Swamp Girl

It's been a tale of three summers: 2023: Whopper Ploppers 2024: poppers 2025: walking baits 2026: We'll see!

I've said the same thing many times. Tears for all who are suffering. Truly.

I launched again this evening and caught 19. I also caught my third 2026 19-incher from my pond: I never stop feeling lucky that I own pond-front property five minutes from my house. I haven't had success trolling any soft plastics recently, so I trolled this, which one of you suggested for casting over submerged weeds: My pond is too weedy for this lure to work in the summer, but it caught three bass trolling this evening! Most of my bass were caught again casting a T-rigged blue craw at the edge of the bog. Three of the 19 bass were smallies. I was so cold. It was 49 when I quit and my feet were wet, plus I forgot to bring my fleece top and only had a thin nylon top. Brrrrrr! Here are a few more pics, the usual array of 17 to 18-inchers: I'm at 110 bass for 2026. The first hundred came pretty slow and my fishing is going to slow even more, as wind, rain, and more cold are coming and I likely won't fish for the next week.

Does anyone know how an old woman in a canoe can enter? I'm asking for a friend.

Great to see you sharing your wisdom, Jon.

Nah, the fishing will pick up. It's just been cold and the water's still cold.

I launched at my pond at seven and quit at ten. I should have launched at 8:30 because I caught one bass in the first hour and a half, but a dozen in the last hour and a half. It's still too cold in Maine for morning fishing and my canoe's gunnels glittered with ice for the first half hour. Still, I loved that first hour and a half. When the bass aren't biting, I can really focus on the Red Wing Blackbirds, geese, loons, and the light. I even stopped to photograph one of the pond's Wood Duck houses: Here's the only bass I caught in the first half of the morning, right on the edge of the bog: Not even my lucky laydown produced a bass, but when I reached a shaded shoreline, I caught this beauty: Right away, I caught another who made me so happy because she was so healthy. Thick with muscles: I put her on the bump board so that you could really see how thick she was. For those of you who don't ever photograph bass on bump boards, it's a great way to showcase a thick fish: Then I settled into a pattern of casting to the edge of the bog. My casting was spot on this morning, which is always gratifying: This one was skinny! Back to thicker ones! This one was brown and a real beauty! One more to end the morning: I've caught 91 bass in 2026. I might fish again tomorrow morning. We'll see. I'm a little tuckered just now. Then I won't fish for a week or so because it'll be wet, rainy, and in the forties.

So sad for you and your family, Clayton. I love what you wrote, Crow Horse.

I LOVE white bass. They fight like smallmouth, but just don't jump. Our water is still cool, but I'm going to launch pretty early tomorrow and see if I can catch some on the surface. I had a couple jump today and I think that when bass are jumping, they're perky enough to hit surface lures.

I caught a solid bag yesterday, but that was luck. I simply stumbled upon a big bass school that was feeding for about 30 minutes. Today, I caught nine, but didn't need luck to land another solid bag. I caught five by casting under free-standing bushes like these: I caught two off the top of a ridge, including a smallie and my biggest lmb: And I caught two casting a wacky-hooked Senko in green pumpkin with a chartreuse-tipped tail into a laydown. You can see the tree in the background: I caught the other six with T-Rigged Yamamoto dark blue craw. Here are some of them: It felt good to rely upon my skill rather than luck to catch some bass. I've caught 78 bass in 2026, which is about what @TnRiver46 and @pdxfisher have caught in a single session this year, but as you can see above, my best five were solid.

I would love that, Russ. I feel lucky to see one in a fishing session.

You had a great day, Russ. I have never seen dozens of herons in one trip.

Thanks for the reminder, Gim, that rain is life.

@papajoe222 and @10,000 lakes Bassin shared the good stuff. I would only add that bass in the water I fish move a lot, from one type of plant to another. So, while Eel grass might be great one morning, they might not be there the next morning. So, yes, fish grass like Papa Joe and Mr. Bassin say, but I'll generally know within fifteen minutes if the bass are relating to the grass...and if they aren't, I'll try some other cover...like Pondweed, Wild rice, reeds, lily pads, Coontail, Cabbage, etc. I don't know if you have brushy banks in Iowa, by which I mean short bushes that overhang the water, but that's my number one plant. Bass park under the brush like cars under car ports.

I want to catch 1,800 bass in 2026 (I've caught 69 so far.), but my ambition might be all wet. Starting Wednesday, we are forecast to have six, straight days of rain, as in 24 hours of rain for six, straight days. It'll be seasonally cool too, in the forties for six, straight days. I love to fish in the rain when it's in the seventies or even the sixties, but the forties? Nah. Oh, yeah, it'll also be windy. I'm even going to pull my canoe out of the water on Tuesday and flip it instead of simply bailing like I usually do. Now, we've been in drought since last summer, so this rain is very good for Maine. It's just very bad for my 2026 goal. So, when I stop posting bass pics in a few days, this will be why:

Holy moly!

@Dwight Hottle: Your bass are Nature's supertankers. How long does it take to land a six-pound brown bass, Dwight? Do they jump? Take out line like big pike? I ask because it's nothing I'll ever experience.

This's good to know. I won't "like" your posts or respond to them going forward.

@RenzokukenFisher: I love big bags! Congrats! Speaking of bags, that's all I could catch today. I was expecting to do really well today as we've our first day in the fifties in a week, but I think a week of chilly weather chilled their appetites. I caught a bag. Yep, five bass, but they were all thick ones. I wish I could say I caught them with skill, but I lucked into them. I couldn't catch anything in 99.5% of my pond. I happened to hit one feeding school and caught five bass and lost two in half an hour. These five, with the first one on the bump board being the smallest: The last one I caught was the thickest with a big head: You can see my pond is still brown. I'm launching again tomorrow and it'll be another 50-degree day, so I'm hoping two days of warmer air will trigger some feeding. I was fishing with a MH rod with braid and a G. Loomis M Bronzeback rod with mono. I also lost a thick smallmouth in another area, my only other fish. All three bass I lost were with the M rod with mono. There are a couple threads where guys are talking about ultra-light rods with 4-pound test. I couldn't land the bass I hook with such stretchy gear and especially not once the weeds return. I estimate my bag at today at 89 inches. I've caught 69 bass this year.

Good job!

Jon, do you ever read other anglers' fish reports? I've observed that you rarely leave comments and nearly never even react with emoticons.

@Susky River Rat: Those smallies make me wanna yell, "Omaha, Omaha, Omaha!"

I utterly agree.

That's a long time together. She was lucky to be your baby for 15 years. You gave her the perfect good-bye. Yep. Tears.

That's an excellent eagle shot, Dwight. What camera did you use? I see eagles every time I fish, but don't bother photographing them because they'd be black specks, except when I'm paddling close to shore and surprise an eagle in a tree and they take flight, close enough for me to count their tail feathers, but I'd need a camera already in my hand, which I never have. I'm fishing today, tomorrow, and Monday. It's been too cold and windy to fish for the last five days or so and I encountered ice on my way to the bird feeders this morning, but it'll warm fast and I'll get back to bassin'! Good luck on the St. Lawrence, Dwight! Your latest bass are beautiful, @GreenPig!