Swamp Girl

I love the pond reports! Bob, I once had bluegill and bass in a tank. When I fed the bass minnows, the bass would go berserk and eat, eat, eat. The minnows would be berserk too. Then, SUDDENLY, the bass would be sated and everyone in the tank would stop. I saw this again and again and never understood how the minnows knew that the bass were done eating.

I lived in Wisconsin for 30 years and I've spent months in Minnesota, so I know them well. I even lived on the Wisconsin River for a couple years and have lived on the Mississippi River for about a year in aggregate. However, when it comes to virgin bass ready to bust up a surface lure, the only place I've found that compares to Maine is northwestern Ontario. @MN Fisher, now I feel badly for you and will quit my complaining.

I can't stand watching you guys catch bass after bass. Like an old Eskimo woman, I'm going to go out to the ice to die.* *Okay, I'll give it two more months.

Please notify me when you aren't fishing, okay? I figure the times you aren't fishing are when they are biting. Thanks so much!

Thanks for replying, gimruis, but I see anglers skip casting into reeds too. Maybe they're less likely to snag a reed if they keep the lure low and fast.

I prefer blind men in the bow. Speaking of casting, why do so many bass anglers skip cast? What's the advantage? I've never done it, but I'll be trying it for sure this spring.

That's true up to a point, but when we paddle into a bay, I'm not backing into the bay. The bow leads. I negate the bowman's advantage with accurate casting.

Golden shiners are common in Maine's ponds, so I've been stocking up on gold-hued lures for 2023. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can match the hatch.

@gimruis As I shared one other time, being up front in a canoe doesn't let my partners outfish me. I catch more fish 99% of the time from the stern and not just more fish, but bigger fish.

Go Phish!

I wish I could give this post a thousand hearts. Your photos are jaw-dropping. I was in Buffalo, NY when they got five FEET of snow in three days. Your first photo looks like the wall cloud I saw on Lake Ontario. You unhooked a gator and then posed with it.

Oh, I know, I know. I once told the story of pedaling to catch bass in the spring. In the snow. And last fall, I wanted to fish ONE MORE TIME, so I launched in the dark in a howling wind. Then my headlamp died. So, I was bobbing in the dark, trying to stay close enough to the shoreline to survive if I tipped, but not so close that I'd become tangled in the bristling shrubs. So, yeah, I know. I did catch two bass in the dark. Both DDs after the DOD adjustments.

Bob, if I must, I'll tell you ten times: That was NO mere "pounder." That was, after DOD (Degree of Difficulty) adjustments, a DD! BTW, if you go fishing in a canoe in a Category 5 hurricane and catch an 8-inch bass, you will have caught the new World Record, after the DOD adjustment. Likewise, the guy who catches a "DD" in a boat that bristles with more electronics than an Aegis-class cruiser, after the DOD adjustment, has caught a two-to-three-pounder. To set the Universe Record for bass, you have to fish from a kayak in Class V rapids in a Category 5 hurricane during a 9.6 earthquake. Whatever you catch will be the new Universe Record for bass, even if it's a shiner.

Those winds would make fishing from a canoe impossible. How did you even catch a dink? Your Level of Difficulty upgrades your dink to a DD. Congrats on your DD, Bob!

Heck, yeah, it's hard on a fish to catch them deep. I was in Canada about 15 years ago with my father and we were using big sinkers on three-way swivels to reach deep lake trout. We caught one, could see that it was struggling, so we kept it to eat it, and put the deep sinkers away. Hey, @Mbirdsley and @Jar11591, may I cry with you guys? Or maybe I should go stand in a circle with the ice fishing guys in Maine. Nice fish, @PhishLI and @Woody B! Phish, all three of your fish look B-I-G. Not many pickerel impress me, but yours does. Your bass too. They are thick. WoodyB, what does the water look like where you fish? I ask because your fish are so pale. BlueBasser in Kansas catches pale bass too. Maine water is clear, but tannin-stained. It looks like tea.

Alex, I do think there are few 9.1 pounds bass in Maine, but they're one in 100,000. Maybe 500,000. I'll be thrilled to catch a six-pounder. However, I'm also happy to go out and catch dozens of bass in a morning or evening. I like to stay busy in a boat. At some point, I'll try the new scale, but I can't see myself lugging it everywhere, partly because it's more to carry and partly because it'll keep the fish I treasure out of the water even longer. I already measure my big fish on a bump board, photograph them with a thumb grip, and photograph them on the bump board too. All that time, they're not breathing. Some guys might think me silly, but those fish are in my care for a few secs and I want to return them to the water sooner rather than later. In Canada, I'd spend a week on a lake, fishing 12 or so hours a day, and over decades, I only once saw a fish that I'd caught later floating on the surface. Luckily, an eagle ate it. Still, I'll weigh a few fish to get an idea of what length equals what weight.

Sir, you are exactly two pounds and 12 ounces ahead of me in 2023. I drove again yesterday to scout three new ponds. Strangely, they buzzed with ice "fishermen," but they weren't exactly fishing. At all three ponds, the ice "fishermen" had formed little groups and were just hanging. It was disconcerting to see the water so hard that it supported coffee klatches. I also stopped at the Lincolnville General Store for pizza. Google it if you wanna see how cool our general stores are. @AlabamaSpothunter Alex is back and back with a bang! A big bang. Like this: Alex, I missed your posts. You can see that others did too. Congrats on boating your beluga. It's bigger than any bass I'll ever catch! However, I'm just happy you're posting here again and I loved how your video ended with your breathlessness. @Team9nine 14 bass from the shore at 33-37 mph is impressive. Nice fish, @N Florida Mike!

@Scott W Ha! This morning, I considered adding a pond called Snag Pond to my list of ponds to fish this summer. Snag Pond's other name is Stump Pond. No lie.

@Bankbeater What a first fish!

Well done, Glenn!

He's a heckuva fisherman and a heckuva nice guy. ^Sorry 'bout the cussin'.^

I miss Alex's posts.

Your story did her justice.

@Pat Brown Pat, I'm slowly withering from not fishing. Can you breathe a little life into me by sharing the details of your big bass's fight? How did it hit? Did it jump? A fish that big in a foot of water must have meant a lot thrashin' and flashin'!