I was fishing a bog, so the fish are advantaged because the water is only five feet deep and two feet of that is a two-foot mat of weeds on the bottom. What makes it worse is that bog bass jump a lot. Usually two to three times. Then there are reeds and lily pads everywhere, as well as huge white pine lay-downs. Some of those dang bass will race into the reeds and lily pads. I do my best to keep them up and away, but I just can't turn 4-pound-plus bass. Because I'm old and fishing from a canoe, I know I can't hook set like you young bucks can. Here's what I've done so far to increase my landing percentage: 1. Braid 2. Heavier rods 3. Sharper hooks I can often see when bass are going to jump, but I can't plunge my rod into the water to keep them down because I'll drive them into the weeds along with my rod. Any ideas? Maybe you guys could tweak my mechanics.

I was up at 3:30 a.m. this morning. So glad I took my headlamp. It used to be that there was enough light at 4:00 a.m. to launch without a flashlight, but no longer.

I fished a bog that I've come to love. Last year, I fished it and caught quantity, but not quality. This year, I caught a six-plus pounder and two four-and-a-half-pounders last Friday. This morning, I hooked a bass that cracked my rod and straightened my hook. I wish I could fish from a boat where I could stand. I think that would help a lot. However, I couldn't launch that boat in this bog. I also hooked myself, the second time in three days. Sigh. Both times, I struggled to punch the hook through my skin so I could cut the hook under the barb. Both times, I pushed the hook up with one hand and push my skin down with the other. I caught 36 Butterballs and here are some of them. I think Maine's short, fat bass are funny. I also caught a 19-incher and hooked her seven feet from a huge lay-down in deep water. "I've every advantage," I thought. Then she pulled me into the tree and I couldn't even use my rod. I had to hand-line her to the canoe, amazed that she didn't catch on a sunken limb. She's the first fish in the column of pics. I know she's just a tad under 19", but since I call my 19.25", 19.5", and 19.75" bass all 19-inchers, I'm calling her a 19-incher too. She's certainly got the build of a 19-incher. @throttleplate: I would really enjoy fishing below that dam. I'd love hooking a fish and not knowing what it was.

KH is the best.

Now ^that's^ funny! Up at 3:30 in the morning to fish. I have to paddle a couple miles to a sweet spot I discovered last time I fished.

I have written @Woody B's epitaph, which he is free to use one day: He was a fine fisherman, a loving uncle, and a guy who wore a transmission tower for a hat.

You have such a good attitude, Murph. You're a gifted storyteller too, which comes from your keen observing. #murphrocks

I expect to see this post one day from @Team9nine: Tricky fishing today. Multiple tornadoes. Was sucked up into one and took quite a ride, but still managed to cast down into a few ponds below me. Only managed to catch 8, but a couple were pretty nice.

I used my new Midway rod this morning to land this beauty!

I thought about you this morning, Pat. I thought, "Okay, I've caught two fine bass and together, I'm still two and a half pounds shy of Pat's one bass." However, I agree that northern bass are gorgeous. The first one is jet black on top and snow white on the bottom and the second one looks like a Crimson Tide linebacker. I couldn't keep the second one out of the weeds. It was only five feet deep where I hooked her and the bottom two feet of that was mushy weeds. Luckily, 17 lb. braid was enough to wrench her out of there. I have less luck when bass run to reeds, where they nearly always use the fibrous weeds to peel free.