Swamp Girl

Gorgeous, Tim!

Alex, I've done a fair of amount of outdoor writing (Gray's Sporting Journal, Field and Stream, Musky Hunter, etc.) and you've got the requisite tone, command of language, good humor, and observational powers to write professionally. If you limit your writing to bassresource.com, that's great too and I'll continue to enjoy your posts. I have a guest from Tennessee for five days and he doesn't fish, so right now, I don't fish. Dang it!

Ahhhh. No wonder I couldn't solve it: IT'S BEYOND ME!

I give up. I kept trying to guess what a DD bass is. I failed. A little help?

I've seen seals compress mackerel, alternating between a picket line and Pickett's Charge, but seals are mammals' big brains to coordinate. Dolphins do the same thing, compressing prey into bite-sized balls. And I've fished for white bass when you could chuck a roll of nickels into the water and they'd eat every one, but to do it with spots?!? What an evening! I laughed at your casting, in your overwhelming excitement and joy, hither and yon. Nobody "getting it" reminds me of the Beetles' song: "When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads. They might as well be dead." If you're not thrilled by bonkers banzai spots, you might as well be dead!

What an evening! And what a bass! I sure would have loved to see the spots herding shad, but thanks to your explanation, I kinda did.

Nooooo, Alex! However, I think about the Twilight Zone episode where the gambler dies and thinks he's gone to Heaven because he wins at every game he plays, but then he's told that he's not in Heaven, but Lucifer's pad, for there's no elation in winning when we always win. Your two lost hogs will make your next caught hog so much sweeter. However, I get that those lost fish gut hook us. Remember when I lost three four-pound bass in consecutive casts a couple weeks back? I still pine for such a chance again.

Thanks, Bassman. I've selected three colors. I LOVE vicious strikes and am excited to use them. Thanks too for the hook swapping tip. Well, I fished this evening and caught two bass. I threw my tackle box at them and they threw it back in my canoe. The water felt cool as the bite, but the evening was gorgeous. A Maine bog with gin clear air and sugar maples beginning to blaze. At times, I just drifted, witnessed, and gave thanks.

Dang Father Time!

I'm going to buy one of those Azuma Wake-Zs. I bet the Yankee bass will love it. Any tips on retrieving it or where I should cast it?

Crazy striping, Dwight. Keep that fish away from tigers lest they too turn jelly.

^That is a perfect fish. I've loved them all, but I think I love ^THIS^ fish most of all.^

The University of Woods and Water?

I love the quality of the light in the third photo. I also love that you always catch joy. You are a master joy fisher. I'm actually going fishing tomorrow afternoon, Alex, and won't be able to fish for at least five days after that due to a visit from a Tennessee bud who doesn't fish. What's wrong with him??? Anyway, I'm loading my rods with different lures: a soft plastic swimbait, a lipless crankbait, a real nightcrawler, and a Ned bait. My catch has been cut in half my last two outings and I want to see if different lures will help. I am going to also use a wacky worm since that's still producing. P. S. - I'd love to catch a rock bass. I haven't caught one of those guys for more than half a century.

Man, oh, man, you guys catch great fish!

No limit, Mr. 46! The winter is coming to Maine. Fish pics are like coals on the fire for this old Yankee. However, Dwight didn't exactly post a fish pic. Clearly someone painted the Goodyear blimp to look like a smallie and Dwight posed with that. I love the color and striping of the fish that A-Jay catches. I was hoping he'd add one or two to the gallery. Woody, yours is the shiniest bass I have ever seen. It looks like it's varnished! SoCal, that's beyond a football shape. It looks like the football that a Tom Brady-hater pumped extra full for revenge.

I have never fished a chatterbait nor a Roboworm, Alex. My 50-year pause in catching LM has left me so far behind the times! Beautiful bass!

king fisher, your bass has an otherworldly beauty to it. Its belly is as white as freshly fallen snow, which makes its dark markings even more striking. Mr. 87, that's a heckuva first fish on a jig! Alex, I do appreciate the beauty of spots, but of all the bass, I think golden and green smallies with strong striping like Mr. 46's are the most beautiful. Glad you're enjoying the photos. I am too!

I can see why you couldn't decide, Mr. Pig. Both spots are stunning. A half mile of river, Way North? Whoa! Now I'm a Smuckers' factory of jelly.

You have bass in your backyard??? You have turned me into a jar of jelly!

I reckon you're right.

^That is a beauty!^ Thanks for sharing. I love fish pics.

This is a beauty pageant. What was your most beautiful bass of 2022? The beauty criteria are yours to set. It might be the bass's coloration or shape. It might be the circumstances of the catch and your personal circumstances when you caught that particular bass. Here's mine and I picked her because most of the big bass I caught this summer were the offspring of a Cro-Magnon female and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The dame below was as lightly colored as a yearling and as symmetrical as a candy drop. She looked daisy fresh too, as if she'd miraculously avoided life's chisel all her years. She was 19.25 inches and a bass of the far north, so she'd lived a few years too.

We already have top shelf fishing experts here. They might not have the celebrity, but I'm pretty sure that they've outfished most celebrities. Their sponsorships might make them a less valuable addition than others already here. I like JonB on YouTube, but am also annoyed by him hawking everything from his boots to his rod to his lures.

Then I too am a hot mess, for what you described is pretty much my fishing life. It's good to meet another hot mess!