I launched this morning at my pal's pond with seven rods rigged, all with lures suggested by the Bass Resource brain trust. Sadly, only one of the seven lures produced a single fish. Happily, I did catch 30 bass, my highest total for a stretch, giving me 1,094 bass for 2025. @Dwight Hottle will be proud of me, for I was fishing a weedy shoreline and caught a couple 15" lmb on a popper and I LEFT that spot, thinking that the big girls hadn't moved shallow yet, but were likely close. So, I moved out into open water and tied on a Duo Realis Pencil walking bait. The kid had scored some bass with a fat Duo Realis and @Glenn taught me to downsize, so I went with the thinner Pencil. It is 4 and 1/3rd inches, which might be a little big for fall bass, given the size of the shad, but being long let me make long casts and I'm a big believer in keeping my lure in the water for as long as possible. 

 

Well, I guessed right. I caught some beautiful bass. Here are two bucketmouths that were over 19 inches:

 

 

I caught some smallies longer than I typically catch. It's been a good summer for brown bass:

 

 

I caught some other fine lmb too:

 

 

Glenn also taught me that were there's bait, there might be bass. So, I saw at the far end of a bay some shad jumping. I didn't see bass chasing them, but I figured if bait was there, bass would be there too. So, I worked my Duo Realis Pencil through that area and caught about half a dozen bass. I did lose one nice one when I went to net it and I hooked my lure to the outside of the net. I kept trying to flip my net to capture the bass, but that didn't work, so I reached for it and it flipped free. Oh, well, I caught the others!

 

I expect going forward to be catching more and more bass with surface lures. That's what they wanted this morning. My only subsurface bass was on a spinnerbait. A few more, including the world's toughest bass at the end:

 

Way to go!  Outstanding!!  You've reached legendary status for finding and catching fish!

10 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Way to go!  Outstanding!!  You've reached legendary status for finding and catching fish!

 

Well, I'm never alone in the boat. You're always there, in my head, reminding me to do this or that and I thank you for that.

57 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

I did lose one nice one when I went to net it and I hooked my lures to the outside of the net. I kept trying to flip my net to capture the bass

I had the same thing happen with a 38" muskie yesterday. I got lucky and was able to flip the net and bag it. More often than not, they shake off when that happens.

Look at my photos and you'll see how far I was from the shore. I don't use sonar, so I don't know what the bottom looks like where I was fishing, but I do know that there's some structure that draws bass because I've caught bass there. Lacking GPS too, I'm lucky that I have a pretty good sense of where that structure is as I triangulate using landmarks like anglers once did.

 

However, if you were in my canoe and I paddled you to this area and suggested you cast a surface lure at seemingly nothing, you might think, "You crazy ol' Swampy."

2 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I triangulate using landmarks like anglers once did.

It's a valuable skill to have. I don't have any waypoints on my sonars. I use triangulation to get me roughly on a spot, and then use my sonar to make small adjustments to stay on it.

Great trip, pics and report! You have to admire that last little guy - it is going to be a beast some day.

39 minutes ago, pdxfisher said:

You have to admire that last little guy

 

Oh, I do!