Swamp Girl

I've read many posts where a Bass Resourcer declared with surety that bass do this or bass do that at this or that time of the year. I've caught bass for more than 50 years, but I have never got a good bead on them. When I launch, I don't know where they'll be, even though I now focus on two ponds and know those two ponds better than anyone. For me, bass fishing isn't going to where bass are and catching them because I don't know where they'll be. Bass fishing for me is looking for bass and hopefully finding them. Is this just me or are there are other Bass Resourcers who also don't know where bass will be? FWIW, I don't mind not knowing where bass will be. I've always loved a good game of hide and seek.

It is such a gift to access the wisdom of DD-bassers like @WRB-2.0, @Pat Brown and @king fisher. I'll never catch a DD bass. They're too far from me, but I can still learn from big bassers like these guys.

One time, when I was alone in the wilderness at age 15, I heard something coming through the woods that sounded like a bulldozer. It was probably a moose, since they were common at that lake, but even though I was in a boat, I scooted. Silly of me, I know.

A b-b-bear trying to climb aboard your boat??? Sir, you win the Internet. You write well, @Kirtley Howe.

I targeted big bass in 2024 by fishing bogs. Bog bass in Maine are built differently than the pond bass I focused on in 2025. I hope to have enough ambition to open 2026 with some bog fishing again. I focus on the deep water near shallow. Here's a bog bass from last spring so you can see how thick they grow. She wasn't long (19 inches), but she represents the build of bog bass and I've caught them over 22 inches and just as bulgy: What an angler Tom is. I wonder if anyone else at Bass Resource has caught one bass over 15 pounds.

Good one, @Bankbeater! For those of you who don't walk through the woods or camp in them to fish lonesome lakes, feel free to share stories of creepy things or people at the parking lots of ramps. One thing that wasn't creepy, but curious, was when I camped on a wilderness island and every time I returned to my camp, items had been moved. Nothing was taken, but items of different sizes were in different places. I had a beloved can of salted pecans, so when I left for good, I opened it and poured the pecans into a pile as an offering, for I never felt my visitor was malicious. Indeed. I lived on a pig farm. Some boars are surely, dangerous beasts.

Me too. I've been close enough to looming moose and waddling bear to have touched them with my fishing rod, but people are the greater danger, which is why I feel pretty comfy in the wilderness: few people!

Take the shot, Al, take the shot! I was camped in upper Minnesota in a field and one night, I heard a snorting outside my tent. I feared it was a bear, but a peek revealed it was a deer. Another night, again and again, some critter kept tripping on the guy lines of my tent. Yet another night, a lightning strike melted my guy lines.

Video, please! Seriously, darkness + BIG canines would have turned me into a lemur too. My heeby-jeebies moment was lingering too late on my pond and walking through my woods in complete darkness in the rain. Nothing happened, but the path through my woods is serpentine and I didn't know its turns like I do know. I was still wearing glasses and they were water-streaked, so it was really hard to see and the rain was pounding, so it was really hard to hear. I normally go slowly through the woods so that I won't be surprised by an animal or person, but I was spooked because I couldn't see nor hear and so I hurried and that wasn't a good thing. I've never stayed out that late again at my pond. If I ever build there, I'd like to install lights on my path so that I could fish late. Whether I'm right or wrong, I think I'm more likely to encounter a bad guy in the woods in the early night than the early morning. My experience with criminals is that they're pretty lazy and unlikely to rise at four a.m., but they're quite comfy with neer-do-welling at 10:00 p.m. So, I always feel safer in the dark of morning than the dark of night.

Yikes, Jig Man!

Heck, yeah, it's supposed to be noisy at night! I would've scooted too, Glenn.

Good story, Glenn!

@BrianMDTX and @casts_by_fly: Thanks for the scene shots. I like seeing where other anglers catch bass. Don't come to Maine. The winds have been howling at 20-30 mph all day. Lots of branches down. Speaking of broken branches, this is a funny line:

In your lifetime, have you ever had the heeby-jeebies about a place you were fishing or a person who was near? In aggregate, I've slept for months in the wilderness, often alone, so I know how noisy the woods can be at night when most of the critters are moving. I'm not talking about being unsettled by the normal nighttime noise, which can take a night to adjust, but rather a particular noise or anything else that wasn't normal.

I've had this happen twice in my life and both times I put my outfit down and just watched.

An average smallmouth at the lakes I fished in northwestern Ontario was 17 inches, but bass 19" - 21" weren't rare. To reach those lakes, I drove about eight hours, but then the real work began: logging roads and portages.

It's heresy to admit, but I'm content with taking a break from bass fishing. Come spring, of course, I'll be raring to go again, but just now, taking a break is okey-dokey. For example, I hosted a brunch yesterday and visited a friend yesterday evening. There's a dinner party today and I'm meeting another pal for coffee shortly. So, not fishing means there's more time and energy to break bread with buds. Plus, I'm a North woman, by heritage (Scot, Irish, and German) and inclination. I choose to live in the North. The northern flora and fauna comfort me. I surf the seasons like my ancestors did. Falling, fiery leaves and glittering snow seem right to me. I actually enjoy a good snowstorm. Firing up the snowblower in a blizzard to stay ahead of the snowfall is exciting. And I've even planted a winter garden that surrounds my house. I look out one window and see a mound of red twig dogwoods. I look out another and see a mound of yellow twig dogwoods. I've planted dozens of thujas, junipers, spruce, and arborvitaes to keep my garden green year-round. I look out my windows in January and it's red, yellow, green, and white. Again, come spring, I'll want to reach open water and dance with bass, but for now, I'm good. Yep, it's the same way for me. They are always moving and wanting something different. ^This^ is pretty much the opposite of what I just wrote. I'm not hungry right now. I'm full of the fish I've caught, even though I released all of them. And I'm full of the fish I didn't catch, the ones I heard feeding on the surface in the dark at four a.m., the ones I saw chasing shad beyond my reach, the ones that surged and broke free. Again, I'm good...for now.

I quit when it feels too dangerous to continue, but long before I quit, I take safety measures, such as a wetsuit and sticking to shorelines. Both of these make fishing more difficult. The wetsuit is uncomfortable and sticking to shorelines takes away what I do best, which is roaming to find bass.

This is what I was going to suggest. I've given them slack sometimes and they swam free.

I look at the photo of you in your coat, Al, and envy you. I went with a full body wetsuit, which can save my life, but is about as comfy as steel wool pajamas. I wish dry suits weren't so expensive! That's a big crappie, Al! I considered photographing one of my big picks, but pickerel don't like to be photographed. Love ^this.^ Yeah, we adjust to where we live. I wither when it rarely reaches the mid-eighties here. I'm guessing you'd find that temp comfy.

I think it would have to be in the forties. Our days are short and our nights are long and nighttime lows are mid-thirties to mid-forties. Daytime highs are often only 50 degrees. Nope, I launched at 9:00, but there's nothing crazy about launching at four in the morning. The bass are feeding then. Yeah, a finesse approach might have produced more bass, but my hands were too cold to retie. I live on the North Atlantic, which gives us perfect summer days, but no spring and long, cool falls.

When I launched this morning, I was thinking I might skunk. The water was cold, the air was cold, and I was cold. I kept thinking about @gim saying that when the water's in the forties, the fishing is cold too. I caught a few applying what @Glenn taught me about bass sometimes finding the last of the green weeds and hanging there. Most of the eel grass was brown-ing and fragile, but I found one patch that was still green and strong and that's where I caught my four bass and two pickerel, but the bites were oh-so-slight. Unless it climbs into the sixties, which is unlikely, I can't see myself launching again. I was so cold that my right hand stopped working.

Al @Lottabass is red hot in Iowa too. Go get 'em, buddy!

That happened to me this morning too! I also began my last morning's fishing with no fish for 1.5 hours and caught my four bass and two pickerel in one place. I didn't have your wind, but it was colder in Maine than Illinois.

I launched one more time because it was driving me crazy seeing all the fine bass and not contributing. Well, it was 39 degrees when I launched and it didn't warm much. I wore a full wetsuit, but I was still cold. I think the bass were cold too, as I skunked for the first 1.5 hours. Then I finally caught four in an eel grass bed. I also caught two thick pickerel. The bass were thick too. I only photographed the first bass because my hands weren't working well: All four bass were healthy and looked ready for winter. The pickerel too. It was a gray world: When it wasn't gray, it was brown: I fan cast a crankbait for open water bass. I also cast a jerkbait and worked a couple drop-offs. I also dragged on crawdad on the bottom. Nada. My only fish were on my underspin in the eel grass and even those bass hit sooooo lightly. Still, it was great to fish one last time and bring my 2025 total to 1451. It was also cool to catch the two picks. I don't catch many picks at my pond and both were big.