Swamp Girl

In another thread, @Craig P wrote, "Find a technique or two you like and roll with it, the fish will come." I agree with Craig, but I use more than one or two lures. I catch 80% of my bass with these lures: Popper Plopper Spinnerbait Underspin T-rigged soft plastic So, I thrive or die with five lures. How about you? How many mainstays do you have?

No truer words.

LB, you and so many others at Bass Resource are able to rattle off the names and specifics of your fishing gear, which always impresses me and humbles me too, since I can't name a single rod I own. Do you carry "XP 735CB" in your head or did you have to read it off your rod first? Either way, congrats on the bigger bass!

Well, then, I have real fighting words for the guy who doesn't think the Rapala DT series is a gimmick. Seriously, I don't even know what the Rapala DT series is, but I'd like to fight @king fisher because then we might have a couple beers and go fishing in...MEXICO!

I did catch more sixes and upper sixes in 2023, so I think it's partly luck, but it's due to (I'm just guessing here.) my living so far north where sixes, sevens, and eights are really rare, plus when I bought my waterfront land, I spent a LOT of time fishing my pond that doesn't seemingly grow bass bigger than four pounds.* Also, I didn't fish one of my big fish bogs in 2024 because some guy that I don't know fell in love with it and pretty much set up shop on it. *I don't regret focusing on my pond. It's beautiful and I learned a lot about it. If you ever fished it with me, I could say, "There's a rock there. There are bass over there. There aren't bass thatta way." and so on. My weight ratios are different than yours, for sure. Lastly and again, you're quality fishing and I'm quantity fishing. #Itrytocatch'emallandhopeforabigone

We Mainers belong in canoes! They're our heritage.

Amen, brother.

I'm excited too, Bob! Keep us posted.

I use them too, Andy. I just wish the red didn't wear off so quickly. If I've swapped trebles for new red trebles, I have so much confidence, so I think they really do work, thus my confidence. I'm remembering all the bass red hooks have caught. Yep. Use what works for your local bass and your fishing style. A few times in my life, I've fished with anglers who want you to use what they're using. They were annoying. Now, catch twice what I'm catching and I'll beg to use what you're using.

Yeah, I"ve caught a few bass with 'em.

My grouping would look much different than yours. I didn't keep count of the weight classes like you did, but here's my estimate: Bass 3-3.99 lbs: hundreds Bass 4-4.99 lbs: three or four score, more or less Bass 5-5.99 lbs: half a dozenish Bass 6-6.99 lbs: maybe one or two, but if so, just barely six pounds Bass 7-7.99 lbs: one So, what this tells me is that your focusing on quantity worked. Contrast our ratios. I'm bottom heavy. You're top heavy, like an Olympic swimmer. You: Me: Considering that I caught hundreds of three-to-four-pounders, I should have caught many more six-to-eight-pounders than you, but I didn't. You're quality. I'm quantity.

@pdxfisher caught a four-pound smallie and @AlabamaSpothunter caught a near DD. The BR crew is off to a hot start! Meanwhile, here's an update from Maine:

Me too. I don't like fluorocarbon. I want to like it. I feel I'm supposed to like it. But it's stiff and unknots itself and the bass I catch don't really seem to care if I'm using easily seen braid. Bought 'em both. Caught thousands with the Whopper Plopper and maybe one with the Jackhammer. However, I think the Jackhammer is a good bait, just not one I've yet learned to use well.

So, you're the someone somewhere!

I bought a whole box of surface lures with props fore and aft. They're modern versions of Spin-I-Didees that I used successfully as a kid. I figured they'd be fire for smallmouth and boggy largemouth. They aren't. I think I caught one bass with them. I'm guessing that someone somewhere catches bass with them. #theycaughtafisherwomannotfish

A 19.5" bass would have to be reeeeaaaal skinny to be under four pounds. I think it's pretty safe to change your PB to 4-5 lbs.

Way. to. go! So proud of you, pdx. You call it 3-15. I call it a four-pounder. Heck, I call all my bass near four pounds "four-pounders." 4-5? Four pounder! 3-15? Four-pounder! Heck, And to excel in those conditions after getting skunked for 3.5 hours? In January? With wind and whitecaps? You're the man. M-A-N! I expect this is where you'll be fishing next. If so, don't be like this guy. Hang onto your paddle!

@pdxfisher: Way to go, western buddy! Big one!!!

^This^ is the Pat Brown rule I break again and again and again. However, if a tandem canoe tips and both anglers are in the water, the other isn't going to be much help and it's unlikely for one angler only to go into the water.

You and me, my friend. We hear the clock ticking when the great bass are in our boats and for us, it's not a ticking, but a thundering. FWIW, I lost data once and a specialist company retrieved it. It cost me about a grand, but I felt it was money well spent. I'm happy we're helping. I'm even happier you landed a bass that was a tiny perch away from a DD. If you were to ask me about any of my bigger bass from the past two years, I could take you to exact spot where I caught them. I could tell you the weather and share the details of the fight. Big bass memories are indelible.

9-12? 9-12?? 9-12??? 9-12!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Take comfort in this, Alex: Whether you can recover the images or not, the images inside your head are intact. You saw her. You touched her. YOU BOATED HER, my friend. So. Proud. Of. You.

No doubt, you have it down Pat (as in @Pat Brown-grade calm and cool), but it's hard to be smooth when I'm whoozy, drooling, wheezing, and trembling. I actually have made progress with four-pounders. I keep my cool when I net them. Same with five-pounders. But the six-pounders and up turn me into this: Good luck to you too, my fishing brother! #swampslayerisawickedcoolhandle

You and Alex (@AlabamaSpothunter) are fish of a fin, i.e. you both take nothing for granted to give big bass everything that they deserve, which is all due appreciation. I don't land bass as big as yours and Alex's, but my cool, slick, practiced processing (netting, unhooking, measuring, and photographing) implodes when I catch a six-plus-pounder because they're so rare up here. Put some Florida Strain in Lake Menderchuck and you'd hear a lot of chattering bass teeth.

I've seen it and no film can convey the violence of a storm, not unless the movie theater heaved and pitched and you and the other patrons we're all vomiting and wondering if the movie theater would survive the storm. You're a good storyteller. Please tell the story of the storming Gulf.