Swamp Girl

Through both messaging and the forums, as well as emails and phone calls, I've come to know many of you far beyond what lures you prefer. Thanks to Glenn and the mods who keep this website bobbing merrily downstream, I've been able to celebrate your good times (Big bass! New dog! New boat! New child! New job!) and stood in humble witness to your hard times. In the short time I've been here, some of us have passed and some of us are fighting the good fight. I've got to see where you find bass and thrilled to your stories of fish landed and fish lost. Not a day passes when I don't come here. So, thanks.

So true, unlike coastal Maine, where once it turns cold, it stays cold. FWIW, I love Iowa. I have family in Perry.

Yo, Thoreau!

Simple? I don't think @WRB-2.0 would agree that it's simple and Tom has caught two 17+-pounders, two 18+-pounders, and one 19+-pounder. Tom also had the likely world record bass hooked...and Tom would know what the world record bass would look and feel like.* Then there's Pat Cullen who caught more than 1,200 DD bass. For perspective, Kevin VanDam's biggest bass ever caught in a tournament weighed in at 11 pounds, 13 ounces. For Tom, that bass would be a nice one, but not a giant, and for Pat Cullen, that bass would be yet another Thursday night, as he fished at night. *Unlike me. If I ever hooked an 11-pound bass, I'd be screaming, "It's the world record! It's the world record!"

I once caught 254 and 251 smallies in consecutive days. Sadly, I can't reach that lake anymore and even if I had a young man to carry my canoe and gear to the lake, I couldn't fish from pre-dawn to post-dusk, which is how you catch 254 smallies in a day.

I lose them there too, Mike. Eel grass is a "Get out of jail free" card for bass.

You self-reflect like @Lottabass catches bass: BIG TIME!

As someone who's lived a lifetime of literally launching myself on waves, I'm especially fond of the one above. I so agree. You are Henry David II.

I dove a bit deeper into Walden Pond. Thoreau wasn't a linear thinker. Here's another argument for an uncluttered mind: "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment." And here is another rebuttal, suggesting that the best life is lived by not acquiring: "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it."

Well, here Thoreau disagrees with your assertion: "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone." And here Thoreau agrees: "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment."

They had it much easier than you're thinking. The eastern forest was described as "park-like" by those who first forayed into it. That's because the old growth trees subdued the brush. The Maine first today is a scrum, created by successive clear-cuttings, a tangle of flora all struggling to claim the rugby ball/light.

You've got range, making you a ranger! Is this you?

I understand this, Dwight. I'm not in the same place, but I understand and admire your courage in facing your mortality and your tenacity in pursuing the biggest possible bass. I don't join you in your pursuit because I think I've already caught my biggest possible bass in Maine, which happened last year with my PB and my PB five-bass bag, when I caught an estimated seven-pounder, two sixes, a five, and several fours one morning.* I'll likely never enjoy the conditions that enabled that big bag again, which was a dam that was opened to draw down the water and condensed the bog bass. A few days later, an upstream dam was opened and the bog was refilled. FWIW, that morning nearly emptied me. I launched in the dark, paddled for miles, running aground several times, and landed so many big bass. When I reached my car again, I had to carry my canoe up a muddy bank, but when I exited my canoe and tried to stand, I immediately fell into the mud, my point being that I don't think I would even want to fish a lot more mornings like that one. Yeah, it was great, but it emptied my tank. And my PB was a unicorn too. I've never seen another like her, not even one that I hooked and lost. I caught her so early in the spring that she was cold and hardly fought and I hooked her in open water, so she came to the canoe without a single weed on her. Again, the conditions were highly unusual and I got lucky. If I hooked another eight-pounder in the heavy cover I often fish, I can't imagine landing her. Getting lucky two times is enough for me. *I am good at estimating the weights of bass. I watch YouTube videos and usually guess correctly within an ounce or two. I hear ya.

What we have here is a North Carolina Joe and an Iowa Pat. Twin brothers from different mothers. Naught like that yet, but I ought!

While chatting with @Lottabass this morning, I realized that I apply Thoreau's "Simplify, simplify, simplify" to my angling. I have owned several boats with motors, but I now prefer my paddled canoes and kayaks because I don't have to fiddle with gas, tuneups, ramps, etc. And come winter, I simply flip my boats upside down beside the ponds. After trying several larger tackleboxes, I've settled on this one, about the size of the one I used as a kid: Plus, most of my reels have been used for decades. Now, I'm not full Thoreau. That would be bank anglers like @Joedodge and @Bazoo and they aren't even full Thoreau unless they're fishing with one rod, but walking through nearby woods to a waiting canoe would likely make Thoreau nod in approval. To be frank, I'm Thoreau-ish because I'm pushing 70. I once towed my boat to the Mississippi, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan because I had youth's energy. And I'd bushwhack Ontario's Crown Land to reach far yonder lakes, lakes beyond the ken of 99.99% of anglers. So, I don't live large anymore. I no longer thrill to 100 and sometimes 200-bass days. And even when I was living larger, I was never @22RangerZ520R hauling a big, tricked-out boat thousands of miles to fish the hottest bass water in the world for the biggest bass. That's both above my pay grade and skill level. However, it doesn't feel like I'm living small when I hook a four-pounder that pulls me into the weeds. That's plenty of drama for me. And some afternoons, I don't even take five rods. I take one with a few spare soft plastic lures in my pocket. Yeah, here and there, I go full Thoreau and I love it. I bought a fourth boat this fall, an Old Town Predator 13 (used, of course), but even that is to simplify my life because I'm keeping it at my pal's pond, which means no more driving my Kevlar canoe there. So, in 2026, I'll have three boats waiting at two ponds and I'll only have to load my rods and tacklebox to go fishing, five and twelve minutes away. Simple, simple, simple. So, my questions: Have you simplified your fishing over the last ten years or complicated it? If you'd complicated it, is it because you love tech or because you love the hunt for the biggest bass? If you've simplified it, how is that working for you?

Al goes out with a bang:

Not @Lottabass. That guy catches a lotta bass.

I also think you can.

I fish with spinning gear from a canoe. I can use baitcasters as I once fished for only muskies, but my spinning outfits were bought for northwestern Ontario and they still work for Maine's lmb. You are absolutely right about the wind putting you in awkward casting positions while canoe-fishing. I don't think there's a worse boat than a light, high-sided canoe in the wind, but there's also no lighter boat, which I need as I'm old and weak.

I use them both and like them both. I don't feel one is better.

I think I've caught giants. The Lindners agree, as they equate a 6.5 NLMB with a 10-pounder in the South. If I caught a 10-pounder at OH Ivie, I'd be elated, but no prouder than I've been catching 6.5-pounders in the Northwoods. And I'm fishing like @the reel ess, with no guide and no FFS, which ups the shine on my pride, for no one and no thing is telling me where to cast. We can only catch the bass that swim in our water. So, when @Bazoo catches a four-pounder, as he occasionally does, that's a giant, for the pond he fishes doesn't grow many of those.

Great video, Pat. Keep making them. You're as good at making videos as you are at catching bass.

I love that nap pic!

Let's all move to Iowa.

Wow! Wow again! Thanks for that.