Swamp Girl

I'd like a small house in northwestern Ontario. It wouldn't have to be on a lake since there are lakes everywhere. More important than the house would be an off-road vehicle with two locking differentials and a winch. I'd be within reach of hundreds of lakes with chunky, acrobatic smallmouth, heavy, hungry pike, and tasty walleyes. Best of all, millions of people would be hundreds of miles away!

Thanks for the info. As I understand you, they might be averse to eating for stretches and then suddenly turn on en masse. Did I get that right?

I caught five bass exploring a new river this morning, but the emphasis was on exploring rather than fishing. I think the river could hold lots of bass at some point in the season because it's loaded with bassy cover, i.e. fallen trees and loads of weeds, but I don't know when. Any guesses as to when I should return? The river connects two bassy bodies of water and is about four miles long, with creeks feeding it and several cool inlets.

Tim, you da man! I love how your tenacity was rewarded. Big time.

Tim, your photos AND fish are beautiful. Yes, the Thames in England. Great river in a great country! Alex, I didn't fish the bog. I went exploring instead, paddling up a river. I did catch five bass as I explored, but it was mostly exploring. I paddled until I could paddle no farther due the river shrinking and deadfalls.

I love how the fishers here help each other. That is so cool how you can read that screen. I paddled the Thames source to sea and literally squealed with delight when I saw my first swan. 10,000 swans downriver with a couple that buzzed me, I wasn't quite as excited. Tim, I fished the Kenora, Ontario region for years. I don't know if you've read any of my posts, but I fished lakes without ramps, cabins, and lodges. 100-smallmouth days per person were not uncommon. When my dad hit 80, I started buying him trips to lakes with cabins and lodges and the quantity and quality of the fish dropped sharply. If you're up for it, portaging a canoe and sleeping in a tent multiplies the size and number of fish you'll catch.

In a world of fish finders and pedal-controlled trolling motors, I don't think lugging canoes into bogs will ever trigger a Cabbage Patch doll rush.

How about a wake bait? I don't think they're thrown as often as other surface lures.

Gosh, I hope I get to use my scale! I'm going to cast that jointed, shallow running, Shad-colored Rapala and a bluegill-colored, shallow-running, square-billed crankbait. If I land one, I'm going to yell loud enough for you to hear, "I did it!"

My dream, Alex, is to wrench my canoe through the woods, paddle deep into some dark bog, cast into a thicket of shadows and weeds, and to catch a big bass like YOU GUYS CATCH! I top out at 21 inches and I'd love to truly earn a bigger fish and to thrill to it in the wildest possible place.

Thanks, Alex! This morning's lake was a quantity lake. Tomorrow I'm going to a quality bog. I've carried my scale for three trips now and didn't catch a fish big enough to use it yet. I want to catch a 19-inch fish before the water hardens to weigh it. I like how you express gratitude to RoadWarrior. Beautiful bass! Mainebass1984, if you're still casting, give me a holler!

It was 39 degrees when I started fishing this morning. Geese in V-formations also reminded me what's coming, as did the red shorelines. I fished a lake this morning instead of a bog, which meant smallmouth and largemouth. I caught 30 fish. No pickerel and three smallmouth. Lots of bass in the 15 to 18-inch range. I did take a photo of a 14-incher so you can see that the smaller ones are eating well too. It's the first photo. I also photographed the lure that caught most of my fish, a shallow-running, Shad-colored, jointed Rapala. I caught one fish on a Whopper Plopper. That bass was the fish of a hundred casts. Two mornings back, at a bog, the Whopper Plopper was what the bass wanted. Not this morning at this lake. I made the mistake of fishing too long with the Whopper Plopper, thinking the bass might look up at some point. Didn't happen. The lake was so clear that I got to see a couple bass bump my jointed Rapala without sticking. I'm always amazed how fish can do that. At the bottom, there's also a pic of the Senko worm that I've used for follow-up casts. Maine bass like the bright tip on the worm. I've used just pumpkin-colored with much less success. I figure Alex will enjoy the three smallmouth bass since he likes dark Maine bass. The Maine smallies are even darker than the bigmouth bass.

We call that a big guy up north!

Mr. Chef, for a newspaper article, I once fished with an accomplished female fisher. That day, we only caught small smallies, but I will never forget what she said as we boated each one: "They're all good."

I nearly had the same night. I had five rods in my boat and would sometimes cast each one just once in succession trying to determine what they wanted. I'd switch lures too, but nada. I even paddled to the ends of bays to the shallowest water, hoping to find them there. I fished deep too. The only pattern I could find was beaver dams. They seemed to be holed up in the dams themselves. Finally, I caught two out of the dams and lost two, but mostly I just held a casting practice. However, it was an evening as pretty as Brad Pitt times Audrey Hepburn, so I did land that hog in the bog. If we can just land his address, we can all crash one of his cookouts. Accidentally, of course.

This is the best fishing report of the year! It's got it all: drama, surprise, big bass, scenery, and a great father/daughter fishing team.If we could vote for best fishing report, you'd have my vote.

Alex, that bass's mouth is so big it looks like it could eat its entire body, like a snake swallowing itself, starting at the tail.

Regarding the cray-cray bog-fishing requirement, I did bonk a rock. I saw other rocks, but the rock I hit was a complete surprise. If I'd been in a bigger, faster boat, I might have permanently docked that boat on the bottom of the bog. I'm about to leave for fishing again and it looks like rain. Hooray for that! I love overcast skies because bass like overcast skies and I've had some big fish hit my surface lures when rain is pelting the surface.

No cheese grating. I was wearing a glove...thanks to you guys! I also had my scale for the first time, but no fish big enough to weigh. Dang it! Oh, well. I'm going fishing again for a couple hours this evening, so fingers crossed I get to weigh my first fish EVER! Alex, you'd catch 30 fish if you fished my bogs. They're too small and weed-cluttered for most fishers, which means more fish ready to punch my dance card.

Alex, it's fall in Maine, which made for some pretty fishing this morning. It was also pretty tough fishing. I fished the shallowest of my bogs and it was even shallower, which puzzles me, as it's been raining steadily. I had to search for water where I could cast. A stretch might look open, but then there'd be weeds half an inch below the surface. There were also stretches with leaves floating on the water, which I liked. I caught 29 fish, two pickerel and 27 bass, but nothing big. I did have one nicer fish single hooked by the canoe, but it unbuttoned. Earlier in the summer, I lost a Whopper Plopper to a poorly tied knot. That fish kindly returned it. It happened again this morning (Dumb to not check my knot, huh?), so I waited for the bass to return it and it did (Smart to be patient, huh?), coming out of the water and shaking it free. T-Billy (Tim) once called me a "hammer." This morning, I was a tack hammer. Some fall color followed by a perfect hornets' nest in the rain followed by a few fish:

Doc, did you get a measurement on that fish?

Update: I've fallen in love with bog fishing. Over the last month, I used my Whopper Plopper a lot in the bogs, casting between the pads and using my frog and wacky worms. I'll be bog fishing again tomorrow at two different bogs. My last outing, I only caught three bass and that was six or seven days ago. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, to see if I can crack autumnal bog bass. Someone suggested dropping a heavy fig with plastic into the pads, so I'm going to try that. I'm also going to try a wake bait.

So many bassiful fish!

There are some hog farmers in the house!

Ha!