Swamp Girl

@Blue Raider Bob, no, but I did use a snap swivel. You use one too, don't you? All this talk of how wary bass are has me deciding to load some light line onto one of the reels next year and use it at the ponds with fewer weeds. I used 12 lb. and 17 lb. mono this year, but I'm going to revert to 6 lb. on one outfit next year...just to see.

@Blue Raider Bob is my Mepps brother. I'm his Mepps sister. #Meppsisthickerthanblood Bob, I trolled them this summer with great success, which really surprised me. In the past, I'd always cast them. Thanks for the tip, @WRB. I'll be watching that video. @AlabamaSpothunter, if you rig a camera to your line, we'll all be panting to watch!

The pics with trees growing IN THE WATER look otherworldy to me. ^Love, love, LOVE this!^ Lake Pepin? No way!! I have spent months fishing it, catching everything from countless white bass to huge crappie to giant pike to hard fightin' smallmouth.

It's not just the follows. I often reflect on these two moments: 1. I was fishing a bass pond in southern Ohio, casting parallel to the shore. The water was gin clear. Twice I saw a bass dart of out of the weeds, totally take my lure into its mouth, and eject it AND I FELT NOTHING. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have known it had happened. My point is that there's much happening under the water that we don't realize. 2. The other incident happened in a quarry pond that was 20' deep, but was ridiculously clear. I could see every fish. They could see me. There was a pair of bass that kept circling the pond and every time they passed me, I'd toss a different lure at them. Not even a nightcrawler hooked in the head with a tiny split shot tempted them. However, a nightcrawler hooked in the head on 6 lb. test line with NO WEIGHT had them sprinting to reach my bait first. My point here is that bass really pay attention to details. Heck, I'd be fishing with 6 lb. test for Maine bass if it weren't for the weeds.

How far can you cast? Work on casting really, really far. Think big lures and hurricane tailwinds. Truly, Ol' Crickety, Winner of the Bad Ideas Trophy in 2003, 2007, 2016, and 2022

Beautiful photo.

I have NEVER fished any water that looks like your first pic, but I wanna! I love the range of the water you fish. Of all the pics, I keep returning to yours the most for their sheer, stunning range and beauty.

Heck, yeah, Tennessee is Smallmouth Town. I've never fished it, but I know its long, glorious smallmouth history. However, If you're going to fish Tennessee, Aaron, you might as well mosey up to Erie. If you're fishing Erie, you're not far from St. Clair. If you're fishing St. Clair, you're already in Michigan and you might as well roll a little farther north to its countless smallmouth lakes. Then, if you're fishing northern Michigan, you oughta....

@Blue Raider Bob, I once took a nurse from Missouri up there and she loved a waterfall. "What its name?" she asked. "It doesn't have a name," I answered. I took her to another and another and another. At each one, she asked, "What's its name?" And I finally explained, "There's no one up here to name anything. Not even all the lakes have names."

Okey-doke, Bob. More fishing hole pics!

Your third fish is one of the prettiest I've seen all year.

I love this thread.

Congrats, Smells like Fish! A pond has been my lifelong dream, but it will never happen. I've simply circled the Sun too many times, but if Alex ever makes his dream pond a reality, I'll be pawing at his door, begging for five casts. No, ten. No, twenty. No,....

In a similar vein, I was fishing in the rain below some rapids northeast of Kenora when two Canadian women in a canoe came hurtling down. They didn't have dry bags. They had trash bags. They didn't have Gore-Tex parkas. Again, more garbage bags. They asked me about the portage at the other end of the lake. "To the right of the waterfall, but it's a tough one. A billy goat portage with a narrow path teetering on a gorge." "Sounds fun!" they said, smiling. Then I think about the kayakers I used to see with $5,000 sea kayaks on city ponds, who will never see anything like what those two, tough Canadians saw.

Great post, A-Jay. I rue that day, IF it ever comes, but I'm nearly always the only one fishing a body of water and I fished 15 bodies of water this year and will fish at least that many new ponds and bogs in 2023, so the bass aren't seeing a Whopper Plopper every day or even every week. Plus, as I stated earlier, I fish with five rods and only one has a Whopper Plopper. Generally all five rods catch fish, so I'm not a one-trick pony. I'm a five-trick pony!* *I know five tricks shouldn't be a point of pride, but it's all I've got. Well, to be frank, ^this^ is my trick. And stealth.

Go, Craig, go! ' When I posted about my low hookup rate while froggin', a couple fishers responded that their hookup rate was quite high. I'd love to fish with those guys and witness that. On the other hand, when I fish with a frog, I get lots of hits, so I don't need a high hookup rate and the misses are almost as much fun as landing the fish. I'm only laughing because that's me too, a child lost in the woods for days.

Spanky, do you fish with your old lures that can't be replaced? I don't. I'd be afraid of losing one. An old timer lure that isn't mentioned much at bassresource.com is the Mepps spinner. I know some of you use it, but giving the preponderance of newer lures that are thrown, today's bass might not see Mepps as much as they once did. I catch good numbers and good-sized fish with my most basic Mepps, the one with the brass blade and plain hook.

One day, you and I might be standing together outside a Bass Pro store, saying: "You go first." "No, you go." "I'd rather you go first." "No, you." Then maybe some younger, kind bassresource.com fisher will appear and say, "C'mon, you two. I'll help." And we'll both sigh and smile.

When I caught my first fish on a Whopper Plopper and wake bait, it was thrilling. Same with my first fish on a jerkbait, a lipless crankbait, and a soft plastic swimbait with a weight on the shaft of the hook. And my first fish on a frog was fireworks, hooking me more than the fish. I bought some square bills for next season and some slender Rapala wake baits too. So, I'm slowly joining this new age of choices upon choices, but when I read posts at bassresource.com, I'm reminded again and again and again of what I don't know. I don't think I'll ever reach the point where I can cite the maker, model, and finish of every lure like most of you do. I was raised in the era of Rapala, Pflueger, Mann's, Mepps, and Heddon. It seems like there are ten times as many companies today and fifty times as many lures. So, I'm both excited by the choices and overwhelmed by them and I haven't touched upon pitching, punching, flipping, and whatever other casting techniques are out there. I am working up to trying chatterbait fishing and roboworming too in 2023, but a part of me misses the old days of tying my outfit to my bike with string and taking five lures fishing. However, in the end, I do like choices. I fish with five rods and I'd fish with ten if I could fit them into my canoe without them becoming tangled. And sometimes, I make a single cast with a lure and then another lure and another, trying to determine what they want in that moment at that place. But if you ever see an old woman in a big tackle shop looking at the aisles and aisles of lures and you hear a slight whimper, you'll know that's me. P. S. - Of the new lures I'm buying, I'm most excited about the Sixth Sense Movement 80X because I fish some water as skinny as Twiggy and I'd like an option other than a surface lure.

I've always wished that every time a litterbug chucks trash, that a portal would open and the trash would immediately land on their bed. Alex, thank you. Oh, and thank you. P. S. - THANKS!

Bass love it, for sure. At least Maine bass do. Remember that I caught four doubles on my Whopper Plopper, i.e. two bass on one cast. Bass have to really want a lure to compete for it like that. I think your Alabama bass will love it too. Its sound is similar to a buzzbait and you've had good luck with that.

Cast the Whopper Plopper and wait a couple seconds for it to settle. If you reel right away, it will be submarine and take a couple seconds to surface. Steady retrieve works best for me, but sometimes I slow it and even stop it. You can also jerk it like a popper. That's a great color. I caught a lot of fish with that color. I'm about to pull the trigger on some Rapala BX waking minnow lures. Has anyone used them? I expect smallmouth to like them as much as largemouth.

Way North Bass Guy, you are one tough hombre. It's mid-November and you're still fishing. In Canada! CANADA!!! I found a little footage of you fishing. You must have fallen in the water, right?