Swamp Girl

Yeah, 7" is a lot of Senko. It makes quite a plop when it hits the water. And it makes my wacky-hook look tiny.

Thanks so much, Alex! According to the texas.gov length to weight chart, a typical Texas largemouth that's 21 and 3/8ths inches long weighs 5.82 lbs. but my girl had linebacker shoulders. Also, you can't see it in the photo, but her tail was shredded. Does this mean she already spawned? If so, I missed out on a gut to go with her shoulders. I'm going back to the same bog this evening. I hope to fish for 2.5 hours. I actually think I caught a 6-pounder last week, but didn't adjust "My PB" because I didn't weigh her. This is her:

Quite a story and quite a catch!

I agree: The eagle is allowed to kill bass because he's the boss. He's also not an ordinary eagle. He's the biggest eagle I've ever seen. I like fishing this particular bog just to see him. He's a pterodactgle. For whatever reason, he let me drift right under his tree. The tree was an ancient, dead sugar maple, which shucked its bark years ago. It was bleached white by time. And I was beneath this black and white pterodactyl in this white tree that looked like it was made of whale bone, and I got to witness its eating. It had one eye of me and the other eye on its delicious bass. Like Murph said, we get to see amazing things when we venture out.

I'm so happy you landed today's hog!

Man, that's a sad story. I wanted you to grab that bass so bad.

First off, thanks to all the BR guys who've coached me in 2022 and 2023, aka PhishLI, Alex, T-Billy, Murph, etc. So, I returned to a quality/not quantity bog. Much of it is 4' feet deep with weeds everywhere. I hooked a 3.48 lb. bass, but mostly caught smaller bass. I could not catch a single bass on the surface. They were hitting a 7" green pumpkin wacky Senko and a paddletail with a weighted-shaft hook. I HATE deep hooking bass, so I was setting the hook sooner rather than later all morning and lost quite a few fish, but that's okay with me. I'd rather lose fish than hurt them. When the big girl hit, at first I was confused. She was just so heavy. She felt like a musky. Then she became even heavier as she burrowed into weeds. I usually lose bass at that point, but I muscled her up and all I could see was a big ball of weeds and her Kim Kardashian big lips. It took about 30 seconds to clear the weeds enough to see her. I weighed her at 6.54 lbs. and considered photographing the scale, but you can see she's a goblin. She was calm in the boat, but when I released her, she flashed her power one more time, which pleased me, for she told me that she was a-okay. I barely hooked her with the 7" Senko. BARELY. I was so lucky to land her. I also saw an eagle kill a bass and watched the eagle eat its breakfast in a tree. That was also cool. The first bass is the 3.48-pounder. Then the big girl. Then a pic of the bog.

Great photos, Murph!

This describes all y'all: I've been land bound for two long. First wind and cool. Then a friend was rushed into surgery. But I just loaded the canoe and am going tomorrow morning, hoping I catch a fish like the ones ^above.^ Fishers like you and me consider it an honor to tussle with and then hold something wild for a few seconds.

Me too! And they are like old friends.

Fascinating. More and more, I think you're the fish whisperer, @PhishLI. I like the way you think too, @WIGuide. I've mentioned a couple times fishing a POND in Canada, the land of thousands of lakes, and this pond was right beside a logging highway. Strangely, it was full of big pike, partly because everyone ignored a pond on their way to a big lake, but perhaps it was also full of big pike because they ate every small pike that was born since there was no place to hide in such small water. I know this isn't the same as your fish kill pond, but your hypothesis got me thinking.

@Team9nine and @keagbassr:

Ooh, ^this^ intrigues me. It is dark water. You see how black its bass are. I assume they're black to blend with the water so that the raptors can't see them. Maybe dark lures might trigger more bites since their prey are likely black too. Another strange thing about his bog is that there isn't "a good spot." I've caught so few fish that I pretty much remember where I've caught all of them and the pattern is "here and there and yonder." If I were to mark on a map where I've caught bass, there'd be no clusters. I do remember where I haven't caught bass, like a laydown-choked outlet with current (You'd think that would be a great spot, right?), but I keep fishing those spots because I'm ornery. Or stupid. Likely the latter.

Good thoughts for Mrs. B. Cataract surgery is one of the most consistently successful surgeries and not a little bit successful, but "Hey, I can see again!" successful.

That's what this bog is for me! Here are two 2023 fish from it, but the most I've ever caught from it is seven bass and most times, it's one to three:

I feel that ^this^ is coming for me too. Dang it. We'll have our memories, won't we? Yep, they're fish-eating machines. Yowza! No wonder you haunt those ponds at night.

The bog down the road. Just beyond the big rock in the second photo is a beaver dam which creates a little waterfall.

A bog is a swamp, shallow and weedy. The small lily pads in the photos will widen and create a mat. There are also other weeds just under the surface. I thought you guys might like to see the bog since I failed to catch fish! At one point, my canoe practically bumped a bass. I saw the swirl right beside my boat. I was so proud of my sneaky, silent paddling.

Oh, yeah! I too have those fish I'll never forget. I could take you back to the very spot I catch them, show you were I cast, and detail all that followed. Say, Phish, do you think the beavers keep the quantity down and the quality up? Perhaps they interfere with reproduction with all their busy beaverness. Fewer bass would mean more food and more size for the bass that are there.

I caught one bass this morning. I lost a couple that were good-sized, which is easy to do in a bog with obstacles everywhere. I also caught three pickerels. I knew I wouldn't catch much. I never do at this bog. So, why do I go when I have about 20 other good places to fish? Well, I like the puzzle of this bog. I like spinning the combination dial hoping that one day I'll crack the combination. I love the beauty of the place. This morning, I saw a cruising bald eagle hit the brakes, twist its body, and plunge on a fish. At one point, I saw four beavers at once. And I like that this bog holds four, five, and six-pound bass and that they're black. So, do you have a body of water that you fish and fish and never catch much, but keep trying? If so, why?

I love quantity + quality days. LOVE 'EM! Well fished!

Way to fish, @Team9nine! And 40 on your prior outing too. Buy. a. lottery. ticket. NOW.

Heck, yeah!!!

I just found this thread and read it all. Heartbreaking.

Yikes! #freethefighter