Swamp Girl

Big bass are hungry! This was my morning's first bass. She just wouldn't stop shaking her booty, so her thick tail isn't quite clear: ' When I caught her, I figured I wouldn't top her and I was right, but this one was long and solid too, but just not built like a water buffalo: I only caught seven. Four were on a buzzbait, two on an underspin, and one on a T-rigged craw. Remember how my pond was blazing with color yesterday? Well, this was the same pond this morning: Still beautiful, huh? Speaking of beauty, here are some other beauties I caught: Another bigger one to say bye-bye: P. S. - I'm at 1,447, but I don't think I'll reach 1,500. Not in a canoe with the forecasted winds and my hands were so c-c-c-cold this morning with more and more cold coming, plus I leave for Tennessee on Tuesday to be with my ailing dad.

I caught four of this morning's seven bass on a buzzbait. It's great to add another arrow to my quiver. It looks like a surface lure in the water, but they hit it subsurface, which I didn't 'expect.

Thanks, Al! You can see why I stopped fishing at the end, huh?

@PhishLI and @AlabamaSpothunter both advised me to do this back when I was fishing more than a dozen bodies of water. So, I focus on my pond and my pal's pond and doing so has increased my consistency. At my pal's pond, I can land a 19-incher most trips and at my pond, I've finally learned how to land 19-inchers.* So, I'm living proof that sticking to one or two bodies of water puts bigger bass in the boat. *The biggest girls at my pond are in the least water. They hunker in gnarly, shadowed backwaters.

This is good practice for riding the late fall fishing up north:

Yeah, the trees were the stars this afternoon, which is why I quit fishing the last hour and just witnessed. Remember that I own five acres on the pond. Come build your campfire and enjoy Heaven on Earth.

I caught 16 at my pond, bringing my 2025 total to 1,440. I was in a melancholy mood. We're at peak color and there were at least a hundred geese on my pond, so I can't pretend winter isn't almost here. I spent the last hour just paddling and watching. See what I saw: I did catch some thick fish and I caught my first five bass on a buzzbait. Here's my first buzzbait bass: And here are another two buzzbait bass, caught back-to-back: This was my biggest bass for most of the afternoon: However, I paddled up a stream, which was narrowed by a beaver lodge. I've learned bigger bass like choke points, so I cast the buzzbait into the narrow strip. Nothing. I cast again and again and again and again. Nothing. However, this girl hit on the sixth cast, yet another 19-incher, albeit skinny. You can see the beaver lodge to the left and the shallow water were I hooked her just beyond the lodge: My next bass was anything but skinny. She was only 18.25-inches, but thick with muscle and she used all that muscle in our fight. She ran for lily pads, but I turned her. Then she ran for wood and I had to turn her again. She's as thick as a bog bass: You can really see her muscle on the bump board: Three more well-built bass: And a short, thick one: My last bass was brown: I fish again tomorrow morning at my pond. I'll be adding a wakebait to the lures I'll cast.

I had good success with a buzzbait. I learned why you guys like it. It's not as weed-free as a frog, but it still goes a good job in weeds. I'll post the pics in the Latest Catch thread. Thanks for the suggestions! I tried a bladed jig/bladed jig too, but I needed a lighter one, I think. The water is so low that weeds are even more of a challenge.

You hung tough, Mr. Tightlines, through the doldrums, and then bass stirred again and you caught some big ones. Be proud of your tenacity. We are. I love that @keagbassr is in Maine!

Good tip. Thanks. I have one empty rod and I'm going to tie a vibrating jig on that. I struggle to use a treble hooked subsurface lure in the middle of the pond. There are weed beds here and there and everywhere. That Bigfoot is a cool-looking frog!

I've tried both the jerkbait and floating Rapalas this fall with zero success. However, I have caught thousands of bass with floating Rapalas in past years...and some bass with jerkbaits. They're just not working here and now.

The two new lures I've chosen are the buzzbait and the Johnson Silver Minnow. I also have my old reliables rigged.

It's Smalliepalooza at Bass Resource!

Thanks, guys! I'm out of reactions. Again.

Mike hammers the browns. Al hammers the greens. And GP tries to hammer the spots, but cashes in with green. Life is good.

Nah, just figure out the lakes by fishing them. Everything that Livescope could tell you can also be learned by casting and catching.

Hey, guys, you might have noticed Al Smith in the byline. Al is Bass Resource's LottaBass. Al and I have had many fine conversations about the finer aspects of angling and much of what we discussed comprises the essay. So, adding him to the byline is a way to honor our friendship and our cyber-chats.

That's it, Brian! We catch fish because we pay attention and because we pay attention, we do more than catch bass: We catch memories of all we saw, heard, smelled, and felt. I too can close my eyes and I'm back in northwestern Ontario, standing on a rocky shore, leaning into the wind while waves break at my feet. And I'm thrilled all over again. You can do this too, Brian, because you just did.

I don't know if we have migrating frogs. I would like the frog idea if I weren't such a terrible frog angler. Okay, that's one. I've been intending to try one all year. It's past due.

Thanks, wdp and Glenn!

Because the water is cool, I won't paddle far from shore, so nearly all my casts will be shoreline casts. The shoreline is wetlands, a soggy soil that supports small trees and smaller bushes that overhang the water. Last time out, I scored with a paddletail and a spinnerbait, but I want to mix it up the next two days. I was thinking a T-rigged crawdad and a T-rigged worm. What would you cast? Ignore the bass below and note the shoreline. That's where I'll be fishing: When I last fished, they were tight to the shoreline, often on little points, in a foot of water.

He is joy personified.

@WRB-2.0 is Tom and he's a legend, so do everything he suggests.

Here he is. I have some airborne photos of him, but I couldn't find them:

Ah, you are clearly an experienced angler. You know the drill. Babe Winkleman once told a story about beaching his boat beside a beaver dam for a shore lunch. He went down to the boat to retrieve the walleyes and an enormous musky had latched onto several of them and was trying to rip them free. Winkleman, who's a big man and who was a hungry man that day, entered into a tug of war with the musky. He won most of his lunch back from the biggest musky he'd ever seen, but said that whenever he passed a beaver dam, he shivered a bit. Thanks for sharing your story, Hawkeye. I enjoyed it! I've lived it.