Swamp Girl

Dang it! Well, they chose well in casting you. No one does friendship and good times better than you. Love your food pics too!

Man, that's just sad. My best surface lure last year was a Shimano Flashboost popper. It's so scuffed that an angler with a brand new Ranger might pity me, but it doesn't matter. The bass don't care. They don't know when my Flashboost is twitching over them that there's an old woman in a scuffed canoe at the other end. Here's a typical lure I use: It used to be shiny as chrome. That's the third set of hooks and it's needing a fourth set. And here's where I fish: No bass boat is following me in there. It's too shallow and too tight. So, I encourage them to judge a book by its cover. They can FFS fish off-shore and I'll be happy alone in the swamp.

I love your trip reports: bass, buddies, and bodacious scenery, BUT now I'm dyin' for a link of the Bass Pro Shop commercial. Bowfin for the win!

Exactly.

No, I don't. I'm like @Jar11591. I catch more fish than most locals. So, if they volunteer advice, they might expect me to reciprocate. Plus, many anglers don't have the same idea of a great day as me, which is 50-plus bass with some big ones. I met some guys earlier this year and they gushed about the morning they had. It turns out that one guy caught nine and the other guy caught one. So, I'm wouldn't want their advice and wouldn't follow their advice because I'm not looking to catch ten fish. Agree. My style might be hard for others to emulate anyway. My paddle is a HUGE part of my fishing success. I'm often fishing in close quarters and often have a rod, then paddle, then rod. I don't see others fish this way, but it lets me keep my canoe positioned for the essential casts. Others have their own styles, but I work my style and catch my "own fish." Plus, I'm an old woman. Most of the fellow anglers I see on water are young bucks. I think they'd look at my wrinkles and white hair and scuffed, messy canoe and dismiss whatever knowledge I might share.

Oh, yeah. Just last Friday morning, I had a bass start to straighten a hook. I took my pliers and tried to return it to its original position, but couldn't. I couldn't budge it. So:

Ahhh, thanks, Pat! Is @IcatchDinks fishing with you again this year? I'd love to see you guide him to a 4/5/6/7/or 8-pounder. I keep watching the wind to find another time to fish. The forecast is for 12 m.p.h. tomorrow morning at five. Crazy, huh, for so early in the morning? Sometimes the coastal wind won't quit.

I make a bowl of oatmeal with dates and maple syrup and eat a protein bar on the water, but I still come home hungry! I only fished a fifth of the shoreline. 170 acres is a lot to fish. And I still skipped over a lot of the fifth that I did fish. The lily pads are rising and soon they'll attract bass too.

Yeah, I've refined the lures I use, but then I watched @Glenn's video about the five mistakes anglers make and one of them is not experimenting with new lures. So, when I launched yesterday morning, I finally tied on a Strike King Rage Bug and the bass sure loved it, so it's cracked my rotation. I also used a Cut R Worm for the first time and they loved that too.

Vilas is sooo right about the two tips above. I caught thousands of smallies in northwestern Ontario mostly using these three approaches: brass-bladed Mepps, orange F13 Rapalas, and leeches on a small hook under a split shot. Rise as early as you can. My tentmate was slower to rise than me and I'd catch five to seven smallies from the shore before he'd crawled out of the tent. Vilas is also right about exercising caution in unhooking pike. The smaller ones are more dangerous than the big ones. They can move so flop so quickly.

Ha! To be frank, I have had to Google countless lures and jargon mentioned on Bass Resource. And I still do. I was raised casting Lazy Ike Chugs for farm pond bass. That was more than a half century ago. A few new lures have come to market since then.

@IcatchDinks: You could have caught more, but duty called. Thanks for being observant enough to save that smallie!

Agree. They great fun.

After a little more thought, I think you should stay off water and work in a lab. Spend your years genetically tweaking bass until DD spotted bass and smallies are common.

One of the weaknesses of my canoes is that there just isn't enough room to bring 20 rods like bass boaters do. If I could, I would. Then I could be Ms. Versatility.

I failed with the Flashboost popper on Wednesday morning (I only caught two with it.), so I didn't retie it for yesterday morning. However, the Flashboost was THE lure last mid-summer through fall, so it will join my rotation again...and soon.

What a great idea! I'm going to try this too. I'm already there. I like the way they cast. They're not a 7" or 9" floppy worm that decreases my casting accuracy. They're heavy and compact enough to let me hit the spots. Being compact, the bass seem to engulf them quicker too. Thanks for the tips! Thanks for even more tips, @Glenn! I'll watch your video now. I enjoy that too. When I take someone fishing, they better outfish me or I'll feel like I failed them. And when I land the canoe and the kid says, "I caught 42, Grandpa," I smile. Mission accomplished. Me too. If I've been paddling and casting for five hours and I return to my dock, I feel ten years older than when I launched. And then I have to carry my seven rods, paddle, tacklebox, camera, and water bottle down the boardwalk, up the bank, and through the woods back to the car. It's a lotta whew! I have observed more than once how discovering what OUR FISH want is the key to success. And it changes. Somedays MY FISH are indifferent to green pumpkin. Other days they gobble it. FWIW, MY FISH also don't like metal flake, but they love chartreuse tips. Right now, the water at my pond is black. I don't know why there's more tannin, but there is. I was told to look for spawning beds and I keep trying, but I can't see anything. Maybe if I were fishing at high noon, I might be able to see a bed, but I'm fishing cloudy, foggy mornings whenever possible. However, I do think I located a field of spawning beds. I was pitched a wacky worm and the bass would take the worm and run with it. I'd set the hook and the worm would pop free. That happened four straight casts.

Ha! Indeed. Shingles are rough. Glad you're feeling better.

Watch @Glenn's Bass Resource videos, but your quest is quixotic. 10 pound smallies and spotted bass are soooooooooooo rare.

You are hired!

@MN Fisher: Thanks for the history lesson. I've walked around Minnetonka many times, but didn't know its history until now.

The beaver was swimming back and forth in this little river: I didn't want to hook him. I hooked a beaver once. No fun. Plus, I didn't think a bass would hit with all that commotion. I wear a glove on my bass-gripping hand. However, my other hand is a little rough.

The best.

@MN Fisher: Yeah, there's a huge difference between the shoreline you posted and the one I posted. The sad thing is that your shoreline used to look like my shoreline and the scary thing is that there are people in this world who would like to turn my shoreline into your shoreline. Thanks, guys, for all the support. I get to fish fertile water, which is the main reason for my success, but my quiet, accurate-casting fishing style works well with the water I fish, which is shallow and weedy. @IcatchDinks: When I first use a new soft plastic lure, I drop it into the water beside my canoe and twitch it, let it drop, straight retrieve it, etc. I want to see what the bass will see as I work it different ways. And as I try out different retrieves, I whisper to myself how I'm retrieving it so that if a bass hits, I'm more likely to remember how I was retrieving it. However, even if I find a retrieve that works, I keep experimenting. Do you see the woody bushes in the photo I posted? That's where the bass are, but they do spook, so I try to cast near the bushes, but as lightly as possible. Thus, I use lighter sinkers than most because I don't want to scare them. This limits my casting distance, thus silence is paramount, for I'm often a couple feet from them. Thank you so much, @Glenn, @MN Fisher, @IcatchDinks, and @Joedodge!

Okay, here's my suggestion: Fish where I fish. Swampy like this: And be soooooo sneaky!