Swamp Girl

A pair is rare. Lucky duck! I think bigger fish are more likely to hit, but I don't catch as many fish as I do in May and June. However, I did have a 70-bass morning and a 58-bass morning last fall, so they can go bonkers, but it's been rare for me...as two bald eagles.

I caught seven in two hours this morning. Sad that my 2025 season is about to end. Other than tomorrow, the extended forecast is cold wind and more cold wind. I caught this beauty on my pond this morning: And I caught these two at the same time while trolling two rods. I netted one and then the other and lipped them both at the same time: This gal was shorter, but thicker and the hardest fighter: I hope tomorrow isn't my final day, but it might be. I hope to fish five hours, which I haven't done for too long and if I do, I hope to catch 18 more bass to give me 1,400 for the year.

I just need to keep my rotund gal away from yours because yours will think mine is a snack.

GP, way to stick with it and crack the code!

Exciting...and heartbreaking!

You can do it. This is big bass season and you know how to wrangle 'em.

I struggled to untie my rope to launch my canoe because it was frozen. And I had already decided to only fish the shoreline where I launched because the older I am, the more I fear cold water. However, the fishing was hot for the first hour and fifteen minutes. I started with this skinny one and photographed it in case I didn't catch another: Oh, Kate of little faith! This was my next one: My pond is getting soooo close to producing 19-inchers. Perhaps next year. Or 2027 at the latest. Then I caught this slender, but handsome bass: I then decided to paddle to the far end of the north shore and try a grass bed there that has been holding bass. I trolled with a spinnerbait and underspin. Both rods snapped back. It was the third time this year I hooked two bass at once while trolling through a school. I decided to photograph both at the same time. Not easy to do! Still, you can see that both were beauties. Then I reached the grass bed, which was in shade, and hooked this honker: My last bass was this football: Six of the bass were caught on a white spinnerbait with a shad-colored Keitech. I skunked the last 45 minutes because I kept fishing the same spots and apparently had already caught the active bass there. My seven bass give me 1,382 for the year and only 18 to go to reach 1,400, which is my new goal, as I've run out of warmth to catch 1,500. I am fishing my pal's pond or perhaps the new pond tomorrow afternoon.

Peer pressure worked! I'm so glad, Al.

I just returned from my two-hour fishing trip. Yeah, it was frosty, but I caught a fatty too. Not as fat and long as your profile pic bass, but she still stretched my string!

Gorgeous fish.

Mission accomplished.

I'm launching tomorrow morning for two hours and I'm worried I'll be skunked too. It's going to reach 32 degrees tonight and it'll be windy tomorrow morning, so I'll likely stick close to shore for cover and safety. It's harder to catch bass when I can't roam to find them, but I will take my Ruffles because they have ridges and bass orient to ridges.

Ha! I've got plain, ol' Ruffles in the cupboard.

Whoa! I have a Stella 1000 on my Bronzeback! I love that combo. Do you use it?

So true. I used to fish Lakes Superior and Michigan and I'd catch no bass, no bass, no bass, and then so many bass, but it takes time and persistence to find them.

I just know that I caught the Maine state record largemouth bass. She weighed 17.1 pounds and here's photographic proof:

Paddletail.

And I know I'm just as vulnerable as them.

Yeah, I think it would be so very exciting. However, remember my post about getting hooked on the one video game I played in my life and staying up until four in the morning? The rabbit holes scares me. I'm afraid I'd look at the screen and not look up like the guys do on YouTube. Quiet matters a lot to me. My career was talking, so I love reaching places where there's no talking. I sure want to go there too, Al. I LOVE the look of your honey hole!!! It sounds like a dream come true. I'll visit Al first and then you...if only family obligations don't keep me in Maine.

My young friend, "the Kid," will soon be big enough to lug a boat and he has a fisherman's fire in his belly. Fingers crossed he doesn't discover girls for another summer or three!

I do, Tom! I'd be fishing bogs every week if I had some young, male muscle.

I did not know that. Thanks! Remember when Chuck Yeager flew into space with an F-104?

Ha! Please do!

Sitting on the runway, she leaked like a colander, fuel dripping from every wing seam. Here come the crew. Wait, those are astronauts! They're not going to light that leaky thing, are they? But once airborne, it heats up in a hurry and all the joints tighten and it's still the fastest jet ever. Nobody does and did it better than Skunk Works.

^This^ is a pretty common land/lose ratio for me. I lose a lot of fish. There are days when the bass really wallop my lures and I'll land 90% of them, but then there are days like yesterday when they're bumping surface lures and yanking the tails of my soft plastics and I only manage to hook them for a quick sec. Nice bass, BP!