Swamp Girl

I didn't fish May, June, and half of July, but once I realized that there are bass pert near everywhere, I got busy and caught hundreds. My best session, morning or evening, was 57, but I had many sessions in the forties. As most of you know, my main lure was the Whopper Plopper, but I also caught fish with a wacky-hooked Senko, a wakebait, jerkbaits, crankbaits, Mepps spinners, and froggin'. My challenges were: 1. Learning to fish weeds after decades of fishing rocky lakes in northwestern Ontario for smallmouth. 2. Froggin'! Man, it's hard, but it's the funnest form of fishing I've ever done because that frog makes them so mad and they often hit right beside my canoe and then you have to fight them in the half-liquid of weeds and water. 3. My dang nets. I bought three of this summer, but became wary of netting a fish because the hooks would tangle in the net. I'm hoping my third net, made of rubber and aluminum, will be the winner next year. 4. Becoming up-to-date on the new lures for largemouth. You guys reference so many lures and brands that I don't know. I made a little progress, but I have much further to go. 5. The dark. I've had such good fishing before sunrise and after sunset that I started fishing earlier in the morning and staying later in the evening. In the wilderness, there's not much that scares me, but when people might be near, I get the heeby-jeebies. So, I started wearing a knife, a tactical flashlight, and seriously potent pepper spray that's about ten times as powerful as bear spray. And I stop and listen sometimes in the dark, to discern if someone is afoot. My current challenge is waiting for next year!

Great video, Alex. I laughed and grinned through it. I love your excitement and I'm going to add buzzbaits to my tacklebox next year. I have NEVER caught a bass on a buzzbait. Heck, I've never even used a buzzbait for bass. I have caught five fish on a buzzbait, all muskies, in a single hour, which was perhaps the greatest hour of fishing I've ever enjoyed. I was fishing a strait with a wind howling through it and I needed something that could be heard over the chop. At one point, I had two V's/muskies chasing my buzzbait. If I'm smiling at the moment of my death, it's because I'm remembering that hour. Heck, yeah, Bob! I felt the same way!

I also try to drop a lure as lightly as possible onto the water.

I figured it was a raccoon. Well, my mini-carabiners arrive tomorrow. We'll see if that wily coon can solve them. Ha, Bob! I was a basketball coach for years. One year, at a tournament, the hosting high school hadn't turned on its hallway lights. I took a little walk and saw that they'd done some fancy brickwork, with bricks sticking out here and there. So, I fetched my girls, sat them in a circle, and told them that there used to be some seriously mean girls in that school, girls so mean that they drove other girls to suicide and after the deaths, they repented and asked that the girls who took their lives be buried in the walls of the school so that they'd feel like they finally belonged. Well, they intended well with that request, but what they didn't realize is that the girls in the walls heard all the laughter in the halls and grew angrier and angrier that they were missing out on the good times, so when it was dark, they'd push the bricks out of the walls and have their own good times in the dark. "C'mon," I told the girls. "I'll show you where they're buried." So, I took them down a horribly dark hallway and told them to feel their way by grazing their fingers across the walls and I led them to those jutting bricks. You should have heard them scream and laugh and watched them run when their fingertips touched those bricks!

Oh, yeah, he's my big brother, for sure. He used a plane to scout. I use Google Earth, but when I was a kid, I'd take my bike to scout for farm ponds right after a heavy rain when the ponds would leak and I could follow the the rivulets to the ponds. About ten days ago, to access a lake surrounded by private land, I baked some cookies for the landowner, much like Pat would trade accounting for access. And they were great cookies, with giant dark chocolate chips and roasted, salted pecans and real vanilla, so I know that landowner will remember me next spring! Pat is also sound conscious, like I am, and fishes the lesser fished water, like I do. He even used/uses 17 lb. mono like me! I'm only 1,113 ten-pound bass behind him, but my 19 and 20-inch bass thrill me like his ten-pound bass thrill him.

This is a great article about a great, great bass fisher. Thanks for the link, Alex. P.S. - When a man who's caught more than a thousand DD bass says he's hooked the new world record once or twice, I so believe him.

You and I really get into the shapes and colors and patterns of fish. Of course, we both love them big and fat, but there's more to enjoying a bass than simply its size. You once compared gardening to fishing and as a gardener, I would be silly to only treasure my biggest trees and bushes. Sure, I love, love, LOVE a big tree, but I also enjoy my lesser-in-size trees, but greater in color and form trees.

Do tell that story, Bob, when you have time. Say, TriRiver, since you're a critter professional, I have a suet feeder for the woodpeckers. Something keeps opening it and eating the entire suet cake. I have ordered some tiny carabiners to secure it because my twist ties didn't work. What do you think is stealing my suet? It eats the entire cakes. I find not a bit at the base of my post, suggesting it's a bigger animal. Also, if anyone ever rear ends you when you have skunks for passengers, they are going to be sorry.

Yikes, Bob! I have one of those traps too. One time red squirrels visited my bird feeders. They were so cute that I bought some treats just for them. A couple months later, they were everywhere, including my porch and roof thanks to my inadvertent squirrel breeding program! I trapped 33 and relocated them to a wildlife refuge, one at a time. It took about two minutes and one peanut to trap one. Say, how do you move a skunk?

I like you already, Jamo. "Why?" you ask. Or perhaps you said, "Huh?" Well, here's why: You fish overlooked neighborhood ponds. That's my shtick too! I even fished those overlooked ponds when I was a kid. And I fished where everyone else fished, I'd fish the farthest, nastiest corners of those lakes and reservoirs. I once fished where a pond emptied its overflow under the road into a bitsy pool on the other side. I could have hopped across that pool, but it was full of the biggest bullheads I have ever caught. I think they just lay in that pool with their mouths open and grew and grew and grew. Your fishing kin, Ol' Crickety

Congrats on another fine fishing trip, Alex. That first spot is beautiful and that third fish is on its way to becoming one of your beloved five-pounders. You can safely consider it a pre-five-pounder. The lm in the second photo too!

15 mph would be way too much for me. I'll stick to fishing in the Land of Trees, aka Big, Green Windshields. However, since you do take your kids fishing and you do have a big boat, I am open to being adopted. Being old, figure on me napping on the way home too

I love the way you write, Phish. It's distinctive, creative, and playful. My suggestion is to recatch that third fish in five years. The way it's eating now, it'll be huge down the road. Regarding Blue and his giddy kitty-sized fish, here's my plan: Buy a canoe trailer. Load my canoe on the trailer. Tow the canoe to Blue's house. Hitch my canoe to Blue's boat trailer. This will require installing another tongue and ball. Wait in my canoe for Blue to go fishing.

I'm thrilled for you, Alex! That big bass is big from its mouth to its tail. I'm also thrilled that it was so powerful. I love when they take line. Hey, thanks for the lure tip! Woody, the drought-stricken folks of California, Kansas, and Utah will pay you big bucks to arrive and doff your raingear. Tririver46, that smallmouth looks like an Olympian. All muscle, no fat. Or an NFL wideout. What helps me count is that I'm in the boat by myself and on the lake by myself. There's no one to distract me.

A fisher at Minnesota's Mille Lacs recently broke the state length record for muskies. He released her and speaking of the catch, he thanked all who had caught and gently released her over the years and said he looked forward to her being caught again and again. I love that guy. I also love how respectfully you guys disagree. For the record, I side with Alex. Protect the exceptional genes.

No wetsuit yet, but I did pack dry clothes into a dry bag at your urging and although I never had to use it, I was grateful you encouraged me to do that.

Okay, I'm now your fangirl.

I like trip reports like this, the ones where we were befuddled, but remain tenacious and also recognize that being on the water, even if the wind is howling and the skies are gray, beats watching the plastic, preening Kardashains every dang day times infinity.

And on the 8th day, He gilded the sky and smiled.

^Heck, yeah! If there's a Heaven, I'll die, go to the light, and find myself in Ontario.^ From time to time, I Zillow Floyd.Maybe someday, but the clock ticks faster and faster nowadays.

Keep fishing, Woody! I'm done for 2022, so I need you southern guys to keep bringing fish aboard. Nice spot! Crazy heavy for 14 inches. It's cool that you weighed it.

You do have great rivers. I walked across VA on the Appalachian Trail and fell in love with it. More than once, I thought Floyd would be a great place to live.

^And here's another funny line!^

I launched my canoe in total darkness and was on the water for five minutes when my headlamp stopped working. It was windy too, so I was bobbing in the dark. I ended my fishing season like Willie Mays in center field, bumbling and stumbling. I did hear a hoot owl and we chatted for a bit, as I do a pretty good hoot owl imitation, good enough to fool those birds. And the stars were brilliant. I'd forgotten how bright they can be, since I always have light with me that dims them. When there was finally enough light to see, I was struck by how deep into the fall we are. Only the larches had a few leaves and the reeds looked as dry and cracklin' as November corn. So, I went home, made some chai tea, and looked at pics of fish caught this wonderful year!