Swamp Girl

Dang it, you just punched a hole in my punchline! No biggie. Me:

Behold what the BR crew has recently caught: You guys sure can cowboy.' And for the final beast, drum roll please....

I fished through those hatches and caught a lot of fish. Their mouths would be stuffed with mayflies, but they'd still hit a lure.

I too prefer a gray, leaky sky. Why? It's because I'm an old school angler: paddle, rod, and stealth.

True legend, for sure.

I was on the Mississippi River one gray, blustery day in October in Minnesota and I paddled up to a big jonboat to chat. He showed me his nine pound walleye and said he'd caught many that size. Then he said, "The other guys think I have a secret way to catch them, but look around." And he motioned upriver and downriver. "It's nasty today and we're the only ones out here. That's how I catch them, I'm fishing when it's too foul for everyone else. I just keep fishing no matter what the weather is." Reel, I think this dogged persistence might be the surest mark of a trophy hunter.

The giants are the supreme predators. @PhishLI knows of a night-fishing, BIG swimbait user who catches bigger bass than me. I've seen his fish photos. He's the real deal. So true. Talking about bass is keeping me from going stir-crazy...well that and seeing the fish pics! So cool to see the program working! Riffing off of something I once read on a t-shirt, I catch 'em all and let God sort 'em out. 😅

Great writing, Clayton. Amen. Don' cha love the in-the-water pic?

OMG!

Yeah, she was a Clayton-grade/Alex-sized bass.

In a way, she's still with you. That photo of her in the water is stunning and you'll always have it. We really should photograph them in their homes more. Not always easy to do, of course. I've returned more than one bass to the water that immediately went berserk as soon as she reached H2O. It's almost as if they get a kick out of splashing me. Regarding Clayton's bass, I've since gone back and looked at my fattest bass. As you know, I catch some thick fish, but NOTHING like Clayton's or your recent whale. P. S. - I never tire of seeing your little, old boat. You and I both fish from small, cheap platforms. I paid $1,000, $600, and $500 for my three canoes. Our measly boats should encourage others to go catch bass without dropping five or even six figures on a bass boat.

Just imagine that he's singing "Love is in the water...."

So, let me get this straight. You were fishing in Alabama and shredding your thumb. Then you somehow cast all the way to Kansas, hooked one of Clayton's preposterous bass, and reeled it across the country, presumably by rivers and lakes. Seriously, you've caught so many big bass this winter, but I think this latest one is my favorite even though it's not the biggest. I just love when they look like they're about to burst.

Since no one can build like you, Bob, we just pose with our hammers and drills and pretend. I Googled that bottle cap and you won a new Ranger bass boat if you redeem it by 6-1-92. I do have a flux capacitor.

Those are excellent photos, GreenPig. I wish I'd been beside you, catching bass too!

I like this and it might be why I prefer five four-pounders to one six-pounder. I can luck into bonking a six-pounder on the head by chance, but to land a bag of bigger bass requires cracking the code...for that day...at that pond/lake/bog.

I'm going to combine @Fried Lemons you-need-to-fish-bigger-baits and @Zcoker's you-need-to-think-you're-going-to-catch-bigger-bass and cast a 24-foot swimbait that @Bazoo will whittle to catch the world's first 60' lmb! Sadly, it will sink my canoe and I'll become tangled in the line and be taken to Davy Jones's Locker, but I'll go down fighting just like this guy:

There are members at Bass Resource who state that they target big bass. If you sit on the deep water abutting the spawning beds like some of us do or pounded Castaic Lake in its glory years like @WRBdid or chuck and wind big swimbaits like @Fried Lemons does, then you're targeting big bass and have a big bass portfolio like @Fried Lemons's, Tom's, @AlabamaSpothunter's, @Catt's, @Pat Brown's, Andy's, etc., then you do indeed target big bass. I'm not part of the Big Bass Crew, but I do catch big bass for my nearly 45 degrees latitude. My approach is to catch a lot of bass and the big bass will come. I average about one four-pounder for every 30 bass. Remember that In-Fisherman said that a bass weighing X in the north is equivalent to a bass weighing 1.5X in the South. If In-Fisherman is right, my four-pounders are Everglades six-pounders and my six-pounders are Texas nine-pounders and my PB is a southern California DD. So, a northern four-pounder is a fine catch. Just ask Minnesotan @gim or Canadian @The Baron, who know how rare they are up north. My approach is basically attrition. I dance with a lot of bass and sooner or later, I dance with a big gal. And some sweet mornings, I get to dance with five or six big gals, but along the way, I get to dance and dance and dance. I do know at least three spots that harbor big bass and when I'm casting at those three specific spots, I'm absolutely fishing for big bass, but otherwise, I'm just fishing and hoping and happy.

For a long time, I thought he was called @Bluebasser86 because he protects and serves, but I learned today that he's also called Bluebasser because he catches bass shaped like Bluegills. I think he's called 86 because he 86s all our hopes of ever catching bass as fat as his.

The BR crew is doing it all, catching big numbers, big bass, and even big drum plus delicious bream. All the weights are up except for @thediscochef's scale!

You're also the King of Fun. You always appear to be enjoying your fish, friends, and trips.

@Bluebasser86: I laughed out loud at your bass. They're, they're preposterous!

You also excel at telling the stories of your fishing trips.

169 acres. I know, I know, I'm a lucky duck.