Swamp Girl

I'd love to fish the Everglades one or two nights with Zcoker. That sounds like a blast!

^Hey, we're kin!^

Ha! Double ha!

I've never exactly night fished, but I typically launch in the dark for morning fishingand most evenings, I fish a half hour or so into the dark. It's a great time to fish. I agree with Captain Phil, that it's safer to go with someone, but I don't. Most people don't want to rise and shine so early. It gives me the heeby-jeebies to fish the tail ends of night, but it's worth it. Here's a nice bass two nights back. I saw my rod tip go back and stay back and I heard her jump. I could tell from her landing that she was sweet. I didn't really see her until she was in the net. Netting her was hard because I couldn't see in her the dark water. I don't take a flashlight with me because it's one more thing to carry, but in a pinch, I could use my cell phone.

Fishing a childhood stream sounds like a dream come true. Good job!

The streak continues. Say, if there's a hurricane, will you still go fishing?

I think it's sad that more women don't fish. However, I feel lucky to know a few like me. I think some women might fear that men wouldn't welcome them. They'd be wrong.

You're right. That ol' gal has been chomping at the feed bag, but not enough of her vittles made it to her tail! She's like a fat woman from an old cartoon with tiny ankles and feet.

^This^ is another reason I measure length more than I weigh. I'm slower to weigh a fish than measure one. I have to turn on the scale. Then zero it. Then clamp the bass. Then wait for the bass to stop wiggling enough for me to read the weight. Then unclamp the bass. Still, I'm glad I have my weight scale. As Alex predicted, I've weighed enough bass to ballpark them now. Then there are exceptions, like this 19"-bass that weighed five and a half pounds, whereas most 19" Maine bass weight four pounds. Both measuring her length and weighing her confirmed how special she was.

I measure more than I weigh because I get a good photo with the bump board cradling and calming the bass. For my bigger fish, I often weight and measure, but sometimes I'm happy with just the length and the photo. To your point, I get that. The pro kayak anglers just measure, so there are other bass fishers like you who feel that a length is sufficient and the best way to measure one fish versus another.

I second what @thediscochef said. You have a talent for carving. I can't believe that your crawdad was your first effort. Plus, it caught a bass, so it's not just a pretty exoskeleton.

Awesome. I would love fishing beside the ships.

@BrianMDTX, that second bass photo gives me the willies. It looks like there are sharks where you fish.

It is cool, Jeff. There's high country, desert, swamp, tumbling rivers, sleepy ponds, and on and on.

@padlin echoed what Tim said and they're both right: The key is to not let them reach the weeds. @Bankbeater's suggestion is great. Start back-pedaling when you hook the bass as well as reeling like a dervish.

@Woody B, that first bass actually looks enormous because that camera angle makes you look like you're 500 feet tall. @Dominat0r, nobody played the Green Monster like Yaz. Plus, he hit for power and percentage. That's like quality plus quantity in our world.

Thanks, Tim. I just Googled "Eva knobs" and I'll give them a try.

Thanks for this tip, Tim. I've had to concentrate on my hands when I'm bringing a fish out of weeds. Due to arthritis, I can lose my grip on the handle's knob. Really focusing on the act of winching helps.

Joe (DiMaggio) had his streak. Pete (Rose) had his streak. Lou (Iron Man Gehrig) had his streak. Carl (Yastrzemski) had his streak. Now @Dominat0r has his streak. Go, man go!

Whoa! What a life! Again: What. A. Life. So true, Tom When I was 15, my father left me on island north of Chapleau, Ontario for five weeks. Some people with little enduring memory of what's in the wilderness ask if that was a punishment, as if being far from jet skis and Dairy Queens was deprivation. We all come from the wilderness and I believe that our collective, ancient history is carried within us, some more than others. I pity those who've forgotten, who aren't at home with an osprey above them and bass below them. Thank you, @GaryH.

So true.

I'd listen to T-Billy. He's been casting braid a whole lot longer than me. I only went with 20 lb. braid because I fished for decades with 6 lb. mono and 20 lb. anything sounds like steel cable to me.

Once upon a time, I could do that, but now I MUST rest. Even two mornings in a row or an evening and then the next morning have me moving like I'm 76 instead of 66, Ah, to be 46 again, sleeping on the rock of the Canadian Shield, and rising at four each morning to cast to rising bass. Alex, I have so many lures in my tackle box because of you. I caught a fine one last night on a 6th Sense squarebill, one of many Alex Lures (TM).

I only use 50 lb. braid for froggin'. Otherwise, it's 20 lb. braid. I hauled the girls below out of heavy weeds last week with 20 lb. braid. They were both caught in four feet of water with two feet of weeds beneath the water and surface weeds in all directions. I was able to keep the top girl out of the weeds, but the bottom girl was too heavy. Still, I hauled her out of the weeds with my 20 lb. braid. There were more weeds in my net than bass and that's saying something, giving that she's a good chunk of bass.