Swamp Girl

Gosh, I don't know. I prefer to launch on cloudy mornings. Foggy? Even better. Raining? Better still. On sunny days, the raptors fish too. I see them diving on bass. I've seen bass writhing in their talons. However, I haven't kept records and Josh Alwine has. I do know that I've launched on some foggy, overcast mornings and the fishing was bonkers.

That's what I've done. You are so right. That's where I've been catching them. Three from last night, all caught on hard bottom in the middle of the pond:

Clayton sure can cowboy. Congrats, my bass brother. I launched at my pond for 1.5 hours of evening fishing. I only caught five, taking me to 1,156 for the year, but they're fine examples of northern bass feeding like lumberjacks with our nights now in the forties. See what I mean? You see it in this lmb too: And this one, which looks like the same bass, but it wasn't: Look how pretty this pic of my last bass is: Speaking of pretty: I still marvel that I own waterfront. It was always a dream, but an impossible dream. Last thing: I had a pickerel slash at my walking bait and cut the line. It's my only Duo Realis Pencil, so I wanted it back. I paddled to where the assault happened and just waited. I didn't have to wait long before the lure bobbed to the surface. Yes!

Quite possible. I would agree with you as I nearly always do, Pat, IF I didn't bump into bass with my canoe. Now, they usually swirl and scoot when I'm three or four feet away, but occasionally they don't know I'mm there until the canoe nudges them.

I figure if they fit in my hand, they're little, but I do like photographing the little ones this way because it really shows how pretty they are. Thanks! They are gaining weight because the nights are now dropping into the forties, which has me fishing again this evening, but only for 1.5 hours. Having a canoe already in the water five minutes from my living room makes short trips doable. The only thing I don't like about short trips is that there's not much time to find bass, so I usually choreograph exactly where and how I'll be fishing to save a few minutes. I'm going to troll to the drop-off and fish that. Right before I paddle back, I'll cast my walking bait onto the reef because I know that bass feed atop it when the Sun is low.

I bet you're right. It's the splash.

Makes sense. I should have clarified that this pattern holds for open water surface fishing too, where I'm in the middle of the pond and not casting to cover or the bank.

Here's my rough estimate of where bass hit my surface lures: 10% hit within a fraction of a second of my lure landing. It can seem like the lure landed on their open mouths. 40% hit within the 24". 40" hit within the next 3' of retrieve. 10" hit during the rest of the retrieve. Why? My canoe is soooooo quiet and I cast my surface lures a long ways. I'm nearly certain that closer bass don't detect my presence. Heck, if I leave a lure dangling over the side, bass hit those lures and I sometimes literally hit/bump unaware bass with my canoe. So, why are way off yonder bass much more likely to hit my surface lures than closer bass?

I use my Bass Resource trip reports as my trip logs. For example, I'll go back and read my Sept. 2024 and Sept. 2023 trip reports to see what the bass were hitting then and how many I was catching.

I like @GRiver and @Rucksack's suggestions.

I've been hooked twice in the finger. It's tough. You have to grimace and bear it.

Weirdly, the wind didn't blow all day yesterday, which is why I fished twice. Wednesday is forecast to be another calm day. The forecast tells me when I fish.

I've caught 1,152 so far this year, which sounds pretty good, but I caught 2,044 last year, making me seem a slacker this year. I should pass 1,500 this year if I can find a couple groups of feeding bass like I did in October of 2024.

I caught some pretty smallmouth this evening:

Impressive.

I launched for the second time today. I fished my pond this morning (14 bass) and my pal's pond this evening. I worked all the big fish spots at my pal's pond, but couldn't catch a big one, breaking my short streak of at least one 19-incher there. I did catch 16 bass, most of them on a walking bait twitched over a rocky flat. I caught another bass on a frog too. I'm at 1,152 bass on the year. Some of my fish:

More from this morning. I'm launching again this late afternoon and will fish into the evening. I'd return to my pond, except by 4:00 p.m., it will have been raining steady for 24 hours and I have a canoe that's upright at my pal's pond. I want to tip it to empty it, so since I'm going there, I'll fish it too.

The loons on my pond like to hang with me too.

I enjoy this challenge too. The sneaky suckers are always moving. It's like an Easter Egg Hunt, but one that takes place in beautiful locations with loons singing and swallows swooping. It's like hunting for Faberge eggs at Versailles while Whitney Houston sings! Anyway, I'm so glad you've learned so much and are catching more and more. I've learned a lot too at Bass Resource. The guys here are oh-so-helpful.

I caught 14 this morning in the rain at my pond in less than three hours. It was cool and I was happy to come home to a chicken pot pie and hot shower. Here are some of them:

I launched at my pond at 5:30 a.m. this morning and was home by 8:30. Why so short? Well, I'm fishing again this evening and didn't want to empty my tank, plus I was cold. Today's high will be 60 degrees and it rained all morning. You guys know I love fishing in the rain. I was fishing a cold front, which is bad, but the solunar calendar said that fishing today should be excellent. So, with the rain and calendar on my side, I fared well. @Glenn said that I can find fish and I really felt I deserved that compliment this morning. I caught 14, giving me 1,136 for 2025 and their average size was solid. Here's the biggest at 18.5 inches: Here's where I caught her and some others: Between the shoreline and me is a big reef. I positioned my canoe in the deep water and cast to the transition slope between the reef and the deep water with T-rigged dark blue crawfish. I'd let it sink and then slowly begin a retrieve. I think they were hitting it on the drop because I'd turn the handle once or twice and feel the rod loading. There were smallmouth there too: I caught some fine open water bass too. These two were both 18 inches: The only little bass I caught were these two: The rest were quality fish, caught here and there, including one frog fish, the first one below and another two 18-inchers, both at the bottom: I photographed a couple others in the dark, but my flash didn't work and the bass were dang dark. I'll be fishing the rain again this afternoon. I was thinking of fishing my pal's pond, but I sure enjoyed my pond this morning. It's a sweet choice to make!

Five other guys fishing and you STILL caught those big bass? Now, that's skill!

Thanks for the education!

Me, ME, ME!!!

Dangle a worm under a bobber, Leo. If that does't work, try a minnow. Pancreatic cancer is one of the worst. Congrats on surviving it.