Swamp Girl

Same rule in my canoe. And twice, I was resisted, once by a teenage boy and once by my dad, but I held firm and they relented. None of us love North Korea.

Hey, @Bluebasser86, quit stealing @Team9nine's crappie! Where's an LEO when you need one? Seriously, that switch turning on is something I've enjoyed. It's the sweet can't catch-can't catch-can't catch-CAN catch!

I understand the sentiment, but our choices can ripple outward. As others noted above, if you die because you didn't don a PFD, the searchers now have to find your corpse...and it won't be pretty. If you chose other reckless behaviors that move you from the workforce to someone who's medically dependent, that ripples through insurance premiums and your family until you draw your final breath. I worked on a spinal injury ward. Our patients were predominately young men. I haven't tipped a canoe since I was a kid until 2023 when I was in the water so suddenly that I have no memory of tipping nor even striking the water. I was in the air and then I was underwater, stunned. So, I experienced how quickly one can go under. I had no time to formulate a plan. The only plan I had in play was to already be wearing my PFD.

If I were a talented painter and I wanted to paint a perfect smallmouth, it would be @TnRiver46's.

Back when I had a couple columns for the now-defunct "Canoe & Kayak" magazine and was their travel writer too, I happened upon a guy who was doing some amazing moves without a paddle in a roaring reverse falls, where the extreme tides we have in Maine create whitewater in a strait. He was showboating directly below a bridge, so I got some great shots being above him. Then I interviewed him, confident that my editor would make space for him, but the editor immediately declined because the guy wasn't wearing a life jacket. "We won't put that bad example out there for our readership," he said. We all should be good examples.

@TnRiver46: That first smallmouth is perfect.

If you guys don't mind, don't use this thread anymore and go back to reporting your fish in the latest catch thread. I feel this thread has siphoned some of its traffic. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

I could post my PB, but instead, I'll post the girl below. I caught her on my third trip from the last. To reach her home, I drove a ridge line in the dark, down a gravel road, and then down a narrow, dangerous drive to launch beside a dam. I had to carry my canoe down a slippery slope to launch. I then paddled down a gorge in creepy blackness, skirting fallen, spectral trees. That led to a long flat and I had to follow the old riverbed to find water deep enough to float my canoe. It was hard and several times I paddled onto a mud flat and I had to use my paddle as a pole to extricate myself. A couple of miles of mis-directions later, I reached the widest and deepest part of the river and proceeded to catch 56 bass and two jumbo perch. I'd caught more bass in a morning in 2024 and I'd caught bigger bass too in 2024, but I'd never caught so many big bass as I did that morning, about a dozen in total and this gal was the thickest of them. I think I caught her on a big walking bait. Black and gold. She has everything I love in a bass. My everything isn't much: just a big head followed by a big body. She didn't look beaten down by life, but thriving despite its myriad challenges, and I saw five of them: three bald eagles in a V cruising over her home and two ospreys too. I didn't weigh or measure her, but if you really need a number, here's one: A perfect 10.

Glenn, I'm happy to watch your videos whenever they're filmed. I was just expressing some soft water envy.

I came back to have another look at Pat's bass. It's just as whoa-y today as it was when I first saw it.

Michael Neal is a trickster. He's talking about winter bass fishing, but it's clearly summer behind him. See the water??? It's soft!!!

There are more of us crescent wrench-ers than I would have guessed. Well, this wrench wench is happy for the company!

I am in love with @FryDog62's organization. They say opposites attract and anyone who's seen photos of my canoe know that I'm the utter opposite. If you haven't seen any pics of my messy canoes, here's one: Still, I'm in love @FryDog62's boat. I will grab a different rod for smallies. I'd use a ML or M, but I quickly learned that you can't keep an lmb from weeds with merely a M, so all my lmb rods are MH and all about 7' 2" long.

What if I gave you a buck-fifty to change your mind? #fingerscrossedyou'recheap Seriously, I remember zig-zagging canoe down rivers as a kid. It was probably half due to paddling crummy canoes and half due to my being a lousy paddler. Thousands of miles later, I bend it like Beckham.

Other than a fiberglass rod I prefer for surface baits, I use all my other rods with all my lures. Yep, I fish with crescent wrenches and make them work.

Whoa, that bass is FAT! And look at the muscle in her tail. W-O-W!

If he did that, I'd back that play...on drums perhaps? Good point. Most of the time I'm under the speed limit, but even old lady drivers sometimes speed. Another good point.

I hope you're wrong. Their are still plenty of level-headed leaders in our sport, like Glenn. However, I fear that one of the pyro-technicians who've worked with KISS might one day equip Ben's boat with flame throwers and fireworks launchers, which Ben would trigger every time he caught a bass and then he'd air guitar like Bill and Ted. Even then, there will still be low-key bassheads like me quietly moseying in backwaters and slipping bass back into the water with all due gratitude.

@F14A-B: The thing that drives me bonkers about drama queens like BM is that life clobbers us with real drama, like people we love being afflicted with punishing diseases and everyone we love eventually dying, one by one. I remember in one of his videos a guy in a bigger boat cruising by a ways away and BM clickbaited that, as if a boat's wake were one of life's big trials. He seriously needs to buck up and bluster down. He catches such big bass and should be ecstatic over his successes, but he employs cheap tricks so that people will pay attention to him: I'm guessing that BM thinks that Chicken Little-ing it beats 9-to-5-ing it, but the 9-to-5-ers are my heroes.

Fingers crossed you do!

@Blue Raider Bob: I've had otters swim alongside my canoes, diving under it to pop up on starboard and then port.

If I ever build on my pondfront property, I'm going to fish you like!

You are soooo right about the coastal wind. It blows and blows and blows. I'd fish more if I could, but so many mornings and evenings, it's too windy for my canoes.

Cool!

Brrrrrr! It was six degrees this morning on the coast of Maine, but fishing in 34 degrees is still quite cold...and quite impressive. #hardcore