Swamp Girl

Well, in Maine (YMMV!), they want Crush City Mayors on underspins pitched against shorelines. In the summer, they want spinnerbaits and underspins. In the fall, they want walking baits and flukes. And from spring through fall, they want poppers. This is all I know and only what I know, so I won't be taking any follow-up questions. #Itrulyamanidiot

Whoa! I've had days too when the bass are spinnerbait-giddy, but when it comes to trips where they clearly preferred one lure, that lure would be a popper. Looking back at my 2024 trip reports, there were many mornings and evenings when I caught 95% of my bass on poppers. I've had Whopper Plopper trips like that too. Maine bass look up a lot, it seems.

Alex, you are so kind and GENEROUS, but I don't even know the names of most of my lures. You teach me, not vice-versa. Way closer to eight than seven!!! Thank you, Alex. I'm out of reactions, so that's why I didn't tag your post with a thank you.

Hmmm. We'll see. So far, Maine bass haven't shied away from my bigger lures and I like them bigger because I can cast them farther, thus increasing my stealth. However, I'm already pretty stealthy. I remember one time sitting in some weeds and bumping my canoe and seeing swirls of fleeing bass all around me, some within two feet of my boat, so they didn't know I was there or if they did, they didn't care...until I made that sharp sound.

I'm out of reactions, but @Glenn's post made me LOL. ^This^ is my issue. If I don't catch a bass pretty quickly on a new lure, I stop using it. Then I get stuck with the same old, same old.

I truly believe that we have the find the lures that work for our local bass. I use to fish with six or seven rods, each with a different lure, and switch rods continually throughout the morning, but now that I know what my local bass prefer, I fish with four rods and often two will have the same lure.

When you read about those anglers who score with lures you don't use, don' cha wish you could sit in a boat with them and watch them fish? I wish YouTubers would aim a camera at their hands so that I could watch them work a lure I don't use or can't use well.

@A-Jay: Andy, you are the most organized angler I've ever seen. Do you cringe when you see photos of my sloppy canoes? I nearly swoon when I see photos of your gear. @gim and some others are also ship-shape, but you're the best.

Pat, you have a great attitude. I wish you lived down the road so we could fish together.

@Peacedivision: I'm doubly grateful to you because they're on clearance, so I bought five in various colors and both sizes before they're gone forever. I've tried a couple other walking lures, but bass in Maine really prefer Fishing 13 Dual Pitch. Of course, YMMV. Why do you like the Realis pencil series? P. S. - I just bought a 4.5" Golden Retriever off Ebay too. TW only had the shorter Golden Retriever and I've been using the big one. The bass in my avatar was caught on the big one.

That's it! The size is right. The look is right. And it comes in gold and black. I'm going to order another right now before I forget what it is. Thanks! @webertime: That's a pretty cool lure you suggested. Love those prism finishes. I caught hundreds of bass on a flashy popper in 2024. I might order your suggestion too.

Just between you and me and I promise not to tell anyone else, what exactly do the fish want? #yeahI'manidiot

Does anyone know what the walking bait below is? I ask because it's my best walking bait and I only have one. If a pickerel were to take it, I'd like to buy another. It's much more effective than my other walking baits.

Whoa! I didn't know that NC could freeze...and three winters in a row. I'm assuming your ice isn't thick enough to fish. Am I right? How exciting! I would have loved that almost as much as catching bass. I agree. I'm assuming Alex is going to catch some big bass and bags in the next couple months. Mid-winter is Alex's happy place. I'm a little farther north than you, so I feel really lucky to catch the bass that I do. I think it's a combination of being coastal, which moderates temps a bit, and fishing water that's harder to reach with boats even smaller than yours. However, your proximity to Lake Ontario should moderate temps a bit too, since it's really an inland, freshwater sea.

Springing off the question/thread about the lures that catch 80% of your bass, what lures do you intend to use more in 2025 and why? At the end of 2024, I started scoring with big walking baits and big Deps Sakamata Shad flukes. I'd had little success with walking baits and flukes prior to the fall of 2024, so I want to continue using them to see if they work as well in the spring as they did in the fall. I also want to use jerkbaits more because they're hard flukes and also because so many of you have reported catching big bass with them, especially in the spring. So, as I've grown comfy and confident twitching a fluke and walking baits, I hope to continue twitching with a jerkbait.

I wrote the above back on page one and the average of four lures per angler is holding steady. I have yet to acclimate to how different these four or so lures can be. Some of you are catching the majority of your bass on lures I rarely/never use. For example, I've never used a speed worm, buzzbait, dropshot, or hair jig for bass and have caught one bass in my life on a chatterbait. The good news: I'm not about to place an order for speed worms, hair jigs, and chatterbaits, so maybe Lure Anon is helping, which doesn't make the Bait Monkey happy. Take that, Bait Monkey!

Yes.

@AlabamaSpothunter: I love those big bags! And a 7-11 is a heckuva, BIG bass.

No doubt. If you've read my trip reports, you know that the wind forecast determines when I fish and the wind chases me off the water some days too. Some day, I'd like to dock a boat that's not a canoe at my pond. A boat with a motor and an anchor so that I could fish when I wanted, not just when the wind lets me.

Huh. I love braid. It casts a long ways, is limp, and wrassles bass out of weeds. Why do you hate it?

@Motoboss: I've owned two Grumman Sportscanoes and really loved them. They were heavy, but sturdy and stable.

I drove to my pond today to make sure everything is okay. The driveway and path are littered with fallen branches, but the branches are all frozen to the ground. The boardwalk looks fine. So does my canoe. The pond looks like the Arctic, with snow blowing (15-40 mph wind) over thick ice. At least my dog was happy, bounding through the woods.

I like Mepps too. They're in my 20%. I have never owned a Black Fury, but I know them. I cast the brass Mepps with a plain treble hook.

Thanks, @Functional. You might remember that I bought a NEXT canoe: It's made by Old Town and they market it as a canoe/kayak hybrid. It has the lower profile of a kayak, foot braces like a kayak, and a comfy kayak seat. I bought two Yak mounts with rod holders so that I can troll easily. If I come to love those, I might mount something else on it. So, we'll see if I come to prefer it to a traditional canoe hull. However, for the one pond I fish wherever I have to cross a field and then make my way down through a rocky woods, I can't imagine ever preferring any boat over my 32 lb. solo canoe. If I were still 48 or 58, then maybe, but at 68 and anemic, I just don't have the energy and strength to lug a heavier boat.

You're in southern California and I'm in northern New England and yet, our lists are quite similar. We're not just far apart, but fishing very different water. I listed the popper and plopper as my two main surface lures, but a walking bait was third. I also listed an underspin and T-Rigged soft plastics. So, we're pretty synced thousands of miles apart.