Swamp Girl

Al, I LOVE that pond! Great fishing, Al. You too, Baron! I returned to the water, but could only catch nine, including a five-poundish pickerel. The weather was shifty. The wind started at 8 mph from the south, but then swung from the north. I was fishing a 12" worm and a big creature bait, but didn't get a whiff on either. A white spinner bait with a black crawfish trailer also didn't trigger a single hit. All the action came on my underspin with Keitechs or Mayors in red, green, and shad. A popper also failed to produce. Here are some 17-inchers: Here's an 18-incher: Here's a smallie: 966 for the year. Th-th-th-that's all, folks!

@TOXIC?

Lake St. Clair in a kayak?

Please remind me what boat you have. I'm guessing it's not a kayak.

Three weeks? I'm so jazzed for you!

Maybe the gloves I'm using aren't welders' gloves. I looked up welders' gloves and you're right, they're big, honking things that would never work for fishing. My gloves are like these: https://www.amazon.com/Coated-12-KAYGO-Seamless-Polyurethane-Fingers/dp/B07P1R36HH/ref=sr_1_9?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.N1QPDAjY5-XEEsD6NM9uqKe5dve1lGlItAGNiz7CUbFhMQfaRwoflteriWxuHAv0y4ZNfoINLylxbN4r1hcfY_QkOSSU403zPVWx86oLM3Ewl6FoES1DyE2YDwSIFj_Hz6VPEQou1Ddk6ziV7-NbuICy66rAHinUultU4Z1AZadXA-ACAcixewYU6-QzCF03QPaJ6XSPnCMUMiyE01mdcZVY-EQVBt6-nqZUHiJcjTqtpxcv60yRV2zKh_a7Ork4E44b3bp17mZokUMPY32xw6Qc5tgv-orlr-lmfI69VUU.-3xsnvKyT7I874VCToiZ4JWl3AL2QmZuzC794ac8qg4&dib_tag=se&hvadid=693979949746&hvdev=c&hvexpln=67&hvlocphy=9002852&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=2088218424071105177--&hvqmt=e&hvrand=2088218424071105177&hvtargid=kwd-297290162605&hydadcr=24658_13626626&keywords=black%2Bwork%2Bgloves&mcid=aaffe2c216f63bef9cf5f1f0b95a462f&qid=1755789970&sr=8-9&th=1

I just got the green light from my eye surgeon to fish again! I'm going for two hours this evening and four-plus hours tomorrow morning. About this time last year, I started to catch more bass than I'd been catching through July and August, so fingers crossed the bass are reacting to our consistently cool nights and chomping again.

Buy welder's gloves in bulk and cut off the fingers. They're cheap and sturdy.

Ha! I think we're headed at full speed for a future that fuses WALL-E and Idiocracy, with dash of "Brave New World" and a heaping pinch of "1984."

I just tried AI for one of my ponds, asking where I should fish tomorrow morning for largemouth bass. It gave me only general information, having no pond-specific data base to cull. It's ironic that it led with "Specific Hotspots," whereas it has no specific hotspots and this pond doesn't even have a dam. So, at this point, AI will only work with bigger bodies of water where thousands of anglers have entered information about those bodies of water. Here are the "specific" hotspots for my pond: Specific Hotspots Weed Lines: Bass seek shelter and ambush prey within weed beds. Drop-offs: Look for steep drops where the water depth changes, as bass often position themselves here to hunt. Submerged Trees and Logs: Fallen trees and other woody cover provide hiding places for bass. Points: These are areas where the shoreline juts out into the water, and they can funnel fish movement. Near the Dam: The area near the dam is usually the deepest part of a pond and can attract bass. As a former teacher, that is concerning and especially so because the brain reconfigures itself to meet tasks at hand. The younger the brain, the quicker it can change. So, this child's brain has never developed the ability to describe and the longer the child waits to work his/her brain this way, the less fully the brain will change to meet this challenge. In short, this brain's time to change is running short.

@Standard: Beautiful bass and a great pic.

My town erected a statue of me. So many locals have seen me struggling through the woods with all my gear and to honor my grit, they depicted me in bronze. Here it is: To get the full effect, it's best to view the statue at night.

You bassheads who retouch your photos have WAAAAAYYYYYY more energy than me. When I come off the water and do a trip report, that's all I can do. I'm drained at that point. My issue with retouching is that many go too far and the bass look too shiny. Plastic. They look like the photos that realtors post and then you go see the house and you say, "This dump looks nothing like your pretty photos." Meet the Swinger Polaroid Swinger Meet the Swinger Polaroid Swinger It's more than a camera It's almost alive It's only 19 dollars and 95!

I assume the poster is adding the BR logo.

You are correct, Glenn, but I'm not afraid. I'm just not interested in having AI tell me where and how to fish. I enjoy deciding where to fish and what lure to use. And I trust my hunches. As I've written about a depth finder and line conditioner, I'm not looking to add more steps to fishing. All my energy is already taken by managing my considerable, current gear. You should see me bumbling through the woods in the dark with my six rods, tacklebox, paddle, bear spray, camera, phone, etc., which is why I sometimes take a break and go fishing with two rods and a few extra lures in my pocket.

F3 said it all. I second what he wrote. Like F3, I'm a relative primitive. Two of my canoes are simply hulls. My third canoe does have two rod holders. I'm the engine, the GPS, and the fish finder. Most of my reels are 25 to 40 years old. When I fish, my head is up to watch the swallows and to see the grass stir as a bass twitches. As the Shakers wrote: "Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained, To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed, To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come 'round right."

Not really. I've seen you catch fish in the city, in the winter, from every type of craft, in the thick of tubers, with your wife and 47 friends, and in the rain, which reminds me that Dr. Seuss wrote about you: Can Russ catch bass in the rain? Can Russ catch bass of every strain? Can Russ catch bass with his wife? Can Russ catch bass all his life? Yes, Sam, yes, he can.

Russ, you catch fish everywhere and with everything. I could give you a safety pin, some string, and a French fry and you'd catch five species out of street puddle.

Please take @IcatchDinks fishing. He's such a good guy, lives in Michigan, and I'd love to see him fish a river that's thick with smallies, not tubers.

For Maine, I nominate Hank Parker and the YouTubers, Old Lady Angler and JonB, all southern anglers who recognize that Maine, long the land of brookies and Atlantic salmon, also delivers some fine bass fishing. My fishing buddy, the kid, might be worth nominating one day, for he's already outfishing millions of more seasoned anglers. For every state, I nominate @Glenn, who has connected bassheads from coast to coast and educated us beyond counting.

Find a teenager to show you how.

They toy with us. They are cats and we are the balls of yarn.

@FloridaFishinFool: YIKES! Thanks for the heads-up.

Guilty. I sometimes don't fit the entire bass into the photo and my bass aren't as long as yours. I do try to lean back when photographing my longer bass, but I rarely check the single photo I take to see if it's a good one because doing so and taking a second photo cuts into my 30 seconds or less goal. Ah, another Wabi Sabi fan. Weddings? Journalism? On paper, I'm a pro too since I've sold photos, but I only took them because some magazine editors didn't want to send a real pro along with me when I conducted an interview. However, it was nice to be paid for copy and media (words and photos).

Are you fishing weightless or with a jighead? I've found that there are days when they prefer one or the other and there are days when they prefer neither.