Swamp Girl

I caught my first 2023 bass! It was windier than I like, about 10 m.p.h., which means more corrective paddling in my canoe, and I fished from 1:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. It was sunny too. I went to a lake I fished several times last year and my two best spots produced nothing. So, I went to the windy end and caught nine and lost two. I started the fishing with finesse lures, i.e. a Senko and Ned. I got some taps, but couldn't set into anything solid. Maybe they were panfish. So, I tried a spinnerbait and jerkbait. Nothing. I'd bought a lipless crankbait that looks like a golden shiner and there are golden shiners in the lake. That worked. A rage swimmer that was white on the bottom and gray on top also worked. None of them were long, but a few were fat. It was great to finally catch some bass after watching you guys catch so many. Here they are, with the two lures at the end. I must admit that these are my first prespawn bass ever. I watched a lot of Youtube videos and read pre-spawn articles to learn how to catch them. I had my unpaid consultants too.

My brother is one of those people. I found a stationary school of smallmouth in northwestern Ontario. You'd lower your leech and you'd have a fish, one after another after another after.... I fetched my brother. He'd been fishing tube jigs and so while my boat caught fish two and three at a time, he glared at us, catching nothing. "We have plenty of leeches," I said. More glaring. Five minutes later, "Would you like some leeches?" More glaring. I know, he's a bundle of sunshine.

Big fish, Alex. BIG fish, Deep.

Ah, now I understand your screen name. Alex, they're actually on every other dock, all waiting patiently for you, but you. are. just. so. focused. on. catching. that double D, which btw, is at every other dock. Moderators, feel free to delete my comment. I'll understand if you do.

@Woody B, that flathead is comically fat. A lot of flatheads have big heads with tapering bodies, but especially upside down, yours looks like it ate a blue cat. A pregnant blue cat.

Scott, I'm also 66 and stink like a skunk, so you're not alone. And after I descended a steep hill yesterday to fish on tipsy rocks, I came home and took a nap, feeling the double-six. Thanks for the gator sign photo!

I'm thinking June for the camp out trip, Alex. Thanks for asking. I KNOW that I know less about LMB fishing than 90% of the BR community. However, when it comes to pitching a camp on an island, well, that's my wheelhouse and I'm not just the captain. I'm the admiral, having pitched tents on rocky islands in wolfy boreal forests to way down in the buggy bayou and everything in-between: sand bars on the Wisconsin River, Ohio's beech forests, and the Appalachian Mountains. I'm glad the bimbo line made you laugh! 10 pounds in two bass made me smile!

Thanks for all the replies, guys. However, my wallet doesn't thank you.

Skunked. I fished three SMALL bodies of water right on Maine's Hwy 1 for about half an hour. In my defense, I don't know if I was actually casting to bass, as the pools were too small to even have names and the water was shallow as a bimbo. Still, it was great to cast again. I'll launch my canoe on Thursday and fish water that I know holds fish.

Maybe I'm just muddled, but I was thinking of a lure with a fatter body.

There is a lure I saw at one of the fishing sites. I watched a YouTube video or two about it too. It's a surface lure that has what looks like a chatterbait clacker hanging off its rear. I can't remember its name. Ring a bell?

Well, the name "Ol' Crickety" doesn't help. It makes me sound like I'm 92, grizzled, and smoking a corn cob pipe. Hey, what really matters is that you caught another gorgeous fish! Plus, what bass fisher hasn't called a boy bass a she and a girl bass a he?

^This^ reminds me of the time I had a hawk fly before my windshield with a snake writhing in its talons. @Troy85, I love your story. Speaking of the sky, I once saw the rarest form of the northern lights, which is concentric circles that pulse upward. This was pre-cell phones, so I had no way to record it. @A-Jay, there has to be a moment you didn't film, when your cameras weren't running.

@Tackleholic, do you think it was a gar? Sturgeon? Blue cat? Something else? @Darth-Baiter:

This one made me literally laugh out loud. So did @12poundbass's wife.

It should be illegal to have your heart broken twice by the same fish.

You are a heckuva, fisherman, @Bluebasser86! Congrats on the wins and those beautiful fish!

If there was a one-second moment that you wish you'd captured on film, what was it? I'd lead with two also-rans: We were perch fishing a hump in Lake Michigan's Little Bay de Noc. I was reeling a perch up and it suddenly stopped right beneath our boat. I thought maybe the hook had caught on the boat, so I leaned over and was inches from a monster pike, which had chomped on my perch. I screamed, even though I've caught lots of big pike and muskies, and the guys teased me all day. I don't think they believed me. I wish I had a photo. I was fishing a river mouth north of Chapleau, Ontario in the dusk when a great pike came out of the water like a Trident missile. We hadn't hooked it. It scared us. We were just kids, so we didn't even cast it. We hightailed it back to the campfire. I wish I had a photo of that fish completely out of the water. The winner: We were fishing a wilderness musky lake north of Kenora, Ontario. The wind had been howling out of the northwest for three days and we'd caught maybe two or three between four of us in those three days. Then it suddenly swung around to coming from the southeast. It was a warm wind too, perfect for unlocking toothy jaws. So, we paddled a mile to a strait and pitched buzzbaits. At one point, I had two musky V-s at once racing to my lure. I wish I had that on video. I caught five in an hour and lost a sixth.

Your trip reports are so exciting, PhishLI.

@Bankc, I figure this cop is going to have a cardiologist one day...if he survives. Here are some things that anger does to a body: The long-term physical effects of uncontrolled anger include increased anxiety, high blood pressure and headache. In the two hours after an angry outburst, the chance of having a heart attack doubles. One study found there was a three times higher risk of having a stroke from a blood clot to the brain or bleeding within the brain during the two hours after an angry outburst. Harvard University scientists found that in healthy people, simply recalling an angry experience from their past caused a six-hour dip in levels of the antibody immunoglobulin A, the cells’ first line of defense against infection. A group of Harvard University scientists studied 670 men over eight years using a hostility scale scoring method to measure anger levels and assessed any changes in the men's lung function. The men with the highest hostility ratings had significantly worse lung capacity, which increased their risk of respiratory problems. If you're stressed and angry, you'll shorten your lifespan. And there's a lot more. Anger is acid to our cells. I hope some Kens or Karens read ^this^.

^Funniest post^ And wouldn't this be a great advertisement for Ranger boats! I'd contact Ranger with this story if I were you.

@Jmurphy87, thanks! So, you feel the rod load up with the weight of a solid bass, as opposed to just weeds? I have felt that, for sure, and I'm glad I asked because I thought it meant something different. Me too! I'm going shore fishing on Tuesday at three small bodies of water that may or may not hold bass. They're all on Highway One, Maine's major highway, and I've driven over and past them for years. I've never seen anyone fish them, but they sure look bassy. Then I'm fishing Thursday afternoon at a quantity pond and Friday morning at a quality bog. Fingers crossed that my rod loads up!

Beauty, @Jmurphy87! You wrote that you felt the rod load up. I see the word "load" used fairly frequently here and in articles. What does it mean in the context of bass fishing? I think I know, but I want to be sure.

I lived in Wisconsin for 30 years and about 20 years of that was on farms, so I speak cow. If she said, "Moooo. Mooooo. Moo," she was saying, "Atta, boy! Thatta bass!" Cows can be quite encouraging when it comes to bass fishing. However, if she said, ""Moooooo. Moo. Mooo," this site doesn't allow me to translate that, as some cows sass like sailors.

44 degrees and soaked doesn't make you soft, @Woody B. Nice bass.