In the morning I am having 3 surgeries on my hands (I have had 6 before this).  Hopefully this will be the last of them.  I don’t know how long it will take to get back on the water.  The first post observation is in 2 weeks.  I have read that one of the procedures can take up to 6 months for full recovery.  So for a while at least I will be sitting and basically doing nothing.  If some of you would report on trips and post a few pics it would help me pass the time.  Thanks in advance.

Good luck and I hope it goes well, and you have a quick recovery.

26 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

If some of you would report on trips and post a few pics it would help me pass the time.  Thanks in advance.

Check here for your daily fix:

 

You're having three surgeries in one day!  Hope this works out and you be slaying the fish in the spring. These long layoffs suck. I've had four extended time periods where I could not fish, its not fun. 

2012 I was snorkeling off the coast of Maui when my legs stopped working.

A friend was with me and help to get me to shore.

I was watching my spine for degradation and this was the signal it’s time for surgery! We flew home and schedules my L5 vertebrae to removed and fused to S1 to  L4 hoping I could walk again, it worked! 
I was off of everything physical for about 12 month and survived my fishing urge reading Bass Resource every day.

I can still fish but clumsy getting into or out of a boat. Reduced to back seating occasionally but still love to bass fish!

I hope your surgeries work out good for you and recovery may seem long but in reality it’s a sort pause.

Tom

 

 

I hope your surgeries go well. If I can make it out I’ll post about anything exciting that happens. Other than my pb in August nothing exciting has happened on the outings I have had. I’ve been tying a lot of jigs though. Getting decent at that and happy with most I tie. 

Here's a story. I was camped alone on an island that was dome-shaped in northwestern Ontario. I awoke to a racket. There were wolves on both shores howling and I could hear the pups howling too. Two geese flew overhead so low that I could hear their wings thumping the air. And a whip-poor-will was making its racket.

 

"Dang," I thought, "nature is noisy."

 

I paddled to the far shore and fished a strait between the shore and an island. It varied in depth and gave the bass plenty of spaces to hang. I caught some, including 19-to-21-inchers, some shaped like saucers, some bulgy, and others with linebacker shoulders.

 

Saucer:

 

 

Bulgy:

 

 

Linebacker:

 

 

But I don't remember that morning because of bass like the one above. I remember it because of this:

 

 

And the wolves. 

 

And the bear.

 

You see, I was casting into the rising Sun when I saw the biggest beaver of my life swimming across the strait to the island on the left above. So, wanting a close-up of the world's biggest beaver, I paddled to it and got quite close before I realized it was a bear.

 

And I also realized at that moment that you can be the richest person in the world and still not have a moment like that, when a bear and wolves are your neighbors, because to reach that moment, you have to bounce down a logging road, driving through a stream or two, launch in a swamp, drag your canoe up rapids, and portage past a waterfall. A rich man like Jeff Bezos could pay someone to take him to such a place, but he'd never know the bliss of doing it alone. 

 

 

Good luck with your healing. Fingers crossed its your last hand surgery.

I hope your multiple procedures and associated recoveries go exactly as planned,

and you're back to doing the things you love as soon as possible.

 

As requested, I've added an abbreviated report from a while back.

The original was pretty lengthy, as it covered a week of fishing in Mexico.

Regardless, it remains one of my favorites—so far . . . . . .

 

I was most fortunate to spend 6 ½ days fishing with my good friend and truly a great stick, Jeff Howell. This was my 7th trip to this special lake and once again Lake Baccarac showed out—big time.

Both Jeff & I are not ‘numbers’ guys—meaning we generally do not count how many bass we catch. Instead we choose to fish for the biggest bass, an approach that may not always result is high numbers but hopefully bigger fish. However, as this special week in Mexico continued and the numbers of true giants began and continued to go in the net, we had no choice but to keep track. In an attempt to simplify things, we decided that in order to be a “scoreable bass,” the fish would need to be at least 7 pounds. These would be the ones we ‘count.’

During the afternoon of the first full day of fishing, we began to find larger fish suspended in 10 to 20 feet of water above 40 to 60 feet over main lake humps and in front of major points.

6 & 7 inch swimbaits and ½ & ¾ oz underspins with 5-6 inch hollow belly & solid swimbait trailers were getting demolished. This was an unprecedented experience for me. This bite lasted the rest of the trip and these suspended fish accounted for at least 75% of the scoreable bass we caught. 

It got completely nuts.

I ran a GoPro the entire trip. and got some insane video. It’s a little tricky getting footage, as the boats we fish from, although fine for the fishing, only offer 1 or 2 secure mounting points for the camera. We made the best of it.

 

So the final count of score-able bass for our 6 ½ days on Lake Baccarac:

Bass Over 7lbs ~ 20

Bass Over 8lbs ~ 16

Bass Over 9lbs ~ 11

Bass Over 10 lbs ~ 4

Bass Over 11 lbs ~ 1

Bass Over 12 lbs ~ 1

53 bass over 7 

Here a clip of the 6 double-digit fish landed that crazy week. 

https://youtu.be/UYTzJHDCdMo?feature=shared

 

Happy Healing

A-Jay

The differences between Andy's trip and mine are close to utter:

 

I drove north.

 

He flew south.

 

I passed moose and bobcat on my way.

 

He passed through TSA on his way.

 

I slept in a tent.

 

He slept in a resort.

 

I was alone.

 

He was with a guide and Jeff.

 

He fished from a boat with a motor and electronics.

 

I fished from a canoe.

 

But our trips weren't utterly different, as we both caught big bass for our latitudes!

Here's another: 

 

I was in northwestern Ontario with my dad, his wife, and her son. I was paired with the son, all 6' 3" and 260-pounds and whereas he was fearless in cities, he was 'fraidy in the wilderness. Sadly, the fishing was tough as the wind blew from the northeast for days and the muskies were few. Both my dad's wife and her son were skunked all week and I struggled to land 15, but five of the 15 came in one hour when the wind swung from the northeast to the southwest and I said, "Let's go fishing!"

 

We paddled to a small strait the angled northeast/southwest, so it lined up with the southerly wind. The wind was howling and even though my fishing partner was big and even after days of paddling, he was still close to worthless. This came into play when I hooked one musky after another, five in all, and he couldn't control the canoe without me, so the wind was ricocheting us off one side of the strait and then the other while I fought muskies. I hooked a sixth just as the wind quit, but lost it, and the bite quit too, but what a hoot while it lasted. Even with the muskies chomping, he couldn't catch one. Sigh. At one point, I had two muskies chasing my buzzbait. What a ride. 

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

The differences between Andy's trip and mine are close to utter:

 

I drove north.

 

He flew south.

 

I passed moose and bobcat on my way.

 

He passed through TSA on his way.

 

I slept in a tent.

 

He slept in a resort.

 

I was alone.

 

He was with a guide and Jeff.

 

He fished from a boat with a motor and electronics.

 

I fished from a canoe.

 

But our trips weren't utterly different, as we both caught big bass for our latitudes!

Based on the astute powers of observation alone, Kathleen gets my vote for post of the year.

Well done.

A-Jay

2014 I still had my boat and fishing with my late son Tommy and occasionally with a few friends if going to another lake besides Casitas. The Quagga mussel changed where we could bass fish due to quarantines. Lake Castias my boat was locked onto and required 30 day quarantine if fishing another lake. Fishing from a buddies boat solved that problem but you are a backseater.

The Quagga mussel and no Rainbow trout plants devastated the giant bass population and the effects were obvious by 2015, they were gone!

Now recovered from the spine surgery bass fishing locally was suffering and would go down hill for another decade.
I enjoyed this time fishing with my son when he had time as he was building his Webb business. We fished night tournament mostly that we both enjoyed.

   2019 would turn our lives upside down when our discovered he had fatal stage 4 renal cancer and passed away 2020. Sold everything fishing including my boat and tackle.

2023 I am back to bass fishing occasionally as a backseater with few friends*.

Tom

* Jeff aka Big Hands has taken this thankful old man fishing👍

4 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I was camped alone on an island that was dome-shaped in northwestern Ontario.

Hell yeah! I solo camped a lot in my life.

Jig Jim here is one of the most interesting trips I have ever had in fishing South Florida for the last 50 years.  It was 30 years ago and my son was home from college and wanted to go fishing.  We went to Holliday Park in the Everglades and ran the L67 canal into the glades.  This is one of the biggest man made canals in the Everglades.  It was a 25 mile run to the three pines area of the glades into a remote area.  
 

When we set the boat down we were the only boat out that far.  It was still dark and we started fishing and extremely quiet.  This deep canal was dredged with fill islands on both sides .  These large islands had thick weeds and big full grown trees.  The islands are surrounded by miles of shallow sawgrass flats, big gators, otters, deer,  snakes, and everything else that lives in the swamp.  All of a sudden there was a loud roar from a big cat within 50 yards of the boat.  Then way off in the distance a mile or more away another roar from a big cat.  For more than 20!minutes we heard these two panthers communicating with each other.  My son and I were fortunate enough to share this love fest with these two large cats.  One being in casting distance with us.  Although we never saw the cat because of the vegetation it was an amazing experience that we still talk about!  It was so loud you could almost feel the sound vibration in the still of the morning!  A true once in a life experience!

Wow, Geo, I love your story!

Thanks folks.  I am home. The surgery went well.  Both of my hands are wrapped and have to stay that way until Saturday.  

Cousin and I were fishing a small lake in a jon boat with an electric motor. He shoved off and in doing so hurt his back. His sciatic nerve. It was hurting pretty bad but he was wanting to fish more than it hurt. We got a cove over and he could not stand it any more. He said "take me to the bank" . There was an angler tied off to a tree in the middle of the cove. When we got to the bank , my cousin crawled out and laid flat on his belly and said to rub his lower back . So I did  He started grunting and saying "harder, harder.' The boat untied and took off. LOL 

 

  Our fishing was done . We went back and he vivsited a chiropracter. 

29 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

Thanks folks.  I am home. The surgery went well.  Both of my hands are wrapped and have to stay that way until Saturday.  

 

Would you mind sharing your hand history?

 

Assuming you can type.   

 

BTW, fishing for me hasn't been the greatest as I haven't gone out much. There's either been storms, heat, and now a severe algae bloom. Talking like toxic algae.

 

The rest of the week is either heat or storms. I was planning on taking a week off this month to fish. IDK, maybe the last week will be better. Otherwise, October can't get here sooner.

I'm glad you're home, Jig Man.

Prayers for a quick recovery. 

My hands have taken a beating.  I own some land in STONE County MO.  I used to run cattle and divided the land up into small pastures.  I bought my steel posts 1000 at a time.  I drove them by hand with a pipe driver.

 

I am guessing that was the culprit.  I have had trigger finger surgery on all but my left hand middle finger.  I have had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands.  Today’s surgery was the index finger on each hand and carpal tunnel on the left.  

Sounds like your hands tendons should heal OK and get back to fishing in a few months. Age catches up will all of use.

Tom

Age alone makes it hard. But when ya spend your life laboring and selling your body for money. It breaks down faster. I hope for a speedy recovery 

Here’s an account of an adventure I had searching for a citation size snakehead this past August. I launched at about 6 am and made the 1/2 mile paddle to my first spot. It was the last hour of outgoing tide so the grass was almost topped out but there were still pockets with about 6” of water that I could fish. Within about 30 minutes I had my first fish, a nice thick 28” fish that smashed a ribbit frog.

 

It was then that disaster struck. The grass was so thick that my paddle which I had been using as a push pole broke.

 

With no other options, I used my net to make the 1/2 mile paddle back. In hindsight I was lucky that the failure occurred at the first spot and not miles up a creek with not a soul in sight.

 

Three hours later I was back on the water after having made it back and replacing my paddle at a local vendor. I put in at a different spot with a skinny creek right next to the launch. The tide has switched to incoming so I drifted in with the current. About 1/4 mile in I spotted a dark shape moving through some coontail. I made a cast well past it and the fish struck as I stopped my retrieve, letting the ribbit frog sink. 
 

The first thing I realized was that this fish was much bigger than I had thought. 

 

After a short but chaotic fight I had the fish in the net. It took several attempts as the fish was simply too large to easily net.

 

I made the 1/4 mile paddle back to the ramp to get proper measurements. The fish measured 34” and weighed 11.5lbs.

 

 

That was my most exciting trip of 2025. Hope your surgery went well.

 

I posted this story on May 3rd of this year. No pictures but here is the link: