Swamp Girl

I'm cool with that...as long as you give me the chocolate milk and A BAG OF CHIPS that you promised. Do you have any zombie reed fields where you fish, the rotted stumps of last years reeds that exist for a couple weeks each spring? It's a great lure for that situation, cast into the zombie field and quickly retrieved. It's also great for casting under bushes.

That's my hope. I'm ready to hibernate. I've got north blood flowing through me (German and Scot) and I think northerners are born to crawl into our dens and under our bear skins when the snow flies.

Me too. I caught ten last night and four this morning. This was last night's biggest, caught at a pal's pond on a pink Shimano Flashboost popper in a foot of water at the back of a bay: And this was this morning's biggest, a little shorter at 19", but thicker, caught at my pond on a white spinnerblade with a black and gray glitter Keitech on the edge of a floppy grass bed: I'm at 1,397 for the year. I want to reach 1,400, but I won't fish until next weekend. I'll likely fish my pond and stick close to where I launch because the water is cold enough to kill me.

Underspinning out of a canoe, BP? That's my M.O. too! Al, you're looking good with that beautiful bass and looking great with that PFD. Thanks for the pretty pics!

That makes sense. Our latitudes are similar.

In most nearby water, I catch one 19-incher about every 40 bass. However, I have caught three to five to nine in a morning, but most mornings, about one out of 40 will be 19". Fingers crossed you're afloat again soon, Alex. What kind of boat do you want?

I don't think so...yet. I've caught quite a few 20" to 22" bass the last three years, but none at my pond. Something happened to my pond. I know this because it used to contain five-pound bass according to the local guys, but hasn't for about ten years and about ten years ago was Maine's coldest winter on record. I'm thinking there was a killer freeze and it's taken the pond all this time to recover. FWIW, I fished my pal's pond yesterday evening and met a guy with a house on the pond who visits eight weekends each summer. He said he'd only caught three bass at the pond all summer. I shared where and how I caught them, gave him some lures, and offered to guide for him next spring. He's excited to go fishing with me and I'm excited to take him.

Thanks, Kirtley. It'll feel good to reach 1,400, but it feels better to finally catch a 19-incher at my pond. If I'm projecting correctly, it'll be the first of many.

Wow, Pat! SO. MANY. BIG. BASS.

I finally caught a 19-incher at my pond. I've caught hundreds of 19-inch bass at my pal's pond and the bogs, but I never caught one at my pond until this morning. The 19-inchers at the bogs run thick and the bass at my pond grow thick too. Here she is: And here she is lipped and gripped: Isn't she beautiful!?! I caught four other bass, all thick. I think my pond is about to become a four-pounder factory, as I caught a lot of 18-inch-class bass at my pond this year, like the second one below: I was also proud to put this in the bottom of my net: This is where the lazy boy littered (Imagine being so weak that you'd befoul such a pretty place.): When I launched, by canoe glittered with frost, looking a little like a bass boat. I quit because I was soooooooo cold. But happy. My first 19-incher at my pond! In case you wonder why I get so excited about 19-inchers, it's because they're rare at my latitude. It takes about 20 years for them to reach this size. That's 20 winters under the ice and 20 years of avoiding eagles, ospreys, and Great blue herons. In-Fisherman says that a 19-incher/four-pounder of the North is as rare as a 6.2-pounder of the South. I'm at 1,397 for the year and I can't fish again until next weekend due to foul weather. Lastly, I saw eagles, ospreys, a heron, loons, Canada geese, and kingfishers. I even saw one kingfisher catch a fish!

I caught another five bass this morning at my pond, taking me to 1,397. Sooooo close!

I have one in my tackle box. I just need to remember to use it.

I have been unabashedly clear about ending the season as a quantity basshead, but quality bass keep putting up roadblock after roadblock. Instead of catching lots of bass to roar me across the quantity finish line, I keep catching long bass and thick bass! Like these: Where are the eager 15-inchers that can push me across the finish line???

I have never cast a spoon for bass. I need to try one.

HUGE bass!

I could only catch ten, leaving me eight short. These three were well-shaped: This was the big one: Here she is lipped and gripped: I saw her chasing shad in a foot of water and I tossed a pink Shimano Flash boost at her. I'm fishing my pond tomorrow morning, but then the weather shuts down fishing for a full week, so I'm hoping to catch my final eight at my pond in a few hours. 1,392 for the year.

Ha! It might go like this: "Got one!" "Never mind. Lost it." "Got one!" "Dang it."

It feels cooler than that to my touch. The two thermometers I bought both stopped working because a canoe is such a soggy vessel.

I will be and thanks. I'm scaredy of that water now.

I'm launching this afternoon and I need 18 bass to reach 1,400 bass for 2025. Today is mild and the wind will only be 4 mph, so the conditions are good, but I won't be paddling far from shore because the water is cool enough to kill me. However, being fall, they should be shallow. If I catch 18, I'll share those bass in this thread this evening. I haven't decided whether I'll fish my pal's pond or the new pond I secured permission to fish. The new pond is only 83 acres, so even though I don't know it, there's not a lot of water for the bass to hide. My pal's pond is 385 acres, but I know every weed bed and drop-off. If I have the energy, I might fish my pond for two hours tomorrow morning too before the wind kicks up, so I'm pretty hopeful about 1,400. I've pretty much given up on reaching 1,500. It's just too cold and windy going forward. HOWEVER, if we had a few, warm calm days at the end of October and I could launch at a bog, I might be able to do it. BIG IF.

Bigger is better. It will be so much fun...and so much work.

Due to climate change, we're forecast to have your Cape Cod climate one day. I already planted a redbud growing in my front yard that's a Zone 6 plant and we were Zone 5 just three years back. None of my neighbors know what kind of tree it is because it couldn't grow here the last guhzillion years.

Alex, I'm happy whenever you go fishing, regardless of what you catch or don't catch. And when you do catch bass, I'm even happier!

Speaking of Canadian crisps, Canada's Lay's Hickory Potato Sticks are my all-time favorite.

Whoa! That would be ice fishing for me. I'm surprised that Massachusetts is that much warmer. Those are both big New England bass and even more impressive because you live in crowded Massachusetts.