Swamp Girl

Heck, yeah! That's the appeal of fishing.

As I wrote in another post, I like to read stories of perseverance rewarded. Way to stick with it!

@bulldog1935, you clearly know and love boats. I used to write a column for Canoe & Kayak magazine called, "Rides," where paddlers would explain why they loved a particular boat. I've never heard the term, "wind-slippery," but I love it. My Bell Rockstar solo canoe is like a semi on the prairie, with the wind battering its high sides. On windy days, my paddle is in my hands more than a rod. However, I don't want to switch to a sit-on-top kayak because my Rockstar is light enough for my 66-year old muscles to still carry. I suppose a kayak with wheels would work, but how would I lift it onto the car? I suppose a trailer might work, but would it survive the logging roads I use? Everything is a compromise.

@bulldog1935: What a great trip report! I loved every detail and especially driving across the stream. I worry about Texas's drought, shared by Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. At least states to the west and northwest got some relief. Here's hoping you do too soon.

I love to see tenacity rewarded. Heck, I love to see tenacity period.

35. From the shore. In nasty weather. You da man.

Sounds like a great day.

A-Jay, I feel my fishing window in Maine wasn't open for long. If the wind isn't blowing, it's raining. I don't mind fishing in the rain when it's in the 70s, 60s, or even 50s, but it's tough when it's in the 40s and we have three days in a row with highs in the 40s coming and four nights in a row with lows in the 30s coming too. All windy and wet too. I just can't imagine the bass being real active when they're swimming with frost on their shoulders and icicles on their bellies. I'll try to slip out once or twice if the wind lessens. If the wind is feisty, I spend more time with a paddle in my hand instead of a rod. That happens when the wind reaches double digits. However, in a couple weeks, I think it will have to be warm and dry and not so windy and I expect the bass to be oh-so-hungry and feisty as our weather's been. Great bass. Really beautiful...as always. @AlabamaSpothunter: You're the best, Alex. @hokiehunter373, you were right. You did a Babe Ruth-finger point at me!

You guys made me cry and cry. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. Thanks too to @PhishLI who's been coaching me in private messages. PhishLI lives on Long Island, which is basically Manhattan's lawn. When he talks, I listen because he's catching the world's most pressured bass. He told me to focus on wood with soft plastics and I did just that to catch the big girl below. She ran three times, including once beside the boat. And another special thanks to @AlabamaSpothunter, who encouraged me to buy a scale, which I used to weigh her. She weighs 5.49 pounds and that's her in the second photo too. Maine bass don't grow as long as southern bass. Our winters are simply too long and our growing season too short, but they do grow up and down, as you can see. She looks a little like a bluegill, edging toward that saucer bluegill shape. I included the third photo so you can see how it still looks like winter up here. We had one day that reached a high of 70 degrees and another day where the high was 64. Other that that, it's been in the fifties and a few forties with many nights in the thirties, which is why the shoreline is still brown. I fished two water bodies this morning, a swamp that holds big fish, where I caught two bass, including the fat gal, and two pickerel. Then, on the way home, I stopped to fish a pond and caught another ten, with most having that fine football shape. Gosh, it was wonderful to be on the water and I finished with 14, my first double digit day of the year.

You guys are too kind. I'm going fishing tomorrow morning, as much to be on the water as to fish. My beloved dog died in my arms yesterday. He was my shadow even at the end of his life, when he had cancer and a failing heart and was deaf. Still, if I left the room, he'd rise and follow me. I buried him in the Japanese garden and in a week or two, I'll plant a flowering ground cover on the mound. When I taught tough boys, each spring, I'd read them "Where the Red Fern Grows." Those hardened boys, all quick and ready to fight, softened and leaked at the book's ending. It hurts and hurts to say good-bye to a good dog. They're better than us, more loyal and loving than we can ever be.

I'm dyin' for a Butterburger and a clothing department that's half Carhartt.

I miss Fleet Farm and Culver's.

Now, that's a lotta snow! We got a 24-incher this year. The biggest snowfall I experienced in Maine was 31". So, yeah, we get snow, but not those temperature swings.

I bought a LOT of lures this winter and am prepared to greatly complicate my fishing, but I think this shall pass as I settle into some lures the bass like. My problem is I last fishing for LMB a half century ago and there are sooooooooo many new lures and techniques to try.

@AlabamaSpothunter, you've been recently pining for winter again, but these are the good ol days too. You've been steadily catching big fish. We're all so proud of you.

I agree!

Ha! I love that bass! Out of Happy Heart reactions, so this comment will have to do. Dino fight made me laugh. So true.

They say that bad fishing days happen to good guys. Well, not to this good guy, aka Bob, on this day!

A Rage Swimmer with a weighted shaft hook and a Golden Shiner lipless crankbait have been my best lures, BUT DO NOT FOLLOW my lead as I've only caught 12 bass in three trips. I've encountered ice at two of the three ponds I've fished and the bass I caught are literally chilled. I was chilled the last time too!

I lived in southwestern and northwestern Wisconsin for 30 years. Now I live on the coast of Maine and some Mainers like to tout the sudden temperature changes, but coastal weather is NOTHING like inland weather, where it can go from 80s one day to 20 inches of snow a few days later. Good job on all those bass! Here, a 15-degree temperature swing is a big deal.

Me too, both for you and me, for as you know, I have two, recently restored ponds with fish ladders I'll be fishing this spring and summer too.

Gosh, you catch fat bass, @Bluebasser86. What are those Kansas bass eating? Do you have them on high-protein sunflower seed diets?

Way to go! Anyone who catches bass from a bitsy boat is my kin.

You quoted Papa + you self-deprecated + you wrote this phrase, "insulting a few old spine injuries" + you photographed your lures = I am so following you! PhishLI, anyone who's been to Long Island, which is actually long Manhattan, could admire your catches, for people outnumber bass in your neighborhood by about a thousand to one. The gymnastic equivalent would be doing a balance beam routine in the dark during an earthquake. Long Island is the exact opposite of Maine, where bass outnumber people about a thousand a to one.