Swamp Girl

Smallmouth bass are beautiful fish. Crazy striping!

Thanks for the remote tip, AJ. I'll buy one of those too. I'm willing to pay more to buy a superior camera. I've used my current camera for 30 years. I figure I'll use the GoPro for the rest of my life.

I love your grandpappy! I too am an optimist!

I'm an old woman in a solo canoe, so there is no seat other than mine. I will consider using my phone, but I do like to fish in the rain and it's not waterproof. Yep, Gimruis, my photos are the worst.

My photos are the worst! The WORST! And the bigger the fish, the worse the photo, for whatever reason. So, I'm thinking of doing what I hate and adding some equipment to my little canoe, i.e. a GoPro and a clamp to attach it to thwart. Then I can voice activate it and actually get a photo of a bass AND me, instead of a fuzzy bass lying on the bottom of my cluttered canoe. 21st century, here I come! However, I will never all YouTubey and have drones hovering over me. A drone would be like paving paradise.

Yep, we've all been there. Sometimes Mother Nature clamps her babies' mouths. I'm guessing you still enjoyed your time on the water and I admire your honesty. It makes all feel a little less alone, remembering all the times when we were skunked. Yesterday, I was literally skunked, for whereas I caught some fish, I smelled a skunk all morning!

This morning was largely about beautiful failure. I fished a bog again and landed 22 fish, but half a dozen were chain pickerel and another half dozen chain pickerel cut my line. I did catch one skinny 18-inch bass (See pic.), one 16-incher, and two 15-inchers, but what made my heart race was my failure. I cast my big, black Whopper Plopper as far as I could and let it sit. Before I could twitch it, it disappeared and the fish ran for the lily pads about 8 yards away. I was fishing my big Shimano spinning reel with the drag cranked for situations like this, but she overpowered my drag and almost reached the lily pads. Then she came out of the water, looking like a Field and Stream cover circa 1963. Then her klaxon sounded and she dove, dove, dove. My stout line and drag pulled her free of the weeds, but she wasn't out of tricks. She charged my canoe and I failed to take up the slack, so by the time she was boat side, she had the slack she needed to shake free, right in front of me. Gosh, she was great. I also saw the biggest eagle of my life, as well as ducks, a heron, swallows, loons, and turtles.

I love mixed bag fishing!

Mr. 46, she was only 19 inches long. My bad. I explained that poorly. She's a 19-incher that I like better than my 21-inchers because of the quality of the photo and her cool shape.

My biggest smallmouth was 21" and I've caught a couple that length, but I've never ever weight\ measured a smallmouth, so I know no weights. I do know that the attached bass is one of my all-time favorites. I love her shape. I elbowed my arm backwards to get her as close to my head as possible for perspective. I caught her on an orange F13 Rapala, casting to a notch in an island in northwestern Ontario. She was tremendously strong, so finally netting her was a relief and a rush. I have a tape measure on the bottom of my canoe, so measuring and unhooking happen in the same place and it's quick for the fish. I had a partner that trip, so I got a good pic. I caught her on a spinning rod with 6 lb. test. According to a length to weight chart, she weighed 3 pounds, 5 ounces. I'm 5'11" for perspective. So, I think she weighed a little more. Her belly bulged like a chubby largemouth's. Maybe four pounds, but what do I know since I don't weigh fish. I do know she has a perfect shape.

Fishing below a dam is exciting. Nice smallie!

That's a super tip, Mr. Mickey. I think I'd just paddle down a ways and then paddle back so I wouldn't have to arrange a shuttle. This time of the year, there can't be much current.

Mr. Mickey, I know China Lake. It's not far from me. I haven't fished it yet, but I wanna. It might be a little big for me and my canoe though. Still, I've heard that it's great, so that tugs at me like a bluegill tugging at a nightcrawler. Mr. Warrior, your gifs make me laugh. Thanks! Thanks, A-Jay, however, after looking at your fish photos, I worry that you look at my fish pics and think, "Hmm. Nice bait."

I went out again for the third straight morning, but now my hands must rest and recover. I returned to the swamp. I fished yesterday where I landed 10 altogether and four beauties. Because it's so weedy and I had two of my four bass burrow into the weeds, I upsized my spinning reel, rod, and line last night, going from a 7' rod medium light rod to a 7.5' medium rod and from 8 lb. test to 17 lb. test. I caught 39 fish altogether, but the first 30 were nothing big, save for this one nice fish: I caught those 30 fish on a wacky worm, a fluke, and my Whopper Plopper. Then I hooked this big gal, who was 19.5 inches. Then it started to rain and I had no raincoat, but it was wonderful because it was a dinner bell for the bass. I caught these six, five on the Whopper Plopper and one on a frog in a spot that was more weed than water. The six rain fish were between 16.5 inches and 18 inches. Isn't it strange how different their shapes are? Five are bulgy and one is so streamlined. Now I'm going to rest my hands for a day or two. I've caught 106 bass in the last three mornings and it looks like a litter of needle-toothed beagle pups have been using my hands as chew toys.

Gorgeous smallmouth. It doesn't just have a largemouth's cro-magnon forehead. It's got the bigmouth's big gut too! Mr. Hunter, I turn 66 in three days. Yeah, simple fishing is sweet. I love being the only one on a lake.

When I was a kid, I wanted to catch a bass that was at least 17 inches long. My brothers and I tied our fishing poles to our bikes with kite string and fished farm ponds. In our childhoods, my brothers all caught at least one bass at least 17 inches. I hooked a few, but couldn't land them with my lousy Zebco 606. So, that's what I'd change. I'd go back and buy a decent reel, like a Mitchell 300 reel. And I'd tell myself: "Don't worry, Pumpkin. There are days coming when you'll catch a hundred bass in a day that average 17 inches and your brothers will never tease you again."

^So true.^

That fish would eat my biggest bass! I can't even imagine what it would like to have a beast like that beside my canoe and I've got to net it with one hand and manage the rod with the other, while the bass is pulling my canoe in circles!

Thanks, guys! You are very supportive of an old woman in a canoe pushing through the reeds in the wee hours. Mr. Bricker, they are stout bass! I was thrilled by the thickness of the two biggest. Mr. Hunter, I am soooo reluctant to add more tackle. It's one more thing I'd have to carry through the woods. To fish a frog with a bait caster, I left one spinning rod behind. Plus, I like my fish measuring board, for it both measures and settles the fish for the photo. They don't flop out of it. Weird, huh? I have never caught a spot. I've read about them, their power and ferocity. An old gal can dream. Mr. Shad, I did enjoy the reeds. As I worked my way up the pond, they'd open and close and open again. It felt otherworldly. This afternoon, I scouted a blue, deep, cool smallmouth pond, which looks so different than this morning's marsh, but I'm kind of settling into the salad and slop. I might feel lost with all that water beneath me.

This morning, I fished my tenth pond this summer. I fished a little less than three hours. The pond was really a swamp. The water was clear and it looked like there was 18-24 inches of water, but when I stuck my paddle into the water trying to reach bottom, I realized that there were a couple feet of weeds down there. I caught ten fish, but two were 18.25", one was 19", and one was 20.5". This pond/swamp is right on a major highway. The skinny fish was stunningly strong, turning the canoe and nearly yanking my pole into the water. The two biggest fish hit in open water, but both burrowed into weeds. I felt lucky to land them. I liked paddling through the reeds in the fog. I did try my frog again and triggered a couple monster strikes in heavy cover and I kept my cool and wanted for the fish to engulf the frog, but I failed again. I'll keep trying. Here's a pic that shows you what the "pond" looks like. More reeds than open water.

I should update that. I lived in Wisconsin for 30 years.

I will never forget hailing a boat in northern Minnesota on a foul November day and there we were, bouncing side by side, and he says, "Wanna see my catch?" "Sure," I say. And he opens his live well to reveal two huge walleyes. And then he volunteers, "Everyone thinks I have some secret to land the big girls, but my only secret is to keep fishing long after everyone else has fled inside."

What do you do best? For me, since I fish from a canoe, it's boat control. I can fish in the wind. I can fish current. I can sidle up to bass and they don't know I'm coming. I can follow the contours of a weed bed and or track straight and true across a lake. I've even managed some boat control when I've a rod with a fish at the far end in one hand and a paddle in the other. How 'bout you?

Well, I'll just have to buy another rod. Any brand suggestion? I'd also like a longer handle to lever the rod off my PDF. I also need to seriously calm down when frogging and not react like a Jill-in-the-Box. I just scouted tomorrow morning's pond. It looks great! And I scouted the pond after that too. It looks a little creepy. Very unMainelike. It's a gorge. Dark. Confined. I'll have to work my courage up to it, having seen Deliverance too many times.

For me, the key to catching a lot of fish is fishing for uneducated fish, i.e. fish that haven't seen a lot of lures. I don't fish lakes or ponds with ramps. I do prefer ponds and lakes that require some sweating and grunting to reach. A canoe helps a lot. Being quiet also makes a big difference. However, the biggest difference is simply living in Maine, where there's a lot of water and not a lot of people. I was using a Medium rod with the frog. Was that a mistake? I am also terrible at casting a frog with a baitcaster. I watch the guys on YouTube frogging and they're casting geniuses, casting both far and with pinpoint accuracy. It doesn't help that I'm sitting in a canoe and that I'm old and stiff. Because I can't cast far, when the bass hit, they're just a few feet from me and I reflexively react too soon. P.S. - Thanks, Mr. 46.