Swamp Girl

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.

Me too. However, there are times when I eschew casting to troll simply because I caught more trolling to a casting spot than I did casting once I arrived. I love to paddle, so trolling for me is fishing, which is fun, while paddling, which is also fun. It's two, two mints in one!

What isn't legit is Ol' Swampy's Fishing Reels and Drug Emporium. Steer clear of that quagmire.

Not ol' Swampy.

I fished a bog this morning and whereas I managed to catch 31, they were all small. I might have hooked two big ones, but they ran into the weeds and I couldn't turn them. Here are a couple photos of our morning. That's me in the solo boat and the kid in the foreground:

Yes, the bite window opens and closes and opens and closes....

Yeah, I get to fish fertile water, but walking along a bank and summoning four-pounders from the deep isn't something I get to enjoy.

Phish! BUDDY!!! So good to see you post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I've noticed. Wouldn't it be nice. Good tactic.

You're just curious, Craig. In the long run, your curiosity might make you a better angler. I often catch a bass on one lure and immediately switch to see what else will work.

Wow! I'd love fishing those ponds.

Speaking of nearly 40" pike, I'd caught several 40"+ pike in Canada, but my fishing partner had never landed one. One afternoon, he hooked one that looked like it might be 40", but it was only 39". In the photo, it looks like even a wiggling 39-incher was too much for him!

After decades of catching smallmouth in rocky lakes, fishing for lmb in heavy cover was tough for me too.

Cool!

The kid and I fished a cloudy, foggy, rainy morning and whereas we only caught 26 bass, our five biggest were about twenty pounds. This bucketmouth was the biggest: I caught this fine, fat one, a sliver under 19 inches: Another beauty by the boy, close to 19 inches: Some more chunks that I caught: We caught smallmouth too: And I caught a dink: The boy caught his first bass on a walking bait, including the big girl at the top, and a crankbait, which caught the second bass. I keep tying on different lures for him to try. What a fun morning. The kid called me last night and asked, "Can we go fishing tomorrow morning, Katie?" Tomorrow, we're fishing a big bass bog. Fingers crossed we hook and land a Gertrude! His dad is going too! I've warned the kid that the bog is much harder to fish, but big bass swim in it. He's excited. Me too.

Absolutely.

I've bought scores of lures that were mentioned by other BR members. A few haven't caught a single bass, like spybaits.

@Hogs_n_Logs: Fascinating post. What put you in Japan?

The kid just called and wants to go fishing tomorrow morning, so...!

For me, the popper excels in late summer though the fall. Yep. I also like to fish it in bogs with heavy cover. An opening of a couple feet is a great place to drop one. I get a far higher hookup than I do with a frog. Yes, it can be hard to land those bass with all those hooks. Great advice.

That's a feast!

You sound like me. I use spinning rods nearly all the time, even though most bass anglers use spinning rods for lighter lures and baitcasters for heavier lures. We settle into what works for us by trying this and that. I bought soooo many lures suggested by others that didn't work for me, but we don't know until we try. Still, I keep trying those new lures here and there partly because "who knows" and partly because it's fun to try new lures. My fishing partner this past week is 13. Paddling back to the cabin, he had a soft plastic lizard on his rod, so he trolled that. You will find NO YouTube videos suggesting you troll a lizard, but he caught a bass. I think we all, here and there, should be fearless like my young friend and simply chuck and see.

July is tough fishing for me too, Clayton.

Thanks for the reminder. I own some. I'll try to find them.