Swamp Girl

I could fire off a few casts, but then I'd have to worm through the thicket that's a Maine forest. I see photos posted by the shore fishers here, with the grass sloping down to the water, but the local ponds and bogs are nothing like that. However, thanks for the suggestion!

Way to go, Bob! Our ponds still haven't frozen. If I weren't afraid of tipping and dying, I'd still be fishing. The water might still be soft, but it's cold enough to quick freeze me.

A trip where every fish is in the four to six-pound range is jaw-dropping. Why wouldn't a guide let you use a bait casting outfit?

You went old school!

@thediscochef Dear Santa, I'm not asking for anything nice for myself. I've earned all of my 66 lumps of coal. However, I am asking for one thing for thediscochef. It's this (See below.). I know your eyes are old, so I had a friend hold it up high and close so you can see. Please, for the love of Christmas, don't bring him a freshwater drum and if you can't deliver a big bass, he will accept an Official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle, but a big bass is the ultimate gift, you know:

You always can spot the real ones who fish on their lunch half hour break.

Love that thumb! Cool that you realized they'd dredged a channel. Even better that you found what they wanted. Now to watch the video!

This would gut me. I'm so sad it happened to you.

I would have L-O-V-E-D your fishing day. Those bass are comically fat and your sunfish are tropically colorful and beautiful. And trout too? Whoa, what a day!

A pal in Wyoming once took me rainbow fishing. The reservoir felt alien to me, with opaque, brown water and rocky shorelines. When I wrote "rocky shorelines," don't imagine shorelines in northern Minnesota or Ontario, with cathedral trees and Scotch moss growing on the rocks. There was nothing on those rocks and beyond them, more rocks and more rocks. Brown beyond brown. We caught a lot of trout, but even that fishing was alien with lead lines and planers. It was mechanical and complex and took considerable time to even begin fishing. Then, with all those lines out, you didn't stop the motor to reel a hooked fish. Yeah, we caught a lot of fish, but if he invited me again, I'd pass. My point is that bass fishing, where I fish, is cozy. The water doesn't sprawl. It's clean and clear. So is the air, which is scented with white pine. And bass aren't the only wildlife. There are loons singing and beavers slapping and owls hooting. My cozy canoe is part of it too. I love fishing from my light, responsive boat. No electronics. No vast array of tackle. Just an old fisher, a paddle, a hull, and some rods and reels. Yes, and my net and old camera too. My point is that my boat is light. It's an extension of me, replying to my merest shifts and not a behemoth that I stride. I feel the water beneath my feet. I am moved by the wind. The bass pull me and my canoe. I am connected. And I love how I don't know where the bass are. I've cast to some spots, that in my mind, flashed "BASS HERE," in neon, but nada, like reeds and pads abutting deep water. Then I catch bass in the middle of a pond, on the surface, and sans structure, and up against a beaver dam, practically lodging with the beavers, and in a foot of water, where there's more weeds than water and I wonder how they even manage to swim. So, for me, my top three loves of bass are: 1. The mystery 2. My connection to a canoe 3. The jaw-dropping beauty of bass homes

I had good luck in 2022 with a Senko with a bright yellow tip. I kept trying one-color Senkos, but I kept returning to the yellow tipped ones because they're what the bass wanted, I've already shared in other threads how much Maine bass like a Mepps #3 with a brass blade and bare hook, but I'll say it again: They love it! The smallmouth too.

Those break-ins make me sad, Woody. And mad. @LrgmouthShad Love that smile!

Alex, can a heron eat a bass that big? Sweet spot!

What an exciting session, Brian! Really nice photos too. Don't be hard on yourself. Big fish became big fish by being smart and strong.

The only tournament I ever fished (It was a tiny tournament.) was for muskies. I was paired with another woman. Musky fishing is macho and we were feeling the heat, even if it wasn't there, as the guys were nice. So, my partner hooked a musky and I netted it and we were so happy that we put a fish on the board, which meant we belonged, that I simply dropped the net into the water to photograph the fish. I didn't realize I'd lost the net until I caught it on my next cast. It was a big net, which likely helped me catch it.

@Smells like fish Great photos!

ALEX!!!!!!! What a belly on that bass!!! I too await the video with bated breath because I love to see predators bunching baitfish. Wait, since we're talking fishing, maybe it's baited breath.* *Sorry. Nerd Humor. I apologize.

@ The Bassman No Midwesterner who catches bass in December, wearing gloves, following surgery, is a weakling. Here's a story of other tough people: I used to drive across northern Wisconsin in January. The wind would be howling and the Amish would be pedaling their bicycles. I'd see them and think, "Toughest people on Earth."

I like the edge of a wild rice thicket or any similar reed. I like casting parallel to them, retrieving my lure as close as possible to the cover. Like many others, I also love lily pads.

When I was a kid, my father drove us to northern Michigan to fish for pike. I was so excited! So, I saved up my money and bought an imitation Dardevle spoon. Remember them? Thin metal? Cheap hooks. Still, it was all I could afford. And I cast it with my Zebco 606, let it settle to the bottom, and waited and waited and waited for a pike to pick it up.

@AlabamaSpothunter Alex is back on the water!

@Aaron_H

Hmm. In Maine, I thought it was just the opposite. Maybe I need to give more bluebird days their due attention.

I'm like you. I only fished about 16 bodies of water in 2022, but I already have another 24 in the queue, all less than an hour from home and all different. I'm going to scout one of the new ones tomorrow. As I've shared in the past, I look for water without boat launches and the less shoreline development, the better. I don't mind launching at a creek and paddling it for a mile to reach a pond that has no road to it. I don't mind fishing water right beside a highway. It's my experience that some people overlook the most obvious water. Same with little ponds. @MIbassyaker, I admire how you've fine tuned your fishing sites to know what fishes best in spring and what fishes best in July. I'm nowhere near that. I think it'll take several seasons to achieve that understanding. ^Yep.^