Swamp Girl

Mr. 127, I just looked at your city on the map. I can see why fishing could be tough due to a lot of people nearby and not much water. However, have you tried accessing those ponds on I-65 that were created when they built ramps? I fished similar ponds outside of Columbus, OH and caught lots of bass. The trick is gaining access.

I was so excited to fish this morning that I didn't fall asleep until 2:00 a.m. I had the alarm clock set for 5:15 a.m., which was stupid because I haven't adjusted to the perpetually later sunrises. So, I arrived at the lake in the dark. It was Stephen King foggy too. I actually waited a few minutes in the car for the merest light. My flashlight was useless because its light bounced off the fog. Speaking of Stephen King, I had one of his creepy moments. I thought I saw something advancing on me. There was a beaver tail slapping, but this was too wide and high for a beaver. "It's your imagination," I chided myself. But it kept coming closer and closer. "The fog is tricking your eyes," I told myself. And it kept coming and coming. Again, my flashlight was worthless. "Are those birds?" I wondered. And they were. Three waterfowl in a tight formation. They were curious about me, I think. And fearless. I've never had that happen before this morning. I don't think they read me as human in the dark and fog. I used three stand-bys: A Whopper Plopper, a brass-bladed Mepps #3, and a pumpkin-colored wacky worm with a yellow tip. I also used three lures I haven't used much: a jerkbait, a swimbait, and lipless crankbait. Everything caught fish. For the first three hours, I averaged about 13 bass an hour. For the last two, I caught three bass an hour. The early bird really does get the bass! The smallmouth were aerobatic. Not long, but thick. This morning's pond is a numbers pond, but I still managed to catch a 17.75-incher. Most were in the 15-16.5-inch range. Fun, strong fish. I didn't catch a single pickerel and hooray for that! I know I said I was done fishing two or three weeks back, not because the fish had stopped feeding, but because I was afraid of the chilling water. I still am. Fear is good. It keeps me low and careful in the canoe. I caught 45 bass in total, which makes me Kate 45. You've heard of the Colt 45, an American classic. Well, Kate 45 is a Maine classic fisher in a canoe with no electronics. I can see that some of you are catching BIG fish. Sadly, I'm not. However, if I were to duct tape my fish together, tail to head to tail to..., I would have caught a HUGE fish this morning. I sometimes look at the shore and wonder, "If I were to tip right now, could I reach the shore? And then could I reach warmth?" I often don't know. Lastly, bassresource.com wouldn't let me upload a lot of the photos, but here are the ones it did permit.

I wish I'd been in the boat with you, North Bass Guy. Your day had everything: fat fish, lots of the fish, and no other boats on the lake!

Tim! Tim, Tim, TIM! What a day! What a bass! What a musky! What a wife! I love the head on that fish. And this is the gratitude that Alex and were discussing:

I will post a link! Speaking of fishing, I'm going tomorrow morning. As always, so excited! I'm going to start with a jerkbait. I've been watching the videos and I think I'm good to go. I'm also going to put a trailer on a spinbait and use that. I'm returning to the pond where they loved my wakebait last time, so I'll try that too. As far as the energy I put into fishing, when I lived in Boston, I walked to work. It was four miles each way, summer and winter, dawn and dark. If I was walking at rush hour, I'd walk as fast as the cars. I'd see the same drivers, again and again, at the intersections. They looked stressed. They were stressed. After all, at the end of the day, they had to reach the health club to stay fit. I needed no health club because I was a walking health club. It's the same with carrying and paddling a canoe. It's a full upper body workout: And it burns 300 to 500 calories per hour. For my lower body, there's the portaging. And like walking, it makes me happy. A well-executed paddle stroke is as beautiful as a well-placed Rapala. I take a lot of pride in tracking my canoe as straight as an arrow in flight and zig-zagging it through the reeds.

Coincidentally, I just wrote a fishing article for bassresource.com called, "This is Spartan." There was a boat show down on our town's harborwalk and there was a nifty, red Alumacraft with a 30 horse Honda four-stroke engine. So pretty. I ran my hand along its gunnel. A salesman approached me and I got the price ($16,500) and I considered it for about six seconds, but what decided it was this: I won't catch more fish with it. I'll likely catch fewer fish. I won't be able to fish some great ponds with it. Sure, it would be more comfortable and I wouldn't have to work as hard. I might be Ol' Crickety, but I'm not so ol' that I can't work hard. A wise man once wrote: And I like the whole of this so much that I copied it and now I'm pasting it:

Whoa, Alex! And, WOW! Alex, I love how you get sooooo excited. The fish deserve our joy.

I'm guessing, given the dispositions and power of spots and smallies, that a meanmouth smallie/spot hybrid wouldn't be this equation: A smallie + a spot = a meanmouth Rather, it would be this equation: A smallie x a spot = a MEANMOUTH!

Check out this meanmouth:

I think you're right. Okay, I won't worry anymore.

It didn't work. Sigh. I was sure that was going to solve it. Any other ideas?

It's weird. And embarrassing. It looks like I'm trying to fill a thread with white static.

I have spent years at a particular paddling and fishing website and there are posters whose ONLY threads include links to their YouTube videos. These posters don't appear in other people's threads to encourage them or congratulate them. They only use that website as place for their free-of-cost commercials. It's annoying as Heck and they add zero value to that community. So, I standing-applaud bassresource.com's position. P. S. - Does anyone know why my posts have lots of white space below the text?

Alex, if you ever get a 300-pound spot boatside, don't, in your supreme joy and terror, get tangled up in your line and have it drag you into the deep. Don't be Alex Ahab!

Alex, you are right about the fun of catching fish with new lures. I was so proud of my first froggin' bass. The best I ever did was seven bass on a frog, but that was right before they quit hitting my frog, so I'm super excited about next summer and surpassing that number. I once went to a musky lake north of Lake of the Woods with 21 guys. Many were young, large, and muscular, and even they were beaten down by heaving those billy clubs with hooks. If I were to do it again, I'd fish with heavy bass gear and smaller lures. I once did that froggin' for muskies and you see the V coming for your frog. I had 21 hits and only caught two, but what a day that was! When whalers used to harpoon a whale and the whale would pull their boat, they called it a Nantucket Sleigh Ride. Well, in my solo canoe, I've been on a few Ontario sleigh rides when musky fishing and that's probably the greatest thrill I've ever had fishing. A tarpon or mako jumping might surpass that, but not by much. Mr. 86, since I fish in a 15' canoe that's not loaded with gear and is therefore light and easily windblown, even a 15 mph wind means I spend more time with a paddle in my hand than a fishing rod. P. S. - You guys are funny in this thread!

Beautiful fish, Phish! Alex, I had musky fever for about three years, but casting big lures is so hard on a body. I was smallmouth focused for about 30 years. As a kid, I loved bluegills. I've done some walleye fishing too, but nowadays, it's bass, bass, and BASS. Smallie or largies doesn't matter, much like largies or spots doesn't matter to you. I have yet to fish a chatterbait. Or a roboworm. Or a swimbait. Sigh.

Alex, next time, go Mako shark fishing at the same lake and see what you catch.

I'm fraidy cat of heights now too. I painted my two-story garage this summer EXCEPT for the tippy-top, i.e. the eaves and I hired a young man for that. Speaking of wee Maine fishing trips, I'm going fishing tomorrow or Saturday. There aren't enough bass pics being posted, so someone has to represent bassresource.com's fishers.

I wasn't fishing at the time, but I was paddling the Mississippi source-to-sea with a rod and reel aboard. It was November and I got pinched between a big river tow and the shore. The tow's waves hit the shore, ricocheted, and collided with the incoming waves, creating wet Heck. I was struggling to stay afloat when a wave loomed over me, about to break. I gripped my paddle because I would be dead without it. The wave fell on me, broke through my spray skirt, and snapped my kayak's hull. I was only about 40 yards from shore, but my boat was heavy with water, so it took me about ten minutes to reach land. I was exhausted, cold, and shaken. I built a campfire with whatever I could find right there. Unfortunately, I burned some poison ivy and inhaled it. Ever had an itch you can't reach? The next day, the cold rain began. It took me two days to reach Vicksburg and the emergency room physician said I had the worse case of poison ivy he'd ever seen. Luckily, I met a fisherman from Iowa named Jim who actually had the fiberglass and resin to repair my boat. What a guy!

You're the best, Bob.

YES!! I'll even paddle for Bob to give him a shot at 50 or 60. Heck, if he installs a solar-powered fish feeder at my BOB-Pond (TM), I'll take him to my honey hole, the secret one in the woods, and give him a shot at 70 fish with four and five-pounders quite possible.

Wait your turn. I have a pond to build with a floating dock with a fish feeding hole and Bob's just the guy. FYI, Bob, I will take you fishing every evening. How do 40-bass evenings sound? And I fry some mean taters and sausage for the mornings.

We all want to borrow Bob. I think there should be a Bob lottery. "I won! I won! I won the lottery!" I'd be shouting. "How much did you win? A mil? Two mil?" "Oh, I won so much more than that." "Five mil? Fifty mil?" "No, silly. I won Bob for six months."

Bob, I live in an area where a lot of rich New Yorkers and Bostonians have purchased seaside mansions. On paper, they own their properties, but not like you and I own our properties. I just put two arborvitaes in the ground, am about to plant a third, and then have to build a ring of granite cobbles around them. I live in granite country, so granite is affordable here. Heck, we build our curbs out of granite! I priced a three-step granite stoop yesterday at $810. What a deal! My current garden dwarfs the garden in the pics I shared. It's about five times its size, but no pics until it's done. My last garden was also huge. Thanks for the photo of Molly! I would love to feed her too. How big do your bluegills get? Do you catch and eat them or are they pets? How big do your bass get? Pics, PLEASE!

Dang it, Alex. I hate to read you frustrated. And chilly. And $38.99+tax-less. I'm going again in a few days. I wonder if Maine lakes will have flipped and I'll be wearing a white stripe down my back like Pepe Le Pew.