Swamp Girl

Again, this is great news. I've been using a 17 lb. mono leader and that weak link in my chain is no more. It's 50 lb. test from the bass to the reel. The bad news is that my rod didn't arrive today. Now it's supposed to come tomorrow, but I'm worried it won't arrive before I leave to fish. Oh, well, I'll make do with my old rod if this happens for one more time.

What a thrilling morning for you, Norcalbassin!

There are forever new and shiny lures and it's easy to forget the old ones which work as well today as they did half a century ago.

Tim, I lost a big one in wild rice reeds about a week or ten days ago. She powered into the reeds and I just couldn't turn her. So, I told myself to stay cool, keep the pressure on, and go plumbing for her, which required me to back my canoe into the reeds with one hand with maintaining pressure with the other. I could feel her tugging for about 30 seconds while I went digging for her into the reeds, but by the time I got to my lure, she was gone. However, I'm glad you won your fight. Go, Tim!

Wow! That was a gutsy move. I'll have to remember that, but I don't know that I'll ever have the moxie to try that too. What a gorgeous fish!

No leader? You should see the smile on my face! I hate tying that double uni knot.

Alex, you are so supportive. This site and I are lucky to have you! Before I started posting at bassresource.com, I did fish a local lake and caught only three. I spent 80% of my time fishing shallow water with seemingly no fish. When I went deeper, I caught the three fish, but quickly lost the light. Another trip, I caught 14 bass, but all small. I stopped fishing where the small ones were and started probing other areas, hoping to catch a nice one, but nada. I am so excited to fish my new froggin' setup! Do you think I should use a mono or fluorocarbon leader? And what pound test?

Alex, I decided to buy the scale when you describe your scale as an essential piece of equipment. Plus, I am curious about the thick Maine bass. Some of them are convex and I don't know if that comes across in the photos. I hope to catch one more (at least, of course) before the scale arrives. You've been shopping as much as me! We both better hit the brakes. I'm glad you guys like the look of the rod! I'm putting a Shimano Curado on it with the 50 lb. braid. My SPRO frogs won't be here by tomorrow afternoon, when I'm fishing again, but I'll make do with my Bass Pro Shop frogs, which they've been hitting with abandon.

It's this one, 7'4" heavy action. I think it'll help because the length will give me leverage and the heavy action will give me power and most importantly, the long handle will let me lever off of my PDF as I plant the rod's butt into my belly: Favorite EMPC-741H Emperor Casting Rod

This is an exciting week for me. My new froggin' rod arrives today. My 50 lb. test braid arrived a couple days ago. My SPRO frogs are on their way. And so is my SCALE! I will finally get to see what Maine bass weigh. I just hope I can manage to catch a few more thick ones before it's too cold to fish. It's going to be 45 degrees tomorrow morning. Brrrr!

Heck, yeah, because then you can catch a bass on a new lure and develop some confidence in that lure.

I appreciate King Fisher's analytical approach and try, to an extent, to mimic it. For an example, I'll be fishing a tannin-stained lake tomorrow afternoon. It's been windy and cool for three days, which can, in my experience, clamp bass mouths. It will also be cloudy, so with the dark water, I'll start with a light-colored fluke and slow my retrieve for the cold front. However, my restlessness won't keep that lure on my line for long, unless they're clobbering it, and I'll throw my tackle box at them. There's a lake in northwestern Ontario that I fished for decades from June to September. So, I'd be the second week of June with steady warmth and bluebird skies and catch them using a particular colored lure in certain places. The next year, at the same time with the same weather, they'd be in different places reacting to different lures. And so on, year after year and decade after decade. Bass are a conundrum to me, which is why they're so fun.

I love the Mepps spinner. I had a couple 200+ smallmouth days (That's more than 200 fish per day.) in northwestern Ontario. I fished from four in the morning to nearly ten and caught nearly every fish on a Mepps spinner with a brass blade and a plain hook, which is the most basic Mepps spinner made. On the third day, I rested, too tired to do it again. I've caught some thick largemouth on the same Mepps this summer in Maine, both casting and trolling. It's a great lure and underutilized, I think.

I fish out of a canoe mostly, but sometimes from a kayak. The guys with motors have a big advantage; They can go far and fast. However, we paddlers have an advantage too: We can go shallow and silently. I have snuck up to multiple fish within two feet of my canoe and kayak. I don't even know they're there until I bump the boat and I see multiple swirls and V's as they flee. So, my advice is don't bump the boat and go where the motorboats can't go. I even put felt on my gunnels so I can lay my paddle ever so carefully and quietly in front of me. And I move with all due caution. Then I can cast to fish that others can't. In short, fish shallow, fish the weeds, and be sneaky as can be.

Jay, it sounds like have a good system. I'm one of those fishers who starts on the surface with a big Whopper Plopper that lets me cast far in my search for active fish. If it's raining, which I prefer, I reel faster to create as much chop as possible so that the bass can hear my lure with all the rain splattering the surface. If that fails, I drop a notch to something smaller or slower, like a Mepps spinner, Wacky Senko, Ned jig, or Texas-rigged worm. If they don't work, I start fishing the weeds with a frog. So far, there's always something in the weeds. Is your system working for you? I would think it would, since you're using such a range of lures. We have restlessness in common. I switch lures frequently and carry four to six rods in my canoe to facilitate that. Even if I'm steadily catching fish on one presentation, I still switch because I'm curious about just what they will hit. I often have nightcrawlers in my canoe, but don't usually fish with them for long because I find it dull fishing, even though they always catch fish.

Tim, I don't think I've been pointing the rod tip at them and reeling out the slack before cracking them, but I will now. The new rod arrives Friday!

Tim, coincidentally, I ordered three SPRO frogs today. My 50 lb.braided line arrived today and my 7'4" heavy action rod was shipped today. So, we'll see! I generally don't think men have a fishing advantage over women, but when it comes to froggin', men do due to upper body strength. Froggin' is like carrying my canoe: I can't muscle it, so my technique has to pert near perfect. I landed one 19.25" bass on my frog a couple weeks ago and I "hooked" it right beside the boat, but the hooks weren't even in the bass. She simply clamped down on my frog and didn't let go and the cover was so thick that it couldn't dive, dive, dive and I got the net under her before she reopened her mouth. Last night, I was working on my hand placement to help hook them and I'll continue to tweak my technique. I'm already pretty good at hitting the pockets and sneaking up on them, so I provoke the strikes. I just need to start closing the deal more often. Then, if I ever figure out froggin', I'll have to learn Roboworming. Thanks, Tim, for the kind words.

Scott, it works the same way up north. I'll hook and lose a big bass and I go back to that spot and pound the water and nothing. Nada. Nichts. Zip. My thinking is that big bass can claim prime ambush points, like muskies do, and nothing can move them from that spot, but I think they mosey all by themselves.

Every big fish I've caught in my life is in my head. High res in my head. Perfect lighting in my head. Vivid and clear. Yours is too. And CONGRATS!

8 lbs.? Yikes! If that were my goal, I think I'd be dead before I caught an 8 lb. bass in Maine. I do catch lots of 4 lb. bass though. I think I'm going to keep two and duct tape them together. True story: I caught a 17.25 inch bass and a 19.25 bass on a Whopper Plopper at the same time this summer. That's about seven pounds of bass on a single cast, but I'm still a pound short!

Dear Mr. Mouth, I am ashamed to say that I don't even know where Oxford and Raymond are. I am a hick and only know the little bogs and ponds near me. However, it seems that nearly every pond in Maine is good. I would focus on ponds that don't have ramps, if you have a canoe or kayak. They get MUCH less pressure. Here's what I do: I use Google maps to find the ponds in the area. I zoom in to find ponds with no or few camps/cabins. Then I Google the name of the pond, adding "Maine" to the search, and click on the Maine Fisheries and Wildlife PDF document. You'll see a map of lake depths, a list of the species, and a summary of the pond. However, the proliferation of largemouth bass nonofficial stockings means many of the bass have largemouth even if they're not listed. Many of the Fish and Wildlife docs also tell you have to access the pond.

You are always so kind and encouraging, Alex. I wish I were as good as my numbers, but I'm fishing overlooked water. There are lakes where I live with boat ramps and there are always cars with trailers in their parking lots. I would never fish those because they hold educated bass. I'm fishing ponds with prop-snaring weeds that only permit paddling. See the weeds in the bottom of my canoe? Those are just the ones I haven't chucked back into the water. I pull weeds off my lures every other cast and land many bass enrobed in weeds. It's a challenging form of fishing, but I've come to love it. It rewards a stealthy approach and accurate casting. I'm sometimes casting in a foot of water. Most boats could only dream of fishing that shallow. As far as my energy, I sure felt like an old woman tonight when I climbed the rocky slope to my car in the dark. It was a little scary too, since I was in a gorge and it was misting. The scene reminded me of a horror movie, but I tried to concentrate on the work at hand and mostly succeeded. I did catch a couple 17-inchers that I didn't photograph because I landed them in the near dark. No fishing for the next three days though. It'll be too windy for a canoe. So, I'll make do with the photos of fish that others are catching! I do love looking at the photos. Bass come in so many different shapes and colors.

A busy evening of fishing. I caught 42 bass and a single chain pickerel. I was proud to land 7 bass with my frog. I am embarrassed to have missed about 30 bass with my frog. I have never fished a lure that provokes as many strikes as a frog. I am sooo looking forward to my new bait casting rod arriving. It's seven feet four inches with a long handle that I can leverage against my life jacket. I just don't have the hand and arm strength to stick bass with those frog hooks. I'm also going to 50 lb. braid. Despite my many lost fish while frog fishing, I feel I'm making small improvements. I actually had about 10 of those lost bass hooked for a few seconds. I didn't catch any big fish, i.e. 18 inches and above, but I enjoyed the bass erupting on my frog and it was fun to keep busy with the bass I did manage to land. Here are a few of the fish. Look how skinny that fifth fish is! Alex, you are so right about bass connect us even though some of us are fishing in the deep South and some in Yankee Land and some in cities and some are fishing farm ponds. Mr. 215, did you get a chance to best that Ned stealer?

Alex, we're fishing in different climates. Your bass were baked by the summer. I live on the coast of the North Atlantic, so my bass never overheated and were feisty all summer. So, yeah, I think it's the temp. P. S. - Again, your photos are great. Mine are embarrassing. P. P. S. - I'm off to fish the pond where the bass bested me and I had a full night of sleep, so it's womano-o-abasso!

I'll go with yesterday's boo-boo. I hooked three 4-lb. lm and lost all three at the canoe.