Swamp Girl

Bob, you don't just live in Heaven; YOU BUILT HEAVEN! It's so cool to see the depth of fellow fishers. I'm a hard worker too and they say that game knows game in sports, well, hard work knows hard work. You're creative too. I love your fish viewing hole and I love your otter stories. I also love that you feed your fish. Since you shared a winter shot, I'll share one of one of my winter gardens. The raised beds are limestone. The pathways are rose quartz. It has a secret garden in one corner and a tea garden in another, which you can't see. I used architectural elements from Victorian houses, and I laid three patios and two paver sidewalks. My current garden under construction is much bigger and the garden between the one in the photo and the current one was featured in Maine Woman magazine. I do 99% of the work myself. The only work I can't do are the big boulders and I have to hire a man and a machine to lift those. I just built five raised beds from Hemlock for my current garden and like the garden in the photo, it also a secret section, which is a Japanese garden. Jeremy, I've designed my Maine garden to ease me through the winter. I built two mounded beds in front of my house. One is planted with red twig dogwoods, with branches that grow redder the colder it grows. The other is planted with yellow twig dogwoods, which turn gold in the cold. My driveway is lined with Paperbark maples, which at their most beautiful in the winter with their cinnamon and salmon-colored exfoliating bark and I've also planted over a hundred evergreens. Eric, I like what you wrote! P.S. - Included a summer shot of the same garden too! I think it's funny how men and women react differently to my gardens. Women say, "It's so beautiful!" Men are quiet at first as they scan the garden and then they say, "This. was. a. lot. of. work."

I love, love, LOVE your floating dock. I also love that the otter loves it too. Maine isn't all beautiful bogs and ponds. I scouted a smallmouth pond this morning and the road to it bristled with junk cars, abandoned trailers, and signs threatening death and mutilation by guns and dogs. It's the sort of road that inspired Mainer Steven King. Think about your beautiful pond. Now think about the exact opposite of that and that's what I saw. It's a pond I'll never fish.

Heck, yeah. That bass looks like it just ate a school of shad.

I like that guy, Mr. Chef. I'm always grateful for kind people; It doesn't matter if they were kind to me or not. The world needs more mensches!* *In case you don't know, a mensch is a Yiddish word for a solid person.

I have a completely different take on life: I think some things can't be explained; others can. ^FYI, I'm be goofy here.^

Upon reflection, I'm going to not go with a particular fish, but every fish that was deep and heavy and unzipped before I got a glance. When I never see them, I always wonder if that one was the Great White Whale, whether it was a pike or smallie or musky or walleye or bigmouth.

Softwateronly, that looks like one of Gimruis's blimps.

Mike, those look like Yankee bass. They're so dark and beautiful, especially that second one.

Alex, you always encourage all of us, but no one posts more four-pound-plus fish than you. You are the man.

^Beautiful photo!^

Steve, thanks for the peacock bass photos. They dazzle me! Gimruis, last night and this morning, I was thinking about your yesterday of fishing. Wow! A-Jay's tagline is "Quality over quantity," but yours should be, "Quality and quantity." So, I've decided to surrender Maine to Minnesota on ONE condition: We absolutely refuse to bleach our bass to look like Minnesota bass! I went to a foggy bog this morning. It's not a numbers pond. It's an A-Jay pond with quality over quantity. I did manage to catch 12 fish. The first bass made me laugh as it tried to eat a lure its size. The second bass was the typical size. The third bass was an especially nice 17-incher. The last bass was my FIRST 19-incher of the fall. Woo-hoo! The photo quality is horrible because there was some water on the lens.

Beautiful fish, Gimruis! They've all got that great football shape.

I love the quality of the evening light where you fish, Alex. BTW, ospreys go, "Scree, scree, scree!" A lot like hawks. And loons sound like melancholy angels singing. P. S. - Nice fish!

Thanks, Tim. I always laugh when you call me "a HAMMER." I told my mom that you called me that. Remember that she's 88. "Why would he call you that?" she asked. "Is he being mean to you?" "No, it's a compliment." "Why is a hammer a compliment?" "Because I hammer the fish." "You hit the fish with a hammer?" "Trust me, Mom, he's being nice and I'm nice to the fish too."

I'm going early too. Not full darkness, but right at the end of night. Full darkness would be too creepy! Please feel free to share this with your wife: "Mrs. Tim, your hubby is wise."

Tim, you are wise. That 5/0 hook is a beast.

Thanks, guys. I just upsized my hook to 5/0. I was going to use my froggin' outfit tomorrow, but now I know that's wrong.

Alex, whenever I see the eagles, ospreys, and loons, I think, "I wish Alex were here. He'd like to see and hear these great birds." And when I catch a dark and beautiful fish, I think of you too! The smallmouth did have great shapes and color. I can tell within a second or two if I've hooked a smallmouth or largemouth. The smallmouth like lateral runs, whereas the largemouth are bulldoggy, hunkering and holding their ground. I'm going to fish my big fish swamp tomorrow morning. It's an A-Jay place, with quality over quantity, so I might just catch three fish and I'm hoping one of them is scale-worthy. I'm going to use my new Rage Swimmers tomorrow morning. I've got a pumpkin-colored one and one that's red and blue.

I fished a pumpkin 4.75" Rage Swimmer. It's ribbed and has a paddle tail. I paired it with an Eagle Claw Tro Kar weighted swimbait hook in 3/0. Do you wait a sec to set the hook with this setup? I ask because I lost several fish before a pickerel cut my line and that setup was my only one in the canoe.

I keep thinking I'm done fishing for 2022 and then a warm, calm morning yanks me out of the sack. Plus, we got 4.5" of rain yesterday and last night and I thought that all the new water might stir some fish. The day started out well with a strike on my Whopper Plopper on the my first cast, but for the first 1.5 hours, they were pecking at my lures. I caught more smallmouth than I usually do and they were chunky and hard fighting. I also caught six largemouth bass on a wacky worm, cast to the swirl where they just hit my Whopper Plopper. I couldn't catch a single fish on my wake bait and recently, that was the only thing they'd hit. I also did well with a jointed, shallow-running crankbait and a pumpkin-colored paddle tail swimbait. I couldn't buy a bite with my normally reliable Mepps. I was not the only fisher on the lake. There were eagles, ospreys, and loons. The loons are singing fishers. As is nearly always the case, there were no other fishers in boats, banging and clanging like they ain't got no sense. I caught 41 fish. Only one pickerel. I don't know how the other fishers fared. I looked at them and thought, "I wish I were a feathered fisher too." Maybe they looked at me and thought, "I wish I were fishing from a canoe too."

Heck, yeah! I do too. I caught 41 this morning, just three miles from my house. So. Much. Fun!

I envy you year-round fishers. I tried ice fishing once. One and done. Sitting on a bucket staring at a hole ain't fishing.

I agree with roadwarrior. That's incredible fishing.

Bob, I was steadily froggin' and getting hits on just about every other cast (I didn't catch most of those bass.). Then, one day, nada. I tried a couple more times and still zip. So, I quit. Yeah, we have a wealth of water and bass aren't even the top prize here. Brookies and landlocked Atlantic salmon are. And, yes, it can be pricey. That's because rich New Yorkers and Bostonians buy their summer homes here. However, there are affordable properties too. I bought my five wooded acres with a 2,000 square foot house for $243,000 just 1.5 years ago and I'm close enough to the ocean to smell it and feel it.

Missouri and Massachusetts sound great. This thread is eye-opening.