Swamp Girl

Mike, that first bass sure looks like a Maine bass, built like a black-backed bulldog. I love your smile, Mike. You look like you've seized the day.

Aww, shucks, Bob! However, I have interviewed and profiled many who show me to be a pipsqueaky paddler. For example, I interviewed a Norwegian who was paddling from the end of the Aleutian Islands to Greenland, by kayak and cross-country skiing. He made it halfway before losing some toes to the cold. I interviewed the first two who ever paddled around Ellesmere Island. One night, a polar bear stuck its head into their tent. The older guy had a hand cannon on his chest and told the bear, "I don't want to die and I don't want you to die, but only you can decide." And the bear withdrew. I profiled another guy who paddled from Washington to Alaska, over the Chilkoot Pass, down the Yukon away, across the tundra, and then out to the Bering Sea and down it. At one point, wind pinned him at a river mouth where brown bears were feeding on salmon and they came closer and closer to him. He escaped by climbing a cliff, hauling his kayak and gear up it by rope, and then lowering it to the other wind-sheltered side. Then there's Shackleton, who makes even these ^studs^ seem like buttercups. So, I'm no legend, but I know a few. I'll never forget what one of these adventurers told me, which is that when it comes to the greatest adventures, it's not so much a matter of skill when it comes to surviving, for everyone is skilled at that level, but luck. His wife, by the way, was buried in a landslide when they were skiing a remote mountain. This guy also paddled around Cape Horn. Imagine that, paddling Great White Central in a kayak. I've also interviewed some guys who kayak waterfalls. The waterfall plungers make me shake my head and sigh.

Thank you, Bob. With Google Earth and my imagination, I just paddled up Raft Bayou and Walnut Bend. What great names, huh?!? I caught a few fine fish too. I think I told you that I paddled the Mississippi a couple times, once from Pittsburgh by way of the Ohio River and once from the source in northern Minnesota. I landed in New Orleans on the Ohio River trip and stopped in Baton Rogue on the Minnesota trip because I was down to my last buck-fifty. So, I know oxbows and love them. And I love those big rivers. They scare people because they can kill ya, but that means more solitude for those of us who do paddle them.

@ScottW Those poor, ol' paws are gonna heal up and soon you'll be back romping with the bass. Thank goodness they're staring "at televisions and smart phones." More bass for us! I like hearing about how similar our childhoods were, how growing up in swamps and woods translated to a joyful life on the water and in the woods.

Exactly! If you live on a lake, but DON'T LIVE ON THE LAKE. If you don't spend your years outside by the water and on the water, that lake lot is wasted on you. Sure, you might use lakeside mansion to impress your family and friends and provoke jealousy, but it's still wasted on you. You, Alex, LIVE on that lake. The rich people should take lessons from you. This GIF celebrates Alex's life lived under the golden Sun: P. S. - I loved finding crawdads too. And snakes. And catching bitsy fish in the creeks' pools.

Loss of wife + loss of job = a heckuva wallop As others wrote, focus on your kids and I'm thinking good thoughts for you as you find your next job. I'm even thinking good thoughts for your wife too, hoping she can beat alcoholism before it takes even more from her.

@AlabamaSpothunter Alex, I can't help but notice the mega-mansions where you fish. We have some mansions like those on the coast of Maine. Here in Maine, people don't actually live-live in them. They vacay in them, a few weeks each year. I'm pretty certain that some of the mega-mansions owners in Alabama also own coastal mansions here. And Alex, I also can't help but notice your simple boat. We have that in common. My boat is just a hull with a paddle. I also come from simple roots, born in a trailer, three to a bed, and wearing hand-me-downs. For whatever reason, perhaps my ungilded childhood, I've always been tickled by the plainest pleasures. As a kid, it was poking around creeks. Walking through the woods. Building a tree house with wood pinched from a building site. Digging a tunnel. Riding my old, balloon-tired bike. I was moss that could grow merrily on rock. And then I listen to your voice on your videos, Alex, and I hear your excitement and your gratitude. And I wonder if the folks in those mansions are equally thrilled by life. I hope they are. But since they're not on the water, not under evening's golden light, not feeling the breeze and smelling the winter air, and connecting with wild, beautiful bass, I just don't see how they could be. I don't understand them. They live on the water, but they don't LIVE ON THE WATER. They confuse me.

What a gift you gave and gave and gave, Roadwarrior. Alex, more beautiful fish. You too, Mike! TriRiver, I keep looking at the coloration of that bass you caught. I caught light-colored ones like that on the north shore of Lake Michigan.

@Blue Raider Bob I'm with you, BRB. The next best thing to catching bass is seeing my Bass Resource cyber-pals catch bass.

@GreenPig I think it's funny and ironic that you might have both landed your PB that night. P. S. - I'd rather own that tractor than a Ranger boat!

@T-Billy Great idea for a thread! I fished the Whitefish River in the UP of Michigan one balmy week. I rented an old, wooden rowboat, but still caught smallmouth two at a time, trolling around bridge supports. So, I told a couple buddies about the great fishing and we met there the next summer. It was no longer balmy. It was blustery, gray and wet. These two guys had driven hundreds of miles because I gushed about the great fishing and two days in, with few fish, they wanted to stay in the warm cabin instead of heading out into the cold rain yet again. So, I rose super early and alone, remembering a time in northwestern Ontario where a cold front had bunched the bass off a point. So, I went bouncing across the waves looking for a point. I fished one. I fished another. Then, BINGO! I caught bass (and walleye) as soon as my lure hit the bottom. I was the only one out there that morning and after catching ten fish to be sure, I bounced back to the cabin, pounded on the sleepy-heads' door, and yelled, "I FOUND 'EM!" They scrambled into their clothes and we proceeded to shred our thumbs for five days. So. Much. Fun!

Alex, I could tell you the details of every big bass I lost in 2022: the lake, the lure, and the other details of the lost battle. I remember the details of the big ones I landed too, but I think I remember the lost fish even more vividly. Sorry you lost two big ones, buddy! However, I have this to say about the nice ones you boated and your new technique:

That might not be a good deal on your end, as I will return them bruised and battered by bass.

Your skill and your son's skill surpasses mine. I still bird's nest from time-to-time. I just don't expect anyone to untangle my mess.

@Woody B You got it, Woody, and that's a freebie. #sendnosurfacelures,woodyb

FYI, I am now for hire. If anyone else wants me to write a letter to St. Nick on their behalf, I work for surface lures. #I'vegotSt.Nick'sear

@Woody B and @thediscochef

I could fire off a few casts, but then I'd have to worm through the thicket that's a Maine forest. I see photos posted by the shore fishers here, with the grass sloping down to the water, but the local ponds and bogs are nothing like that. However, thanks for the suggestion!

Way to go, Bob! Our ponds still haven't frozen. If I weren't afraid of tipping and dying, I'd still be fishing. The water might still be soft, but it's cold enough to quick freeze me.

A trip where every fish is in the four to six-pound range is jaw-dropping. Why wouldn't a guide let you use a bait casting outfit?

You went old school!

@thediscochef Dear Santa, I'm not asking for anything nice for myself. I've earned all of my 66 lumps of coal. However, I am asking for one thing for thediscochef. It's this (See below.). I know your eyes are old, so I had a friend hold it up high and close so you can see. Please, for the love of Christmas, don't bring him a freshwater drum and if you can't deliver a big bass, he will accept an Official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle, but a big bass is the ultimate gift, you know:

You always can spot the real ones who fish on their lunch half hour break.