Swamp Girl

You have an analytical mind like @Pat Brown. With the minnows, I think I'd need a high speed camera. It was a malestrom inside my tank when I released the bass. If I could have studied it in super slow-mo, I'm sure I could have seen something that would have informed my retrieves.

That sounds like a normal day. I frequently feel a thump and retrieve a paddletail that's paddletailless. About half a century ago, I was retrieving a lure parallel to the shoreline in gin clear water. A bass darted from cover, inhaled it, and spat it out quicker than I could react, plus I felt nothing in the rod. I think we all get a lot of hits from bass that aren't willing to commit. You have some great suggestions above.

I had a classroom lmb. I'd buy a dozen minnows from time to time to feed it. When the minnows were dropped into the aquarium, it was pandemonium, with the minnows darting in every direction and the bass in hot pursuit. Then, in the same second, after half a dozen or so minnows were inside the bass, it would all screech to a halt and the seven remaining fish would be chill. The minnows would literally swim past the bass with zero caution. It told me that baitfish know when they're prey...and when they're not. Whether it's an emitted chemical, body posture, or something else, I do not know.

You get it. I understand that every approach comes with costs. For example, if you rig your boats and body with cameras like YouTubers, beyond the considerable purchasing costs, you pay with your picture processing time, recharging time, and electronics malfunction too. A cell phone takes a fine photo, but my cell phone is in a waterproof pouch on lanyard around my neck. To take a photo, I pay with the time it takes to extract it and the risk I incur when it's no longer waterproofed and attached to me. Plus, the bass pays with more time in the net while I fiddle with it. And so on. There is no cost-less approach. My waterproof camera works well for my 30-seconds or less approach, meaning I keep the bass out of the water for 30 seconds or less.

Thanks for the suggestion, @OldManLure, but I can barely carry the gear I already use.

Me:

After considerable consideration, I have decided against buying and using line conditioner. It would be just one more thing to do and I already cast accurately and have enough to do the evenings before launching, such as retying my knots and loading my car.

I fish hard up to a point, but I take time to show others how to catch fish and I show them my honey holes because there should be more to fishing than just me/ME/ME catching fish. As I've written several times, if someone is in the bow of my canoe and I outfish them, I failed them.

It's our secret. I once fished muskies with a great angler. The week we fished, he caught THREE that were over 50". My biggest was only 48", which in the world of muskies, is about a mile shorter than a 50-incher. In the world of bass, that's equivalent to three DDs in a week...without FFS. One evening, we circled an underwater hump and he kept describing how the hump was changing. He was like your father, looking inside the engine. If I'm fishing mid-day, I spend a lot of time looking at the bottom. The ponds I fish are shallow enough (only ten feet at their deepest) and clear enough to allow me to see the bottom. So, I'm always looking and filing what I see. I try to be like that musky master. I don't have his brilliant fish-catching, detail-remembering brain, but I try.

I'd love to fish ^here.^

@gim: 2024 was sweet for you, but 2025 might be even better. Way to go, buddy!

FWIW, the kid and I fished last Tuesday morning and caught five bass like the ones pictured above. Since then, he's caught another three with his dad. All eight of these bass over four pounds were caught at drop-offs where the bottom dropped from 2-3 feet to eight feet. So, when I return to the water, guess where I'll be fishing? There's a sudden drop-off on the shoreline above, but we also had luck fishing a drop-off that plunged quite a ways from the shoreline. I found the off-shore drop-off by continually jabbing my paddle into the water until I couldn't feel the bottom anymore. This might be a little too high-tech for most of you guys. All were caught in low light conditions, i.e. morning or evening. I'm guessing the bass were staging preparing to go shallow to feed (evening) or returning from nighttime, shallow water feeding before the dinosaurs could attack. I share because this Maine pattern might work for you too.

He's a natural, aided by the fearlessness of youth. I'll see him try the oddest things because he's not encumbered by what he's supposed to do. He can be creative in ways that we old farts can't...anymore.

The kid keeps fishing (without me) and keeps catching. He caught two over four pounds this morning. Here they are: Go, kid, go!

Yep, gear is overrated, HOWEVER the kid LOVES gear and I expect many of you guys do too. The kid bought a new Daiwa baitcaster and he loves to wax about how pretty it is. I own a couple Shimano Stellas ($$$$) and he's enamored of them, but he noted how they're scratched and scuffed. I explained, "That's because I carry through the woods in the dark. They've been lugged miles on wilderness portages. They've bounced in the back of my off-road vehicles on logging roads. And on and on and on. They've earned their dings." I don't care that they've lost their luster. They still catch bass. Speaking of the kid, he caught two bass over four pounds this morning. Here's one of them: His other one was bigger, but it was photographed with the Sun directly behind him. I can't fish, but the kid can and he's nailed 'em! As far as Motoboss's comment about editing doing wonders for the success rate, that's so true. I'll see a YouTuber catch ONE bass and then turn to the camera to explain how you too can catch, er, one bass, I guess. Al @Lottabass caught 52 over five pounds a few summers back and he lives in Iowa. Catch 52 over five pounds in Texas and I'll say, "Good job." Catch 52 over five pounds in Iowa and I... And then I'll politely ask, "Can you teach me how to do that too?" But catch ONE bass and you want to teach me? C'mon!

What did you catch in Canada?

@bp_fowler: Gosh, I miss Canada. At least you and your clan were there!

Yes, the wind blew our beaches into our trees. So what did we do? Why, we spread blankets in the branches and sunbathed! Simply drop some ice cubes into it and voila!

The turtle will have to swim faster than an eagle can dive, but I do recall the tale of a turtle that beat a rabbit in a race, so who knows?

So true. I can change my mind because I know I have blindspots. If someone can cast light on my blindspot, I'll shift my position.

Here's road to my pond. I'm happy to take you fishing this winter. We'd actually catch a lot of bass...through the ice:

So, you have good luck with red ones much like me, right?

Way to angle, Al, Mike, and Andrew. How cool for you to locate lots of bass after starting with a skunk, @The Baron!

Yeah, it's weird how baits work here and not there. You can see from my photo that my local bass like blue, green pumpkin, and red. I use red a lot, even though I recently read that red is a spring color.

Our excitement cements the memories.