Swamp Girl

Hey, Brian, if you get a chance, set aside five or six hours this evening and give me a call. I've got some intestinal issues I'm thinking you'd love to hear about in great detail.

It was way over the top, for sure.

@casts_by_fly, what does your moniker mean? FWIW, my moniker means nothing beyond I'm goofy. What I'm learning from this thread is that Bass Resource has a lot of cool hand Lukes, i.e. guys who keep their cool. If we gather one day, I'm bringing eggs. Lots of eggs.

Oh, yeah. My takeaway from your story is that you're a great dad, focused on your kids. You were literally surrounded by Kens and Karens, but you kept your cool, remembering the Prime Directive: Protect the puppies. I love your post and literally laughed out loud.

Yep, @Dwight Hottle. @N Florida Mike, I can't get over someone sinking fence posts into a pond bottom to simply claim a few more feet of land. That woman was looking for a property line fight long before you happened along.

Have you ever been on a fishing trip and encountered a Karen (an "I'd like to speak to the manager!" sort of woman), a Ken (a male Karen), a Crank (a grouchy, "Get off my lawn!" person), or a Hooligan? I have a Hooligan story: I was on a lake north of Lake of the Woods, musky fishing. It was a windy day and the resort where I was staying with 19 men was at the back of a narrow bay. We were waiting for the wind to abate when a boat with three teens came into the bay and started doing donuts. The resort owner politely asked them to stop, explaining that their wake was bouncing expensive boats against his docks. The men and I were sitting on lawn chairs. These weren't an ordinary group of men. Two were bouncers, one was an ex-college football player, one was an ex-fighter pilot, one was a race car driver, one was a Harley guy, and so on. Well, the teens blew off the resort owner and the men with me just laughed. They knew what was coming next. They all looked at the wild man in the group and the wild man smiled, walked down to his boat, gathering rocks along the way. He fired up his boat, roared up to the teens, and they gave him lip. He didn't even fire a warning rock shot. He looked like he was trying to decapitate them with his rocks, but maybe he was just really accurate and could hurl them inches from their heads. A lot of teens have learned that adults are afraid of them. These teens learned that not all adults are afraid of them. I was glad the kids didn't get hurt and hoped they carried that Leroy Brown lesson through the rest of their lives. Do you have a Karen, a Ken, a Crank, or a Hooligan story?

Aren't ^these^ fightin' words in Minnesota?

@gimruis Love that video! Thanks!!!

Oh, your frogs will produce. Frogs make bass go crazy!

Thanks, @Fat Ika, for all the info. I was once fishing a clear farm pond and retrieving my subsurface lure parallel to the bank. I saw a bass dart out of the weeds, completely inhale my lure, and spit it out and I didn't feel a thing. I assume that undetectable bites happen to all of us from time to time. I found this especially helpful. I always worry I'm too hasty or wait too long.

You guys who go into the water for lures and bass are tough hombres.

I was in Columbus, Ohio once when a blizzard was forecast. People panicked in the neighborhood grocery store. They used their forearms to sweep cans into their carts. There were broken bottles on the floors and people were checking out with multiple carts. I bought a watermelon and paid in the "10 Items or Less" line. I was the only one in that line and I was embarrassed for my species.

@Pat Brown I hate hurting a bass too, which is why when I wacky fish, I set the hook early. I lose a lot of fish, but it's worth it. I caught one 19.75" bass last fall on a wacky-rigged Senko that was BARELY hooked in the lip. Whew!

@Fat Ika Thanks! You fish s-s-slowly. I'll remember that. What does a hit feel like when they're so lethargic?

Katy a 19" Smallie is a big fish anywhere! Yeah, that's why I keep replaying those three fish lost in a row. However, I'm upgrading my hooks for 2023, so hope springs eternal with stickier hooks.

There's a lot of clear, concise info in ^this^ post. Thanks! @gimruis I agree with what you wrote. We catch the most with what we prefer. However, I do cast half a dozen lures whenever I'm fishing. If a non-Whopper Plopper lure suddenly started outfishing the Whopper Plopper, I'd switch in a New York nanosecond. #nolureloyaltywhatsoever

I wouldn't be concerned about the quality of the equipment as much as the quality of my long underwear. I tried ice fishing once. It was like this:

I love white bass. There's nothing as exciting as seeing a school chasing shad to the surface while the gulls dive on the shad.

Whoa, that Lake Okeechobee bass's eyes look like something from a horror movie!

That is a beautiful, dark bass. It deserves the name "black bass."

I too miss bass after bass while froggin'. The last time I fished my frog, I caught seven, hooked at least that many that I lost after a second or two, and lost about 15...and I thought I did WELL compared to other attempts. However, I'm super excited to fish them again. I've never fished a lure that triggers so many hits right beside my canoe.

Yep, MN is colder than ME, for sure.

I'm out of likes, but ^this^ made me laugh! However, nothing tastes better than raspberries. Nothing!

Agreed. However, I think all should try casting a Whopper Plopper where you'd normally only cast a frog. Nearly all weed patches have open water here and there and those are bass primed to ambush something skittering noisily across the surface. Maybe. Maybe not. I scouted a 630-acre lake yesterday. When they laid the road along the lake, they cut off the tip of the lake's tail, leaving a 1/3rd mile stretch of weedy shallows now separate from the rest of the lake, with guardrails on both sides of the road, meaning you can't park your car beside the water and launch your boat. A tricky launch that makes you work makes me smile. A mile or so down the road, there's a parking lot and a ramp, which didn't interest me at all. I was interested in the amputated 1/3rd mile of lake, so even though the road's shoulders were snow-covered, I scouted two places where I could park my car come spring and carry my canoe in the dark to launch it. I would think that most states would have opportunities like that, i.e. water less fished because it takes more work to reach it.