Swamp Girl

They're all from the fall of 2024. We have some color now, but the trees aren't blazing yet.

A three-pounder is solid, strong bass. They pull my canoe. I'm glad you're back on the water and dancing with bass again.

Yeah, I liked it until Glenn said that he found it wonky and for whatever reasons, as time passes, I care less what my fish weigh. They're big to me. They fight so hard they've nearly yanked my rods from my grips more than once. They're glorious and I'm grateful to spend a little time with them.

Whoa, Reel Ess! Reel Ess, I've told ya before and I'm gonna tell you again: You have the best avatar photo at Bass Resource. I can catch thick bass and Clayton catches even thicker, but your avatar bass makes our thickest bass look gaunt.

They do. That's right. However, I just paddle and troll and cast until I bump into some. In the meantime, I enjoy the colors. There's color in the sky too: This exact strategy worked for me last fall too. I found one remaining weed bed that was still green and it held bass.

Glad you were fishing again, Alex.

Big head and belly on your boy's bass!

Pat is living the good life: Can't sleep. Climbs out of bed. Catches a big girl in his backyard. Walks a few more yards and catches an even bigger bass. Way to go, Brian!

Thick girl this morning on a Burner worm.

That's top shelf angling, Al. Your Prowler is a small boat for such big bass. They must take you for rides.

I caught 11 at my pond this morning, giving me 1,167 for the year. All but one were caught on a T-rigged Bronco Bug or black Duo Realis Pencil walking bait. This was the oddball, caught on a blue T-rigged Burner Worm. She has such a nice build that I took two pics: I just can't catch a 19" bass at my pond, but I catch a fair number of 18-inchers. I read that it can take 20 years for an lmb to reach 19" in Maine. I talked to another angler who said that he's fished my pond for 70 years and whereas he once caught a seven-pounder there 40 years ago, he hasn't caught even a four-pounder in more than ten years. Something must have happened to my pond ten years ago. There's plenty of food to grow 19" bass and bigger, as you can see in the bass above. I think I might see my first 19-incher at my pond in a couple years. I caught other well-fed bass, like this one: More bass: Pretty pic:

If each individual acts differently, no wonder I struggle to crack the code.

87.5" would win a lot of kayak tournaments. The only way I could fish in your wind would be nothing but trolling...without paddling. Then I'd be pinned on a shoreline and my fishing would be done for the day.

My screen name is Swamp Girl, but I'm really a Northwoods Girl. I've spent months and months in the wilderness. You are right about following your dreams while you still can. You hear that, youngins??? Go fish wherever you dream of fishing while you can still reach those places. I always wanted to fish for Arctic Char in the rivers falling into the Arctic Ocean, but didn't simply because that's for rich people. Otherwise, I fished where I wanted to fish. Say, Al, what boat do you use in your boggy pond? Do you tow it? What's the launching like? How often do those bass drive your hooks into one of those many trees? I love that your hands shake. Mine would too. I caught just one bass this year that was likely six pounds, but the big bass season is just getting started.

@Lottabass: I imagine a bass busting through that green mat and my heart flutters. Now I imagine a six-pounder busting through that green mat and my heart nearly stops! Way to go, Al! You're one of the best at Bass Resource. Like you, Al, I like to fish the water with the least people. If I were still young, I'd still be driving into northwestern Ontario to claim an entire lake, a lake so far down a logging road and so deep into the woods that no one else suffer inhaling mosquitoes under a portaged canoe to fish it. I'm just happy you have your big bass pond across that pasture and that you have the skill to land them. Your pond/bog has more obstacles than miniature golf.

Heckuva day, my friend. Quality plus quantity, which were the sweet fruit of your grit plus skill. I've paddled in similar winds and I've fished in similar winds, but I haven't paddled AND fished in similar winds. You've got true grit.

Thanks, Daubs. Even when I launch and catch 40 bass, I don't think that I broke the code on that trip. I don't know if I could have caught 50/60/70 with different lures in different places with different retrieves. And if I catch 40 bass, I can't even say why those bass hit, what motivated them to hit my lure(s), and why some mornings I can only catch 10. Sure, the generalities apply, such as they're striking in May, but generalities only explain general patterns, not why I'll catch two dozen in Pond weed one morning and only two the next morning in the same weed, even when the two mornings feel like clones. There are more factors in play than I can untangle. Bass fishing is a backlash the size of a city bus, so rather than pretend I can untangle it, I enjoy being on the water and tussling with bass and sometimes descrying a fleeting pattern...perhaps.

I threw a couple 3-inchers into my tacklebox. The 4-inchers might not be working, but the 3-inchers....

Golden shiners. My numbers have ticked up. I had been casting big paddle tails on underspins when they'd quit hitting them. I'm surface fishing now and throwing crayfish.

I think data and science deliver value, but they are limited by the complexity of the environment. Water holding bass subjected to the vagaries of weather is akin to a human body in a hospital where the doctors might have a poly-syllabic diagnosis, but no healing power or plan. Because I've been fishing the same two ponds, I'm able to note the continuous changes. I've seen whole weed beds seemingly disappear in a few days, but even when they remain, they keep looking different...and that's just weeds...and what I can see. However, I like looking for bass.

^This.^ Does ^this^ not resonate with anyone, I.e. the stock market pundit/bass pundit comparison? I'm thinking of YouTubers who long arm a bass while they blather about how YOU TOO can catch GIANT BASS just like their three-pounder. If they're so sure about their method, then catch ten more. On camera. Right then and there. Explaining why they caught a bass after the fact doesn't impress me. Explain why you're about to catch bass and then catch one after another, just like a real stock market advisor would explain why you're about to make money and then you would, again and again. If you truly, deeply understand bass (or the stock market), you'll guarantee your coming catch (or stock market profit). Bass and their environments are complicated and the bug/windshield analogy works for me. Fishing with the kid has refreshed my wonder. By "wonder," I don't just mean my state of wonder, which was always pretty hardy, but wondering if this weird thing or that weird thing will work. For example, the kid had a T-rigged soft plastic and while paddling to the next spot, he trolled it. I have never had a YouTuber or even KVD suggest trolling a T-rigged soft plastic, but after seeing the kid catch a bass, I have caught many bass doing the same thing. Another cool thing the kid recently did was asking his dad to beach the canoe and he walked along a point, casting outward. He landed a bucketmouth doing that, whereas I would have been, "Why beach the canoe? We can cast from it." But I think his approach made the difference. Time for this:

Canoe trip? That makes us cousins, related by paddlin'!

Agree! When I launch in the rain, I know I'll have the pond to myself. No other anglers making noise.

I too can't crack the code. The bass are always moving and I don't know why or where they're going. I just know that my task is to find them. Some bass pundits remind me of stock market pundits, always explaining with surety after the fact. You know when the market goes up or down and pundits explain why? Well, if they really know what moves the market up and down, wouldn't they be trillionaires? Same with bass. If there was a person who truly understood why bass move and where they go, wouldn't they be KVD times ten? I'm not talking about general patterns. I think they do apply. I'm talking about being certain about why and where bass move.* Like you, Daubs, I try to launch and enjoy myself. If I see an old tractor glowing on the shore, I photograph it: Me too. Plus, gray mornings are beautiful. It's a beauty that too many people miss. * You guys know I catch a lot of bass, so I have access to more personal data than many anglers, but with all my data, in the end, if you were in my canoe and you asked me, "Where are the bass?", I'd have to admit, "I dunno. Let's try over there." And if we didn't catch any bass "over there," I'd suggest, "Let's try over there." And so on. And you might think, "Swampy's an idiot angler. She's just bungling into bass." Yep.