Swamp Girl

The only tournament I ever fished (It was a tiny tournament.) was for muskies. I was paired with another woman. Musky fishing is macho and we were feeling the heat, even if it wasn't there, as the guys were nice. So, my partner hooked a musky and I netted it and we were so happy that we put a fish on the board, which meant we belonged, that I simply dropped the net into the water to photograph the fish. I didn't realize I'd lost the net until I caught it on my next cast. It was a big net, which likely helped me catch it.

@Smells like fish Great photos!

ALEX!!!!!!! What a belly on that bass!!! I too await the video with bated breath because I love to see predators bunching baitfish. Wait, since we're talking fishing, maybe it's baited breath.* *Sorry. Nerd Humor. I apologize.

@ The Bassman No Midwesterner who catches bass in December, wearing gloves, following surgery, is a weakling. Here's a story of other tough people: I used to drive across northern Wisconsin in January. The wind would be howling and the Amish would be pedaling their bicycles. I'd see them and think, "Toughest people on Earth."

I like the edge of a wild rice thicket or any similar reed. I like casting parallel to them, retrieving my lure as close as possible to the cover. Like many others, I also love lily pads.

When I was a kid, my father drove us to northern Michigan to fish for pike. I was so excited! So, I saved up my money and bought an imitation Dardevle spoon. Remember them? Thin metal? Cheap hooks. Still, it was all I could afford. And I cast it with my Zebco 606, let it settle to the bottom, and waited and waited and waited for a pike to pick it up.

@AlabamaSpothunter Alex is back on the water!

@Aaron_H

Hmm. In Maine, I thought it was just the opposite. Maybe I need to give more bluebird days their due attention.

I'm like you. I only fished about 16 bodies of water in 2022, but I already have another 24 in the queue, all less than an hour from home and all different. I'm going to scout one of the new ones tomorrow. As I've shared in the past, I look for water without boat launches and the less shoreline development, the better. I don't mind launching at a creek and paddling it for a mile to reach a pond that has no road to it. I don't mind fishing water right beside a highway. It's my experience that some people overlook the most obvious water. Same with little ponds. @MIbassyaker, I admire how you've fine tuned your fishing sites to know what fishes best in spring and what fishes best in July. I'm nowhere near that. I think it'll take several seasons to achieve that understanding. ^Yep.^

@MontclairDave I hear ya, brother. My wetsuit top arrived today. My neoprene boots came yesterday. Before next spring, I'll be buying an expensive life vest with the storage to keep survival gear strapped to my body, so that I can get ashore, build a fire, and change into dry pants.

The video I posted was suggested by YouTube because I watch various bass videos. I had no idea that so many of you have such strong opinions about Randy. Heck, I didn't even know who he was/is. To me, he was just another guy talking about bass fishing. In my ignorance, I opened a can of worms. Sorry 'bout that. I still agree with his message, that our failings on the water help us appreciate our successes, and that the hard times highlight the sweet times. I remember many times being on big water in November and even December. It was raining and because I was young, I was immortal and therefore unafraid. As I paddled, I'd think about my dry tent and my dry clothes in it. Going to a dry, warm place meant so much to me and I treasure those times in my life when I didn't need something fancy to feel anticipation and gratitude.

This thread is great! I was stuck in the bass threads, but I'm going to be visiting this thread from here forward. Go, @T-Billy, go!

Bluebasser86 catches bass. I am aching to say how I feel about his bass, but I don't want to curse him.

@AlabamaSpothunter I actually wrote both those articles for Canoe & Kayak magazine. I did travel writing for it, two columns, and occasional features. However, Canoe & Kayak magazine folded, as scores of other magazines have, but it was owned by Men's Journal, so Men's Journal posted some of those old Canoe & Kayak stories under the Men's Journal banner, as is their legal right. So, it's not quite as ironic as you think, In many ways, I'm quite girly. I do crafts, garden, and bake. I was also a first and second grade teacher. I even write the occasional fashion article for women's magazines, but I didn't think Bob would want to read one of those. However, I do love to be on the water and I think anyone who doesn't is missing the best part of this world. Alex. I'm sorry your friend passed. She sounds great. I like people who range. I have a guy pal in Montana who jumps off cliffs with his hang glider and kayaks Class IV canyons in his kayak. He's also ex-Army who gardens and bakes and even sews. He has range too. #theblueworldisbest

@Blue Raider Bob Here's a story I wrote that you might like, Bob: https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/wrong-canoe-right-stuff/ And here's another: https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/canoeing-the-thames/ All I ask is in return is an occasional dispatch about your pond.

Bob, I'd love to read more of your pond observations in the coming months and years.

@Woody B Yikes, I'm like the Sports Illustrated cover curse!

It's cool when they swerve from our expectations.

I'm just glad that someone is still catching bass. I'm printing depth maps and laminating them for next year's fishing.

@T-Billy Tim, you're the best.

Thanks, roadwarrior. Here's the link:

I just watched a video by Randy Blaukat. The video is three posts below. In the video, Randy talks about the importance of being humbled. He argues that being humbled reminds us to be grateful for the fish we do catch and to treat them with all due respect. He compares being humbled on the water to being hungry, that no one appreciates food like someone who's hungry and no one appreciates water like someone who's been thirsty. I started fishing by being humbled again and again. As a kid, my dream was to catch a 17-inch bass like my brothers caught. I never did, at least not as a child and teenager. I hooked a few, but they all broke free because my reel was junk, my rod was junk, and my line was junk. My fishing knowledge was also junk. We went to Michigan once and I bought a spoon (I couldn't afford a Dardevle spoon. It was a cheap, thinly pressed copy.). So, I cast it, let it settle to the bottom, and let it sit there, as if I were fishing for catfish with bait. And I finished this season being thrashed and bobbed by wind in the dark. I caught two dinks to close my season and spent most of that final trip trying to not be blown into the shore. One of my all-time favorite humbling-to-gratitude moments bass fishing was at Peninsula Point on the north shore of Lake Michigan. I'd read an old Field & Stream article about catching smallmouth at this point. So, I drove there one summer and fished it. Not a bass. I caught them in the Whitefish River, but none at the point. The next summer, I caught two powerful carp on crankbaits at the point, but no bass. I was getting hungrier and hungrier, thirstier and thirstier. Finally, the third summer, I waded out farther than I ever had and happened to spot a rock about the size of a VW Bug just under the water. Well, that's where they were, seemingly all the bass at Peninsula Point. The waves were sloshing over the top of my waders, so I must have weighed hundreds of pounds when I finally slogged to shore, but for a few hours, my previous humblings put me in a state of glorious gratitude. I was so deep that when the bass jumped, I looked UP at them and I had to keep my arms over my head lest my reel be underwater. I even had one bass, a four-pounder, park between my legs in mid-fight, using me like a time-out. Got any yarns of being humbled and set up to be gloriously grateful?

Brad, I love your happiness for another fisher. You're a real deal father-in-law.

It's not primarily a fishing channel, but there is brook trout fishing on a channel I love. It's more of a paddling channel and the creator is Justin Barbour on YouTube. He goes DEEP into the wilderness. What I love about him is how he loves all of it, the trials and the easy joys. He's often uncomfortable, but he's always happy and grateful. And he catches brook trout in many places, one after another.