Swamp Girl

You've fished Great Slave?????? Wow, Dwight. I envy your angling life.

What is your state and where do you live? I think, as @Glenn and others noted, that you're just fishing-tuckered. If so, it happens to me here and there even though I enjoy great fishing because of where I happen to live. If you live up north, an eight-pounder is sooooooo rare. In-Fisherman says that a northern eight-pounder equals a southern 12-pounder. Consider that I've caught thousands of bass in the past three years and one was an eight-pounder. It's not that I've hooked other eight-pounders and they threw the hooks. I've encountered one and she was LUCK. I'd just dropped my cell phone into a pond and I was soooo sad I was ready to quit fishing for the morning right then and there, but I thought, "Just paddle a bit and think about what you have to do to replace the phone." So, I paddled and then thought, "Might as well troll a lure." I wasn't thinking strategically about where to troll. I simply chucked an underspin behind me. When she hit, I thought, "Is this a water-soaked log?" I wondered that all the way to the canoe. Then she parked under my canoe and I looked down and saw her big, white belly. "Hmmm, it is a fish." And I netted her with my wide, long-handled net and only then did I realize that she was big, but I was still sad that I didn't whoop and holler. My point is that my catching my eight-pounder had nothing to do with my skill. It was random. And my only advice for catching one is go to Mexico, shadow @Pat Brown, or chuck your cell phone into the drink and go off on a depression paddle.

There's this: "Studies show that being in nature has a positive effect on our bodies by reducing cortisol levels, muscle tension, and demands on our cardiovascular systems (lowers heart rate and blood pressure). Being out in nature often may lead to lower rates of heart disease. The great outdoors can also help you increase your vitamin D level, which is important for your bones, blood cells, and immune system." And this: "Nature can help decrease your anxiety levels and can help lessen stress and feelings of anger. Exercise can also help this, but it's even better when you're outside. Regular access to green spaces has been linked to lower risks of depression and improved concentration and attention. Being outside allows us to be social and come together with family, friends, or even people you don't know while on a hiking trail, for example. Additionally, you may find that you sleep better when you are regularly outside. Daily exposure to natural light helps regulate sleep/wake cycles. By making sure that you get outside in sunlight every day, you can improve your ability to sleep at night. Nature can also have benefits for children. One study in Denmark examined 900,000 residents born between 1985 and 2003. They found that children who lived in neighborhoods with more green space had a reduced risk of mental disorders later in life." AND THIS (Note the smile.) Fishing is also problem-solving: Where are they? What do they want? Once hooked, how do I land them? Such mental stimulation helps prevent dementia. When I launch, I'm walking on rocks and branches. I must step into tippy canoes. These balance challenges increase my stability. Plus, I take people fishing and we bond over bass, increasing my social connections. So, no, it's not a waste of time.

Hey, with that attitude, you should join the Susky Team!

An angler in a boat should generally concede the stretch of shoreline that the bank basser is fishing. The only exception would be the angler in a boat is fishing there first. If you have a boat and you can't go off and find some bass, your fish finding skills need upgrading. I took my sister on a paddle this morning to my pond. I didn't fish much, but I caught a bass on my first cast. Then I paddled her to the wetlands and told her how a cast inches from the shoreline with a parallel retrieve can also catch bass. "Let's see," she said. So, I caught a bass on that first attempt. I took her to a laydown. Again, first cast. Then I took her to my big bass spot and failed to catch a bass on the first AND second casts, but caught one on the third. But we mostly just paddled.

This is true. Some people have the knack. Wisdom. I second all of this.

Being nearly 69, I miss the days of fishing magazines where they didn't promise "37 Surefire Ways to Catch Smallmouth Bass," where an article was an essay about a particular fishing trip and what it meant to be on water and in the woods, puzzling about bass, musky, or walleye, with your father, brother, or buddy.

I am serious about tying my canoe to Susky's jet boat one day. What a ride that'll be! I am unserious about this post.

You also might be missing bites. Bass bite many different ways and many of them are subtle.

Russ, I wouldn't be surprised if you one day post pics of bonefish and Arctic char you caught on an evening paddle because you already catch pert near everything else.

Mike is right. You're not doing the same thing as your buddy. Instead of fishing, watch your buddy and ask questions. I rarely get outfished unless I'm guiding and focused on putting the other angler on fish, but if I do, I'm asking questions and studying the other angler. Watch his hands. That's where the magic happens, meaning that's where action is imparted to the bait. And tie on exactly what he's using in exactly the same way. Now go get 'em, Tiger!

I have had muskies take me for rides in my canoe. One musky was pulling me by an island where my dad was onshore. "Help!" I cried. "What can I do?" my dad rightly asked. So, I just went off for a ride. That is generous of you, but if a 15-pounder hit my walking bait, I'd be tempted to immediately raise the white flag! This is the bass talking to me: And this is me: W-O-W!

Atta, Ken!

When Tom, who's caught a 37-pound musky, writes that muskies can't make sharpy turns like bass, believe him. For me, big muskies and pike are one run and done. Sure, it's quite a run, but it's straight line, unlike bass.

Tom agrees with me and whereas I'm just conjecturing, Tom has caught world class bass. Yeah, this is where I'd fail. Too old and too low in my canoe. For sure! Even with photos, I'd still be doubted. I am the buddy of a woman who landed an exceptional fish. She was doubted and doubted and doubted, even with multiple photos and witnesses. My best chance of landing a 15-pounder would be weedless, wood-less water, a just tied knot, 30/40/50-pound braid, a hook so sharp it could scratch Wolverine's claws, standing in a motorboat, and having @WRB-2.0 coaching me and holding the net. I've caught 20-pound and larger carp, sturgeon, musky, etc., but a 15-pound bass feels like a FAR greater challenge.

Could you land a 15-pounder? Why or why not? I don't think I could. A three-pounder spins and pulls my canoe and puts me in the most awkward positions. If I hooked her in weeds, I simply don't have the strength to keep her from burrowing into weeds. My only chance would be hooking her in deep, weedless water. I've caught 15-pound-and-heavier pike and muskies, so I have experience landing fish that heavy, but I couldn't be disadvantaged by wood and weeds. Sitting in my canoe, I also don't think I could bury a hook in one. When you're low in a canoe, you don't have the advantage of your big leg muscles like bass boaters do. So, I think my chances of landing one are quite low even I hooked one.

^This is gold.^ It's also well-explained.

Check the bank as you troll. The gradient of the bank is likely the gradient of the bottom beneath you. Also, trolling means I don't have to watch my lure and line (I can feel a strike.), so my head is on a swivel while trolling.

Based upon trip reports, I think I'm one of the more consistent anglers at Bass Resource. Now, there might be a dozen or two of you who are landing 25-to-30-pound bags every month or so and landing 60 bass instead of my occasional 20-pound bags and 30-bass mornings. If you're not one of those quietly consistent anglers, well, trolling is a big part of my success. You guys know I don't use electronics, but as Tom (@WRB-2.0) observed, I'm not trolling willy-nilly. I remember where I've caught pert near every four-plus-pounder in my fishing life and I troll over those spots. I also know the depths of the ponds I fish from studying the state depth maps and looking over the side of my canoe on clear water days. So, I troll to explore where bass might be...that morning. Passing over water without probing it seems a wasted opportunity to me. With no sonar, FFS, or GPS, I'm mapping by trolling. Maybe if my boat had magic boxes and my boat was as fast as a car, I wouldn't see the opportunity in trolling, but let me tell ya, when I've got my rod locked under my legs and the tip snaps back, that's exciting fishing. And when I have to drop the paddle and grab the rod without losing tension, that's challenging fishing.

So true, Tom, which is why a canoe is the perfect trolling platform as there's built-in zig and zag and constant speed changes.

You're a bass half empty kind of guy.

I caught this big girl on six-pound test while fishing for smallies. I'd already landed a 20-lb. bag of smallies (19", 19.75", 20.25", 20.75", and 21") when she hit my surface lure with such force that flew out of the water and landed on a rock. Then she flopped back into the water and came hard at our boat. Here's a 19" wilderness smallie to give you and idea of their girth and then the 43" pike, which the In-Fisherman length to weight chart lists at 20.52 pounds:

Hey, wanna hear about my twenty-pounders? 😉 Congrats on those big cats!

Same and same in Maine. Shallow, weedy lakes here too. ^This^ is your problem. I troll with a 5/0 VMC heavy duty underspin. I use a Crush City Mayor, Zako, or Keitech, all in the four-inch range. I rig the hook point tight to the soft plastic. I can feel the thump-thump-thump as it plows through weeds and sometimes it hooks a weed, but I hook more bass than weeds in those weeds.

July is tough, no doubt. I'm happy Wes caught a big one. I love to see the youngins catch bass.