Swamp Girl

T was a ninja for a few years. I know this because I had to hire him twice. I told him, "No one else will do the job I need done. I expect you'll say "no" too." T said, "Yes." I replied, "Don't you want to...." "Nope." And then he ninjaed away like a gust of wind. The next day, the job was done with the dark wizard cast into a chasm, the dragon tamed, and the princess rescued.

There are a lot of nerves in fingertips. Four tries sounds brutal.

@Lottabass sent my fishing buddy, the Kid, a whole box of lures! I love your Vietnam story, Al.

It made me smile to read this.

First off, I like your post, FFF. You explain a tricky task well. Yesterday, most of the bass that hit my T-rigged craw were swimming toward me. My craw's kicking claws create a thumping that I can feel in my rod. When I no longer felt that thumping, I'd wonder if I had a hit. It felt like I was retrieving nothing. So, it takes a couple seconds to regain contract with my lure and the bass and then I needed to react lest they swallow it deep. I'm not talking about a grab and swim, which is pretty common and gives me a good chance of hooking one. I'm talking about a snatch and bolt where your line is immediately tight, your rod bowed, and they often only have half your lure in their mouth. I lose most of those bass. There just isn't time to feed them line.

I think T-rig fishing is one of the hardest ways to fish. I can land three in a row and then lose three in a row. Now, if I were willing to let a bass run with my bait, I'd land nearly every bass, but I'd kill some of those bass too because the longer I let them run, the deeper the lure goes down their gullets. Yesterday, I had so many bass hit where I felt nothing. I only knew they were there by watching the line. However, when they are super aggressive, hooking them might be even harder as I have no time to think and then react.

I caught 23 yesterday morning, but it felt different to me. I only fished three hours, so I averaged nearly eight an hour. It feels like the fishing is heating up as the water is a little warmer. Still, it was 38 degrees when I launched and the real problem for me right now isn't water too cold to catch bass, but the wind. It. Just. Won't. Stop. Blowing. If the chain blocking the access road is down, I'm going to my pal's pond today to add the accessories I bought for my new, but used Old Town Predator kayak. I'm going to leave that kayak there for ease of fishing, so now I'll have two boats at my pond and one at my pal's pond. I'll be attaching a trolling rod holder, a three-pole rod holder, and a net or paddle holder. I look forward to fishing from that big (13'), steady boat. Here are three bass from yesterday morning:

I fish electronically blind all of the time, but I have a good memory for where I caught bass and when I do catch bass, I "pin" the place in my brain, assuming there's structure there. Without electronics, I'll never know, but I don't think I need to know because once I know that a place holds bass, it's as good as knowing the shape of the structure.

I caught 23 this morning in three hours at my pond, so the fishing is heating up as the water warms. They bit soooooooo lightly. I felt nothing with about half my bites. I simply saw the line doing something strange. All but one (wacky worm) on my T-rigged blue craw. I launched hoping to catch bass on the surface, but couldn't even coax a single bite. I did get one hit in the air when my craw landed in a bitsy bush and a bass leapt out of the water to yank its claws off. I photographed a smaller one so that you can see the up and comers are eating well too: I've caught 169 bass in 2026, but my pace might slow for a bit as the wind speed is increasing. Sadly, I lost a big bass when it broke my line. I saw it and then snap!

Yee-haw! Smallest at 2.5 and largest at 5.0 is great average size.

Here's one of 15 I caught this afternoon in the wind: I'm going to try surface lures tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed they're active enough to feed upwards.

I netted an old can off the bottom of my pond and found a water bottle in the bog of my pond the last couple days. I like removing trash as much as I like catching bass.

I like the net because it's so big and long. Sure, it gets in the way in the canoe because of its size, but it's great for bringing bass into the boat.

I launched at 2:15 p.m. and fished for three hours. It was double digit windy and sunny at first, but I'm developing the confidence to fish both sunny days and the tactics to fish windy days. The challenge is that my canoe is always moving, not just in a straight line, but slowly spinning. And right now, the bass are tight to cover and if I don't drop my T-Rigged craw within six inches of cover, I likely won't get a hit. As you can see in this photo, clouds arrived and it was a gray day when I quit, but I love fishing northern lakes on gray days: I only caught 15 bass, giving me 146 for 2026, but gosh, they were meaty. I photographed a couple on the bump board to showcase their thickness. They were all thick. My pond produces healthy bass. The first one was nearly 19 inches at 18.75 inches, but as thick and muscular as a seal. The second one wasn't as thick, but lengthwise was pretty typical of the bass I caught today: Here are some more and you can see a few footballs in the bunch: I loved the brooding gray as much as the bass. I'm going to fish my pond again tomorrow morning for three hours. I'm trying on some surface lures, hoping the water is finally warm enough for bass to smack my surface lures. I've caught 146 bass in 2026.

WHAT A BASS!!!

Like I wrote earlier, there are giants who populate Bass Resource and you're one of them. I lived for 30 years in Wisconsin, so there were a lot of Harley riders and when they arrive, all roaring, with their leather and chains, they can look tough, but one time I was driving to Green Bay in January and saw someone far tougher. She was pedaling across the prairie. The wind was howling and buffeting my car and her. It was well below zero and might have been 30 below with that wind. She was wearing her homespun dress and bonnet, reminding me that looking tough and being tough are often different things. You old guys fighting cancer and still fishing are the latter.

Hardcore. And you're 83! Also hardcore. And Phish is fishing the more demanding places. Bass Resource is populated with some giants.

I nodded all though this, Al. I feel pretty strong and stable when I launch, but paddling a wet canoe in the wind for a few hours sure ages me. My dock doesn't sit in the water. It sits on bog. So, when I'm done fishing, I have to climb up and onto it when I'm stiff, wet, and cold. Then I have to walk uphill through the woods. I feel like 60 years old walking to my canoe when I'm dry and warm and I feel like i'm 80 walking back to my car when I'm tired, wet, and cold. This will soon improve a bit when it warms a bit, but I just checked the thermometer and it's 42 degrees right now at 7:28 a.m.

@DogBone_384: You'll be missed.

Thanks! Lotta catches a lotta bass, for sure...and big ones too! I feel like I'm still learning. I've caught thousands of bass in my life and so you might think I've had thousands of opportunities to learn everything that I can learn, but I haven't. Yesterday, I was fine-tuning the way I play fish, which is partly due to my diminished strength. I have to compensate for what I've lost, replacing strength with technique. I'm guessing it's the same for @Lottabass. Is it, Al? I fished the last four days, including twice one day, and I do feel good about that, but I'm feeling it too. Ibuprofen would snuff the pain, but I took some yesterday and I don't like to make a habit of it, so I grin (thinking about my four days of fishing) and bear it. @padlin wrote: "They are past me now at 70, 5 years ago I would disagree, so it’s just recent. It’s not like I don’t enjoy it as much, cause I do, fishing days are shorter now that the body is wearing down." I'm the same. Just a couple years ago, I fished six-hour sessions. Now that's too much. I do expect to fish some six-hour sessions when the fishing is at its peak, but not I prefer one to four-hour sessions.

What a year you're having!

Good one, Ike!

I never fish without my Fish Finding Skivvies.

Well, the consensus seems to be that trolling is boring and casting is fun, but if you're paddling to a casting spot, you might as well troll along the way. Casting is challenging, so I'm guessing you non-trollers enjoy that challenge. You know that old axiom about the minority of anglers catching the majority of fish? I think casting skill separates the tight liners from the loose liners. As I was fishing last night, I reflected on the admissions by several Mainers that they're not catching bass in 2026 and then I'd lightly drop my craw within inches of my target while casting from a moving, bouncing canoe...and if you couldn't do that, you wouldn't catch those bass because they were parked under the woody bushes at the edge of the bog. See the bushes below: Those bushes don't have soil beneath them. There's three feet of water beneath them and that's where the bass park. When the water warms, they'll emerge to chase a bait that is a foot or three away, but not now. You have to hit them on the nose to catch them and I'm guessing that's why the majority of you love casting: You love to thread the needle and bullseye those bass!

Yee-haw!