Swamp Girl

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!

That's really funny! Thanks for the laugh.

I had to Google "Karashi." Meh. I'm not tempted. I'll keep dancing with what brought me to the party.

I used 3/16th oz tungsten weights. Little hops with some pauses. I've tried quick, snappy hops, but those didn't work. I also tried dragging and slow retrieving, but they also didn't work. Now, I'm nearly certain that slow, steady retrieving and faster, steady retrieving will work once the water warms, but in this cool water, they want little movement. I also tried just letting the lure lay on the bottom here and there, but that never triggered a single strike. So, I'd do one little twitch, two little twitches, three little twitches, and then repeat. I used black and dark blue craws and some garish, brightly colored, blue craws with sparkles and both worked equally well. Just recently, red craws were hot for me, but then they stopped working. I expect they'll soon switch again to some other color. Two times I cast into those little bushes and the lure dropped through them and right into a bass's mouth. The wind kept blowing me into the bushes, so when it did, I kept testing depth with my paddle. I was surprised to find about three feet of water beneath the bushes and only about two feet away, four to five feet of water. One time, I nosed into the bog itself where the water is one to two feet deep. I hadn't triggered a single bite yet in water that shallow, but this time, I did, hooking my first shallow water bass. All the rest came on the edge of the bog, except for the few open water bass I hooked while travel trolling. Look to the right of the bass below and you'll see the edge of the bog. There's water behind those brown bushes and there's bass under them. The bushes grow on a water-logged soil, but on the edge, there's pure water under them. I think of them as car ports and bass park under them. The far shoreline to the left of the bass isn't bog. That's largely rock.

Yeah, I sorta, kinda do this, but I'm also exploring while travel trolling. This evening, I even tried trolling right alone the edge of the bog. It didn't work. The bass are under the overhanging bushes and trolling doesn't place my lures under the bushes.

I caught the vast majority on T-rigged craws by Yamamoto and Crush City. It was windy both evenings. This evening it was whitecapping and I'm a little woozy still from the canoe going up and down in the waves, but the biggest challenge was the wind pushing me into the bog again and again and again, but that's where the bass were, beneath the woody bushes on the edge of the windblown bog. They hit ever so softly. I detected more bass by watching my line than feeling the hits.

I caught 21 tonight and 19 last night, so even though the air and water are still cool, the fishing is heating up a little. However, they are hitting lightly. Here are my biggest from last night (19 inches) and tonight (17.5 inches), as well as an especially muscular 18.25-incher from last night on the bump board: :

With rain starting tonight, I launched one more time this evening even though it was white-capping. White-capping doesn't rattle me. I'm at home on cool, dark northern lakes, but the wind did multiply the challenge of catching bass as it kept pushing me into the shore. Even without the wind, catching bass in cool water with soft plastics is tough. You have to detect the hit and watch the line too, since there isn't always a hit you can feel. Anglers in Maine have been reporting tough fishing in 2026. Some haven't even caught a single bass yet. So, catching 21 this evening felt like real success, even though it doesn't reach some of my past numbers. Just like last night, my last bass was my best: But I caught plenty of other healthy fish, all on a T-rigged blue craw, mostly cast to the edges of a bog, but three were caught trolling to the beginning of my run and two were pulled from a laydown. Even though I wore three layers, I was still cold coming off the water. It's 43 degrees I write this report. At one point, I lost four out of five fish, but also managed to land my last five bass. Here are some of my other fish: I've caught 131 bass in 2026.

Bazoo, I've been worried about you!!! Good to see you post, Buddy.

I'm the former. However, unlike several of you, I don't find trolling to be boring. Like I said at the beginning, trolling lets me really enjoy the day.

I hate when that happens!

I cried through your entire post, but I felt ^this^ in my bones and belly.

There's a guy named Fried Lemons at Bass Resource who catches BIG Maryland bass. I assume he's not going to share his honey holes, but they are there, so good luck finding them.

Why don't you troll? No, I'm not talking about being ornery on the Internet. I'm talking about trolling for bass. You all know I troll and I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one at Bass Resource. Now, I understand why zoomy bass boaters don't troll, even though all bass boaters have a trolling motor and could troll with little effort. For me, just paddling along, enjoying the birds while trolling, is ever so lovely and THEN a rod snaps back and it's ever so exciting. So, if you don't, why don' cha? If you do, when you do you do it and why?

So impressive that you almost caught it. Last night was COLD! Impressive too that you caught all those other bass. I just visited a Maine fishing forum and lots of posters, including some who live on ponds, stated that they haven't caught a single bass in 2026 due to the cold. My total of 32 yesterday has me feeling grateful. Last night when I was paddling back, I was trolling and both rods snapped back. I landed one and almost landed the other. Then I cast behind my canoe and caught the 19-incher. Then I cast again, got a hit on my falling craw, set the hook, and the line snapped. I was so cold that I quit. Yeah, I quit when you were just getting started. So, your cowboying days are far from done.