Swamp Girl

Whoa!

I frequently launch at four and it's dark then, but not for long. Launching at 11:00 p.m. would be too spooky for me because there'd so much night between the light and me. However, I wish I could fish all night because the fishing is fantastic. Most mornings when I launch at four, there are bass feeding in all directions. I surface fish and wear a red light on my forehead. I exercise extra caution when freeing fish. I've caught some of my biggest bass in wee-est hours of the morning.

This is also my experience. I've fished in the middle of flotillas on the Mississippi River and other places and caught many fish, but on the lightly fished ponds I fish, if you're not quiet, you're not catching. An example is one time I was sitting in the middle of a thick lily pad field and I bumped my canoe. There were four or five swirls within feet of my canoe as the bass fled. This happened again last fall when I was paddling through thick weeds and bumped my boat. Bass bolted. So, like @padlin, I pad my canoe, wear soft shoes, make long casts, alight my lures on the water, etc.

That makes your success even more impressive.

Mike, are you catching more of your bass from shore or a boat?

@Crow Horse: Yep!

You've succeeded!

Of course, I'm just shifting my weight here and there, but I've done it so much that it's like walking: I don't have to think about it. Anyway, it's fun and for me, another reason to fish out of a kayak or canoe.

I know! We fish the same way. I cast to water so shallow that I start my retrieve when my lure is still in the air. No lie. By summer's end, due to the drought, the water beside my dock was about four inches deep, but I could still launch.

Sorry, buddy. Say, I've been watching YouTube videos of cops and drunk, belligerent drivers. My takeaway: YOU GUYS ARE SO PATIENT! That trout is incredible. I remember the last one you caught. 2,121 bass beats my 2024 total of 2,044. You do start fishing before me and finish after me, but going head-to-head on the same water, but I can already hear the tournament director announcing, "And in first place, it's Clayton...." And then he'd give me a participation trophy. I will be counting again next year. I want to reach 1,800.

I own two canoes, a canoe/kayak hybrid, and a fishing kayak. I've also owned V-hulls and jonboats with motors and other canoes and kayaks. I'm not just an angler. I'm a paddler too. I've literally paddled thousands of miles with zero fishing because I love paddling that much. I also love launching the traditional northwoods boat, i.e. a canoe, on northwoods water. Lastly, I have spent so much time in little boats with a paddle in my hand that I can, here and there, control the boat without a paddle. When I was a whitewater paddler, I knew a guy who would chuck his paddle ashore in standing waves and control his kayak with his weight. It's a little easier to do that in a whitewater kayak, where you're leg-and-knee-braced and attached to the boat with a spray skirt, but I can do it with my little boats and it's so gratifying, close to magical, when my boat turns on a little river or bog the way I need to go without my paddle or any thought.

Now how could you say that??? I fish with restraint and decorum. I'm down to earth! Want proof? Here's a photo of me walking down to my canoe: P. S. - Just because I've hit a few tournament referees with folding chairs doesn't mean I don't follow the rules.

2025 was pretty good fishing. I caught 25% fewer bass than I did in 2024 and I only caught one six-pounder, as opposed to an eight, a seven, and several sixes in 2024, but I still managed 1,451 bass with an average size of three-pounds plus. Lots of 18" plus bass and quite a few 19 to 20-inch bass. Lots of fun. Anemia kept me from pounding the bogs for bigger bass, but just now, my iron numbers are better and I hope they stay that way. If they do, I'll be bog bassing again in 2026. I became better at fishing pondweed and eel weed and better at catching bass in inches of water, so that feels good. And I caught a lot more bass in deeper water in 2025.

Here's a fourteen-pounder, caught in Texas:

I'm adding a new goal. I've been reading various posts about how bass learn lures, so I think I need to switch up the lures I fish. To this end, I bought black spinnerbaits instead of my white ones, chatterbaits, and hard jerkbaits.

Those are beautiful bass!

His mistake was sharing a pic of the fish:

I suspect the same. I'm even suspicious of Maine's record.

If Massachusetts could grow a 15.5-pound bass, it could also produce the occasional 14, 13, and 12-pounder. It doesn't. I always felt it failed the sniff test...by a lot.

I love your entire post, King, but especially the above paragraph. I think giving fitness advice is a lot like giving bass advice. Telling others how you catch bass in your local water might not work best for them. Same with exercise. Pumping iron might not be the ticket if your joints are damaged. Like King when he lived in Alaska, my exercise program is my life. Walking through the woods in the dark, lugging my gear, requires balance and strength. Then I have to negotiate the steep slope where the swamp begins and walk my narrow, slippery boardwalk, again in the dark and lugging my gear. Then I have to climb down into my canoe (not easy) and pole my boat backwards out of the swamp. Then there's miles of paddling and hundreds of casts. Climbing up and out of my canoe is even harder. I screwed a couple handrails into my dock to help with that. In the winter, I walk my dog twice a day, walking for at least three miles, and stretch. I also climb the staircases in my house two steps at a time and rise from chairs without using my hands. I also drop to the floor dozens of times each day to rise from it, which is something I see other old people rarely do.

Stretching won Tom Brady a seventh Super Bowl ring.

I noted that too, Tom. The guy could stand, but not without wobbling.

Amen, brother. Funny!