Swamp Girl

I haven't, but I will. Bounce 'em off the bottom?

A part of me is tempted to transplant some gobies to some smallmouth lakes in northwestern Ontario. The smallmouth also aren't indigenous. I won't do it, but I would love to have a Dwight-sized pic or two and even better if I were in a canoe! I fish a lot of leeches in Canada. I'll begin and end a day with surface baits, but when they stop hitting the surface baits, they'll keep hitting leeches. Nightcrawlers can turn to mush up there if there's a hot spell, but I can leave those leeches out of the water for an hour by oversight and they'll be fine.

I wish you were closer. We could fish together and you could teach me some things about plastic, which wouldn't be hard, since I know nearly nothing.

You could also move the seat the center. It will require four more holes in your gunwales and purchasing a new seat, but if you go solo, it could make your paddling easier.

I fish wilderness lakes in Canada, where it's rare to see another canoe, so there are few small fish because fish aren't being caught and kept and there are few big fish, because the summers are short and the winters long. An average smallmouth is 16.5 inches, which some of you would consider small, but I love 'em. If I had to choose between one monster on Lake Erie or a typical hundred bass day in Canada, I'd take Lake Erie for ONE day and spend the rest of my days catching those 15 to 20 inch-bass.

@ The one that got away Nice looking rig. My canoe is just a banged-up Bell Kevlar with no tricks and even then, it's hard to carry through the bush .

I prefer the canoe. Motors need batteries and batteries need charging and motors won't always start and to even get your boat into the water, you need a ramp. Best of all, my canoe reaches lakes that no boat with a motor can reach unless you're willing to drop a couple thousand to hire an Otter to drop you on that lake. I like to fish for stupid fish because you catch a lot more of them and the canoe takes me to stupid fish, thus I prefer it.

I wish I were like Nitrofreak and was competent fishing deep water. My strenght might be my stealthiness. I fish out of a canoe and there's no sneakier boat. I've caught smallmouth in two feet of water when my boat was right beside them. I've even put felt on my gunwales so that when I set my paddle down, it makes little noise.

You're the fishin' Cool Hand Luke. Good for you. I emote and I wish I were like you.

This is easy: plastics. I don't like them, so other than tossing a wacky Senko at a bass that's blown up on a surface lure, I don't use plastics and because I don't use them, I don't know how to use them. Plus, I can be slow to adapt. If I caught bass in a certain place last month, I might return to that spot for three or four days catching few fish before I concede they're gone.

I live in Eau Claire, but apart from fishing the Wisconsin River some for smallmouth, Chequamegon Bay once, and Lake Pepin for white bass, I have done little fishing in Wisconsin. I fish northwestern Ontario, where I often catch a fish on the first cast when I reach a new lake. I'm so spoiled by that degree of consistency. A hundred fish per person per day is ordinary up there.

Your pics suggest you're always in mega-smallmouth mode. I bet when your fish regurgitate what they've just eaten, you see things like Godzilla and the Kraken.

This is a good thread. Thanks for starting it. I'm not a sophisticated fisher. I use two primary tactics to best bass. The first is a split shot above a bait hook with a leech over the side of a canoe. That has caught thousands of bass. The second is an F13 Rapala, which allows me to cast farther, but still finesse. I fished with an outdoor writer last fall and he thought me kooky for twitching such a long lure for smallmouth, but he soon switched when he saw me catching bass that didn't care about the size of bait, but were beyond his reach.

You're right about this. From time to time, I'll sling a topwater bait out into the open, blue yonder and triggered an eruption.

They may build the Death Star, but the force is strong in me and I will destroy it.

You did the right thing. I like how poachers in Wisconsin have their names published.

Yes, the world is about to end and I planned accordingly. I dug a big hole and filled it with Twinkies. It's a foolproof plan because those puppies last forever. Plus, now that Twinkies are as rare as gold, I can eat them and use them for barter too, trading them for only other things that will survive the coming apocalypse, like Ding-Dongs and cockroaches. Why cockroaches? Protein and some textural crunch!

I go old school and just use a hair jig. When white bass are hitting the surface, I like to catch them three at a time, so I hook two with minnows and then cast my jig. I'd fish three minnows, but they're more likely to tangle.

Wow!

@ fishking I read this thread and reflected on it and this line stuck: "she quit that because it was too hard for her." I don't think most people change. Good people remain good people. Hard workers keep working hard. If anything, we become more of what we were. For example, a bad person might become evil. If your ex were to become the mother of your children, since she's a quitter, the lesson she would impart to your children would be to quit when it was hard. Long after lust dies, you want to be partnered with someone you admire. Kurt Vonnegut, the writer, wrote about a fight with his wife. She said, in anger, "I don't even like you." He asked, in the calm of rationality, "Do you still respect me?" She nodded and he said, "Then we'll be okay." I couldn't respect someone who quits, someone who fails and doesn't rise to begin again. If you're not a quitter and if you're a hard worker, then find your peer.

I am so impressed by the Great Lakes and wish I were close enough and had a big enough boat to boat some bass like that.

Cool tool. How do you think it would perform on the rocky terrain of the Canadian Shield?

I read at another website that a size 4 hook works well with wacky-rigged Senko. What do you guys think?

I hear ya, georgeyew. It is overwhelming, which is why I sometimes settle for a leech, a splitshot, and a hook, which, by the way, catches a LOT of bass.

My job puts me in front of oodles of people. Fishing puts me in front of trees and reeds and fish. It's the rebalancing.