Swamp Girl

Our excitement cements the memories.

Oh, I wish! I wouldn't disappoint you and you wouldn't be disappointed. When I launch at four a.m. and it's dark for a few minutes, I hear the GALOOMPS of big bass feeding yonder. I usually manage to catch a couple before the Sun rises.

Agree. Film them harassing you and then call the game warden. I regret not doing this when that woman yelled at me from her screen porch. Here's my dream scenario: The game warden will be too busy and he'll call for backup from the state police. They'll be too busy and they'll call for backup...on and on and on...until the call reaches Clayton. Clayton will arrive and I'll be so happy to see him that I won't care about the Karen and Clayton and I will go fishing.

I wish I weren't too fraidy to fish at night. I bet I could catch some belugas.

Cool! Even if you don't catch a bass, watching those claws flap is a blast. 😉 This has been my observation too.

Big bait, GP!

@king fisher is a bass warrior (DDer!), the house comedian, and the Bass Resource philosopher. I really enjoyed your post, bud.

I use the #3 and #4 in old school plain, undressed bronze, aka the most boring of all the options, but I've found it to be the most effective. They do need to be polished with steel wool from time to time.

I'm using soft plastic crawfish more and more. I think they look terrific in the water with their fluttering claws and the local bass do too. I started using them with twitching and letting them fall, but I've settled into a slow, steady retrieve. I even troll with them, all with a T-rig setup. Here's my latest Tackle Warehouse order:

I have a good memory too for the big girls. I could paddle you around my ponds and tick off all the places I caught the biggest bass. I could tell you the times of day and what lures I used too. Mike, we're the same. Four-pounders and up are the special bass for me too.

Good eye. I've been seeing geese too, but I don't know if they're resident geese or migrating geese.

Exactly.

I hear ya. I don't night fish, but in 2023 and 2024, I fished a lake that required a 2:30 a.m. alarm time to launch at 4:15 a.m., which wrecked me for that day too.

This one-eyed old gal thanks you, kind sir.

Thank you. I'm familiar with it and like your suggestion. F3 was largely talking about the strength of St. Johns bass and used current* to substantiate that claim, noting that where the current waned, the strength of the St. Johns bass waned. Anyone who's caught brown bass in current versus still water knows this. Where in Mexico do green bass achieve world class strength and why? I just don't think it would work where I fish because there are weeds atop weeds in the water I fish. I wish I could photograph how weedy my water is, but I can't. My camera only captures the weeds above water. However, the photo below gives you an idea of how weedy it can be. See all those weeds above the surface? Well, they have lots of relatives below the surface. *I haven't fished the St. Lawrence, but if strength and current are proportionate, knowing the current of the St. Lawrence, I would think that those bass would be some of the world's strongest, for they're both big and fighting current constantly, as opposed to the smallies of the New River, which are also fighting current constantly, but not as big.

Gosh, you are really selling me on the St. John's River. I'd love to fish it! Oh, I think you're right. However, how can you explain the bass in my pond outfighting bass in other ponds? The kid hooked one other morning that nearly pulled his entire baitcasting outfit into the water. And it wouldn't quit, but there's no current. Then we went the next morning and caught four 19-inchers at his pond and none of them pulled like the 17.5-incher he hooked. @DaubsNU1: I like your photo. And I like @casts_by_fly's method of using his hand like a Coke can or quarter. It allows for a 30-second or less release, but still gives the BR gang a sense of size.

Fish slowly like the guys already said. I sure wouldn't use a Roostertail.

I encountered it once and it startled me. I was working with troubled boys and after work, when the other teachers went home, I took the boys fishing. I was doing a good thing, but my colleague disagreed. So, I asked her how she enjoyed her afternoons and evenings and she said, she canoed. When I asked her how her canoe reached water, she said by car. "Ah, so have you noticed all the animals that you've smashed on your grill and windshield in your pursuit of pleasure?" It's this: Heck, you can't build a car or house without killing countless living things. Look at the machines that mine ore. So much life lived between the machine and the ore.

Love your misty photo, @Peacedivision.

@Scott F: That's a sweet setup, but wouldn't work in the weeds and wood that I fish.

The kid leaves Maine this Saturday and I won't see him again until next year, when he's 15 and looks like a different person. They change so much in their teens.

My struggle is finding a way to take a pic that isn't flawed. Yeah, I post a lot of lip and grips with pretty backgrounds, but they come with no size-context. I like @GreenPig's trick of keeping the lure in the mouth. And @scaleface can sure compose a sweet shot! Yeah, bass do vary in body shape and I notice that again and again.

Russ, that's actually a good photo and far better than many of the fuzzy photos I post at Bass Resource. Trying to photograph a wiggling bass in the foggy dark at 4:30 a.m. has me failing and failing again.

I've written some for Gray's Sporting Journal and whereas I'm barely a good enough writer to occasionally write for them, I'm nowhere a good enough photographer to shoot for them. Gray's favors unusual perspectives. Like this: And this: Note how the fly reel is working like a Coke can or quarter. And this: And this: And this: Whereas I appreciate such pretty pics, I fear the fish pay the price. I'm guessing MANY photos are taken to obtain a magazine-worthy shot.

Anyone who's read my posts knows that I struggle with photography. It's not that I can't take a good photo. I've shot photos for many magazines, like this one: Part of my problem with photographing bass is that I don't want the bass to be out of the water long. So, a lip and grip is my quickest way to return the bass to the water: The plus of a lip and grip is you can see where I caught the bass. The disadvantage is there's no perspective, no Coke can or quarter beside the bass to give you an idea of its size. There's the ever popular full arm: The plus is the bass looks big. The minus is that the bass looks bigger than it is. The woman holding it is 5' 10". The bass appears to stretch from the top of her head to her waist, an impossibly long smallmouth Then there's the half-arm, which only half inflates the size of the bass: There's the bump board photo, which has the advantage of showing you exactly how long the bass is: There are two disadvantages. One is that it's an ugly photo. The other is the bass often flop, so I get a blurry photo of a flopping bass or I try again and delay returning the bass to the water. My preferred photo is when a competent partner takes my pic and I jam my arm behind my head: I've observed that a few of us favor sticking our arms behind our heads to place the bass right beside our head for accurate perspective, using our heads as Coke cans or quarters. More than once, well-meaning Bass Resource members have suggested that I mount a camera in my canoe to achieve the effect immediately above, but I'm at the limit of what I can carry through the woods and loading my canoe is already complicated enough. I'm thinking of reverting to bump board photos, interspersed with pond shots to show where I'm catching them. At least you guys will have a clear idea of the size of the bass I'm catching. I just hope that most of them lay still.