Swamp Girl

You are the King Fisher. Your Majesty, please keep your bass from my bass as your bass will eat my bass.

Mr. Bazoo, I was fluke fishing this morning and all morning, I kept thinking, "I'm fishing like Bazoo!"

Tom, I did not know that Golden shiners are high in protein. They're the primary prey of the bass I catch.

Gim, your first three bass are so fat they're funny!

Clayton, the second bass from the bottom looks like a bluegill. It's a bassgill.

Tom, I'm glad to read that the footballs are healthy. That means I'm catching a lot of healthy bass.

What I don't catch are long bass. @N Florida Mike just caught a bass over 24" that weighed about four and a half pounds, all its weight in its length. I hope @Bluebasser86/Clayton posts some of his dinner platter bass.

The bass I catch gain weight in different ways. Some get thick: Some become saucer-shaped like Clayton's bass: Some grow shoulders: Some become pear-shaped: Some grow a gut: Some become a giant head: How do your bass gain weight? Photos invited!

I'm still open to the possibility. I know several of you note the moon's position when fishing. Isn't a solunar table just a more formal noting of the moon (and Sun)?

My balance is slowly going away. I was walking through the woods with a couple 35-year old women last week and we had to walk on a series of bouncy boards. I sure had to concentrate!

Thanks for opining, PhishLI. My jury is still out.

My Solunar app gave today a 16%/Poor rating. So, I tied on a fluke last night and finessed ten bass into my canoe, reasoning that bass not wanting to gorge might be teased into snacking with something small and slow. Speaking of small, the first bass was small: The next bass was big: I caught a couple solid ones: Then I fished this weed bed: Here's a weed bed bass: It was time to paddle home, so I trolled with a blue, T-rigged crawdad on the way, not having much hope, for trolling is no longer working. Well, it worked! Another big one: I cast back to where I caught the bass above and caught two more: I caught 15 in all, giving me a running total of 1,212 for 2025. It was a good morning for a 16% rating. This weekend is rated Excellent to Great. Fingers crossed! Here's one of my bass on the bump board where you can see how they're fattening for winter: #flatbassarewhack

They should have sung this song about you:

Go, Pops!

Big one, Mike!

I'm glad you're home, Jig Man.

I made the same mistake when I first bought my bump boards, Waskacrank.

I love it. Also check out Chit on YouTube.

Wow, Geo, I love your story!

Here's another: I was in northwestern Ontario with my dad, his wife, and her son. I was paired with the son, all 6' 3" and 260-pounds and whereas he was fearless in cities, he was 'fraidy in the wilderness. Sadly, the fishing was tough as the wind blew from the northeast for days and the muskies were few. Both my dad's wife and her son were skunked all week and I struggled to land 15, but five of the 15 came in one hour when the wind swung from the northeast to the southwest and I said, "Let's go fishing!" We paddled to a small strait the angled northeast/southwest, so it lined up with the southerly wind. The wind was howling and even though my fishing partner was big and even after days of paddling, he was still close to worthless. This came into play when I hooked one musky after another, five in all, and he couldn't control the canoe without me, so the wind was ricocheting us off one side of the strait and then the other while I fought muskies. I hooked a sixth just as the wind quit, but lost it, and the bite quit too, but what a hoot while it lasted. Even with the muskies chomping, he couldn't catch one. Sigh. At one point, I had two muskies chasing my buzzbait. What a ride.

The differences between Andy's trip and mine are close to utter: I drove north. He flew south. I passed moose and bobcat on my way. He passed through TSA on his way. I slept in a tent. He slept in a resort. I was alone. He was with a guide and Jeff. He fished from a boat with a motor and electronics. I fished from a canoe. But our trips weren't utterly different, as we both caught big bass for our latitudes!

Here's a story. I was camped alone on an island that was dome-shaped in northwestern Ontario. I awoke to a racket. There were wolves on both shores howling and I could hear the pups howling too. Two geese flew overhead so low that I could hear their wings thumping the air. And a whip-poor-will was making its racket. "Dang," I thought, "nature is noisy." I paddled to the far shore and fished a strait between the shore and an island. It varied in depth and gave the bass plenty of spaces to hang. I caught some, including 19-to-21-inchers, some shaped like saucers, some bulgy, and others with linebacker shoulders. Saucer: Bulgy: Linebacker: But I don't remember that morning because of bass like the one above. I remember it because of this: And the wolves. And the bear. You see, I was casting into the rising Sun when I saw the biggest beaver of my life swimming across the strait to the island on the left above. So, wanting a close-up of the world's biggest beaver, I paddled to it and got quite close before I realized it was a bear. And I also realized at that moment that you can be the richest person in the world and still not have a moment like that, when a bear and wolves are your neighbors, because to reach that moment, you have to bounce down a logging road, driving through a stream or two, launch in a swamp, drag your canoe up rapids, and portage past a waterfall. A rich man like Jeff Bezos could pay someone to take him to such a place, but he'd never know the bliss of doing it alone. Good luck with your healing. Fingers crossed its your last hand surgery.

I took my pooch for a walk in the woods this morning and took a fishing rod too. Caught an 18-incher on my first cast, but that bass made such a ruckus that I couldn't catch another in three more casts. 1,197 for the year and whereas I'm not fully sold on the solunar calendar, I did note that my five hits last night and one hit this morning were all light, so light that a beginning angler might have missed them. Then there are times when I'm trolling with my rods in a rod holder and a bass hits so hard that my canoe shudders. So, if the solunar calendar is right, a "poor" day means fewer hits and much lighter hits.

I was going to fish a bog this evening, but a complication had me leaving late and so I switched to my pond. @FloridaFishinFool suggested a solunar app and it predicted lousy fishing. Well, it was right! I hooked five fish in 2.5 hours and only landed three. Luckily, one was a football. Unluckily, I had to catch it twice. I netted it when it was still green. Then I left it in the net, opened my reel's bail, and busied myself with the camera and bump board. Then I saw that my reel was peeling line. The bass had someone escaped. So, I had to play it again and it fought as if it were the first time. Having played it twice, I skipped measuring it to not tire it even more, but you can see it's a Claytonish/Kansasy bass: 1,196 for 2025.

Told ya, Clayton!