Swamp Girl

For your edification, I've worked out a FOOL-PROOF 3-step program to catching BIG bass: 1. Be Alex... 2. ...in Alabama... 3. ...in December. You are welcome.

Striped bass are crazy strong. That must have been a blast!

Your best canoe on your best pond = BLISS

@ padlin I also love those no homes-lakes. I like your ride too!

@Blue Raider Bob

Gosh, I love seeing this fishing holes as much as I love seeing their fish.

It was heavenmonium!

^Beautiful fish^ I can't stop looking at them.

ScottW, I was the trickiest teacher in the Midwest. We'd be reading a story and one of the characters from the story would crawl into the classroom through an open window. Or we'd be writing about a make-believe camping trip, complete with tents and "campfire" in the classroom, when a bear would amble into the room. I even created a superhero who defended our school and supervillains who attacked it. I loved teaching. Can ya tell?

^This made me laugh and also made my eyes shine with tears.^ As far as giggly boys, I was a prairie schoolmarm and I'd be on the floor with my students, reading, and one would fart. "Who did that?" someone would always say. And I'd always say, to protect the farter, "It was me." And because the kids loved me, they would never tease me. Well, one day, they suddenly realized that I wasn't the fartiest teacher on the prairie we all giggled and giggled, the boys as much as the girls.

@Blue Raider Bob Bob, have you read "Citizen Soldiers" by Stephen Ambrose? If not, then do. One reason I admire "The Greatest Generation" is that they all stepped up, including the famous and the rich. Jimmy Stewart flew bombing runs over Nazi Germany. The president's four sons not only enlisted, but FDR and Eleanor made certain that they were put in harm's way. Can you imagine that today? I can't. Here's one poignant thing I learned in reading "Citizen Soldiers": Ambrose observed that in training camp, the men who blustered about their fighting prowess weren't the heroes, that it was the quiet men who stepped out from cover to take out an enemy machine gun...and often died, whereas the braggarts were busy soiling themselves. I'm going to message you a couple fishing essays I've written for Gray's Sporting Journal. I'll also send you a short story that they published. And I'll send you an essay that's about to be published in a different magazine. It's about the time I wore sugar maple leaves in my hair into an aggressive college classroom. Please keep telling your stories. I have my own weasel story. I was sitting at the head of some steep, shallow, rock-laden rapids in northwestern Ontario. There was a lot of noise and water in the air and the stones were slippery, which is why an otter making his way upstream to me by rock-hopping was focused on keeping his paws on the rocks and not in the water. He came closer and closer and closer and finally I made a courtesy noise. Lawdy, he was surprised! Weasel stories aren't the only thing we share. If you substituted farm ponds and creeks for your rightfully beloved swamps, we had the same childhood. I was burnished with dirt and freckled with scabs. Heck, when I was 15, my dad took me to a wilderness island and left me there for five weeks. What a dad! In high school, I rode my bike to Canada. Twice. It's not that I had a long leash. I was unfettered. If you'd seen me with my scuffs and scabs, you would have opened your arms and said, "Sister!" And I would have looked at your barb wire scars and wet, muddy feet, opened my arms, and yelled, "Brother!" One last thing: Today, my favorite places to fish are the swamps. They're like teasing burlesque dancers, slowly revealing their treasures. Look for the message with the stories.

Alex, the MOST useful thing for me to see in videos is the retrieve. If I can see what your hands are doing, then I can do it too. Sure, I like those videos where they show surface hits, but they're not nearly as educational as getting to see a fisher work the bait. When I work a jerkbait, I always worry that there's some special twitch that I'm not doing, but you, Alex, really mix up your jerkbait retrieves and I'm going to do that too, come spring. Thanks, professor!

Alex! What a day!!! You are a heckuva fisherman. Nearly all of us have hung our rods for the winter, but you don't just keep casting. You are landing so many gorgeous fish. Quantity and quality! Thank you for caring about their health. And thank you for posting these videos. I missed watching you catch fish due to Christmas! I love how you catch fish with less. Such a basic boat and I love basic boats. They're what I've used all my fishing life too. And a stealthy boat with your electric motor! I was on Green Bay last summer and I saw a guy fishing from a cigar boat with FIVE four-hundred horsepower engines (No lie.). He was drunk and had caught nothing. He asked what I'd caught and I told him and he smirked, thinking me a liar. Sometimes less catches more and less is a lot more fun, for you're closer to the fish and you and I and many others here love that connection. That lure you used is beautiful. It caught you and it caught your big bass too!

@Woody B I know that exact secret spot!

So beautiful, Bob. I've lined my driveway with paperbark maples. I love a lined driveway, be it trees or fence or in your case, BOTH!

^Heartbreakingly true^ Bob, I've done some outdoor writing. You could get published, I think, with enough persistence. As a fisher, you already possess persistence, and you also possess the memory for fine details. I'm reading "At the Loch of the Green Corrie" right now. I urge you to buy it and savor it. It's about three men who hike to a lake in the highlands of Scotland because a dead poet suggested it. Like you, Andrew Greig, the author, takes you along, letting you hike beside him and loft flies to those very same trout.

Bob, your post is my all-time favorite post at Bass Resource. Wanna know why? Well, look at your line that I quoted. That's why! You just took all of us along to fish at Raft. I loved the entire trip. The cheeseburger and Coca-Cola in the old, green bottles at St. Francis diner. Then Bobbie's. Turning left just before crossing the bridge over Alligator Bayou. The dirt road. The steep embankment. Loading the leaky boat. Catching all those fish and begging to catch a few more. You're a helluva storyteller, Bob, and that's a helluva story you told. Thank you.

Welcome, Paulie. There are a lot of Tennessee fishers who post at Bass Resource. The next time you're on the water, just yell "BASS RESOURCE!!!" as loud as you can and someone will hail you.

MN Fisher, I want your wife to like me too! Tell her I'm okey-dokey, okay-dokay? Now I can't wait until next Christmas when I too get a guided fishing trip! P. S. - Love the mug!

MN Fisher is correct, however there is a caveat: European pike grow ginormous. They're the same species as North American pike, but I'm guessing it's a northern strain/southern strain LM deal. Here's one: https://www.advnture.com/news/world-record-pike-claimed

What a great gift.

If I'd been tournament director, I would have awarded you First Prize in the Ernest Shackleton/Never Quit Division.

This is so kind of you. PM your snail mail and I'll sign some picture books and send them to you, assuming that you have children or grandchildren young enough for picture books. If not, send me your snail mail and I'll send you some chocolates, a kringle, or beef jerky. Your choice. This is roadwarrior driving past my house the other night:

Thanks, Tim. I'm thinking of buying one and throwing it on my froggin' rod, which is 7.5', MH, and has 50 lb. braid. Like I said, I'd love to double and triple up on bass. Just for giggles! Do you have an A-Rig to suggest for bass?