Swamp Girl

Being a Yankee, I don't know if this thread is cool or cruel. Here's me trying to fish today:

Unless you're too naive to know how rare a big bass is. I was in a canoe with a teen boy and he caught a 22-inch smallmouth. I was going bonkers, but he looked at me like I was crazy.

@Woody B Mainers love them. They're the eating fish up here. Yellow perch, which I love to eat, don't excite them, but white perch do. As I understand it, they live near the bottom and if you can catch one, you've located a hundred of them, as their schools are big. When/if I do catch one, I'm going to eat it. #inquiringtongueswanttoknow Striped bass don't count. This is a black bass competition. I'll change that up top right now.

Here are a couple 20-inchers. @drakesndrum, see how they're convex with whale blubber from livin' the easy lake life? I don't have any photos of 21-inchers other than that one sagging belly beast at caught in near night and that photo is horrible and non-digital. I get so nervous when I catch 21-inchers because they're so rare for me and knowing how rare they are where I fish, I hurry them back into the water, but I remember them with stunning resolution in my mind. I also remember exactly where I caught them, what the light was like, and most importantly, how I felt when I first saw them. I was able to photograph my emotions when I saw a 21-incher beside my canoe. That's the last image.

@TnRiver46 You're in first with seven. Since I started the thread, a meanmouth counts. It's genetically and visually distinct, so it stands alone. @Woody B Woody, Maine is the Land of the White Perch. They're in pert near every lake, pond, and bog, but I've never caught one. I always figured I would while fishing for black bass, but I think my lures are too big, even though they grow to 14 and 15 inches. I'm pretty sure I had one hooked once. I saw a flash of silver while trolling a spinner and then it freed itself. @Wprich What in the heck is that? It's beautiful!

Drake, you get to add an inch to each of your river fish. That's an inch for river fury. When our lake fish were growing fat (and soft), your river fish were growing fast and hard.

A professional photographer, huh? Please ask her what she charges to make five-pound bass look like 15-pounders. Asking for a friend, of course.

@TnRiver46 You were fishing on Pandora, right? Was this your ride?

I've never weighed any, but my longest smallmouth have been between 20 and 21 inches, so that adds up to between 20 and 25 pounds. My biggest bass ever went unmeasured. I caught it right before dark and my brother, in another canoe, photographed it. It had a sagging belly like a fat largemouth. However, I have also caught lots of fine, deep-bodied 19" fish too, like these three:

I've only caught two, largemouth and smallmouth, but I'm wondering if any of you have set out to add five or six black bass notches to your fishing rod and succeeded. I'm thinking spots, Suwannee, meanmouth, Guadalupe, Redeye, etc.

@TnRiver46 Okay, after what you shared, I modify my prior comment from it looking like an alien world to "It is an alien world!" That branch with its own current that spins into a whirlpool is amazing. @AlabamaSpothunter I caught about three fish in 2022 that looked like the 7 lber, non that reached seven pounds, but all worried me. The last one, I couldn't even bare to photograph even though it went 18".

That river looks like it's on another planet to me. I've floated thousands of miles on rivers, but never paddled over a river bottom like that or past those trees. It's beautiful. Thanks for sharing! I'm guessing that the first, third, and fourth fish are Suwannee bass. Am I right? P. S. - When I fish, I don't just count. I also multiply.

I do note that we're both holding the fish as far from us as possible.

You best steer clear of Maine, then, for if pike are slime darts, then pickerel are slime needles. So skinny!

C'mon, Bob, make that two boats and TWO canoes! I've had boats park next to mine on Lake Michigan and on the Mississippi. They'd see me hauling fish over the side, drop anchor, and stare at me. I've even had boats troll around me. It's maddening. Lake Michigan is so friggin' big that there's no reason to come within a hundred yards of another boat. The Mississippi is huge too.

You make a good point, Darth. Heck, yeah, a 250-acre lake would be paradise. I'd love to feed fish too, like Blue Raider Bob, but once I started feeding them, I wonder if I would still want to catch them.

I didn't catch any big smallmouth in 2022, but I did catch some plump, healthy ones while fishing for largemouth. I don't know if the five above were the biggest, but they're representative. I also caught three smallie doubles, i.e. two smallmouth on one lure. I also caught one largie double, which was my best double, as the the two bass were 19" and 17". I count that as a 36" largemouth bass, so I win the Biggest Bass Trophy.* * I deserve the trophy because it was dang difficult duct taping those two bass together, mouth to tail, for the photo.

I'm with ironbjorn. Rather, I'm not with ironbjorn, as my proximity would ruin his paradise, but my paradise would be like his: a lonesome lake where my home is the only home. However, I'm pretty dang happy where I am. I fished 16 bodies of water in 2022 and have scouted another 28 to fish in 2023. It's rare for me to see another boat and that's what I like, a quiet lake where I can focus on the birds, beavers, and bass. Bonus: My town is beautiful. I'm glad I bought my house when I did, for at the rate the home prices are climbing, it'll soon be a rich people affordable-only town and at 66, I'm still working to pay the bills, like TriRiver46, meaning I'm not rich. Just folk, lucky to live in a pretty town.

Beautiful fish, Mr. 24.

Great photo. It conveys the sound and the fury.

Yeah, but I was young when I did it. Y'know, an immortal.

Whoa! That's big water. I have paddle both Lakes Superior and Michigan, but in retrospect, that seems foolhardy.

A 50,000 acre lake is beyond me as I paddle a puny, pokey canoe. I've scouted a 450-acre bog for 2023 and that intimidates me.

Cbump, your post made me laugh. We are sooo different. You go where fishermen cluster. I go where I'll be the only one.

I'm thinking about doing some striper fishing in my canoe i the Penobscot River in Maine in 2023, but I was already afraid and your words make me even more afraid!