Swamp Girl

The title of this report is "A Good Morning," but if it were a YouTube video, the title would be "MILLIONS of MONSTER BASS!!!!"

Great trip report! Of course, the football impresses me, but so does your fishing in that wind and chop. I couldn't manage that in my high-sided canoe.

Yeah, I am, but I work at it way harder than they do. The eagles try to kill ospreys because they're competing for the same fish. Imagine the competitors in a bass tourney trying to do the same, using their bass boats like fighter jets in a dogfight.

I had good quantity (34 fish: 29 LMB, 4 SMB, and one pickerel) and good quality (some 17, 18, and 19-inchers). It was calm, overcast, and foggy early. I set the hook faster on my soft plastics and that worked well. I saw a bald eagle trying to kill an osprey (again). The osprey escaped again. Hooray! It was a good morning. When I was a kid, I wanted to catch ONE 17-inch bass. My brothers had all caught one and I wanted to catch ONE too to say I could keep up with them. Now I catch so many 17-inchers.

@casts_by_fly, great trip report! That looks like one of my ponds. How cool that you saw a bear. Once again, at the pond I fished this morning, I saw a bald eagle try to kill an osprey. Thank goodness, the osprey escaped. I'd fish your pond in a New York nanosecond.

^Love this!^ That's what I'll do then. Okay, I caught bass on paddletail with a swim jig, a T-Rigged Senko, and wacky-rigged Senko this morning. I set the hook MUCH faster. Lost a few, but I didn't deep hook a single one and I hooked most of them right in the lip. Thanks, @Bankc, for admitting that you lose some. I DO TOO, so I don't feel so all alone.

@Jmurphy87, frog fishing is hard! It's still too early here to frog fish. The lily pads are still small, but soon. I look forward to it. I dread it. I like how we've given @NJBasstard's fine pickerel some love. We're not total bass snobs.

@NJBasstard, that's a long, thick pickerel. I'm glad you posted it!

^Love this!^ That's what I'll do then.

@Team9nine, you've caught a string of big bass. Proud of you! Nice job as a surgeon too.

Gosh, no! Composure is for cool kids, too bored to be grateful for riding this rock around the Sun with a "Yee-haw!" Becoming floaty and shaky would make Walt Whitman proud of you. Here's Papa Walt writing about you, Alex: "I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow’d wilds, It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk."

Thanks, guys. The consensus is that I should do faster hook sets and I will.

^This^ is why I quit musky fishing. I remember times when I'd been lobbing billy-club-sized lures for five hours and I'd just stop and sag for a moment.

@AlabamaSpothunter: Alex, the advantage of your videos is that I can watch different parts of action with different viewings. I saw you not reeling, but wrenching. I struggle sometimes with my reel handle. It's so key that I keep the pressure on my bass because there's so little water and so many weeds. Sometimes, between being old and my heart beating double-time, my fingers slip off the knob. I hate when that happens. I don't expect I'll ever catch a bass as big as yours, but I'm sure glad you catch them! Your latest was a Lake Baccarac-sized bass. 7'9? Man, that's a lot of rod! I've never owned one that long.

@Kites R4 Skyfishing's thread about setting the hook reminded me to pose the coming question: I fish with soft plastic paddletails with shaft-weighted hooks a lot. Until recently, I'd keep reeling slowly when I got a hit and set the hook when the line moved sideways or the rod loaded. Recently, when I get a hit, I stop reeling and let the bass take it before setting the hook. I catch bass with both methods, but don't know which is right. Which approach do you use and why?

@AlabamaSpothunter Alex, I was thinking about how quickly your beast reached the net. I think you got super lucky with her. No way would a bass that big be tuckered so quickly. In her fury, you got lucky and just happened to net her as she thrashed your way. Well, it wasn't luck. It takes a heckuva netting job to land a bonkers bass. Anyway, I love your videos and look forward to more. Thanks for releasing her so quickly! I try to do the same.

I have yet to catch a bass on a Jackhammer. To be fair, I haven't fished it a lot yet, but I have tossed it at several ponds and bogs and caught nothing. I don't want to quit on it yet. I've never done well with a Jitterbug. I've thrown them in ponds brimming with bass and have caught a few, but my few hookups don't justify my continuing to throw it.

Way to go, Alex! I always enjoy your trip reports.

Gorgeous fish. Cute kid!

I love it, Brian! What's the weight?

This 9' catfish was caught on a river in Italy! Behold and be afraid:

Alex, Alex, ALEX!!!! We are so proud of you.

Hey, JB, my fellow Mainer! Congrats on your fun topwater bite. In Maine last year, I caught four doubles, i.e. two fish on the same lure at the same time. You can see the loon-colored Whopper Plopper connecting the two bass below, a 19" LMB and a 17" LMB caught together. That's 36" on a single cast, about six and a half pounds of bass! Take that, you Lake Baccarac boys!

Does your fishing partner look like this?

Your daily "low" temps are still higher than Maine's daily high temps. I hear you Katie! Feel the same here especially with the days getting hotter I factor three things into the days I go fishing, which are wind and whether I'm physically able.