Swamp Girl

I am a broken bass fishing machine! I just took this pic outside my front door and I know if I went fishing today, I'd be skunked:

I know, huh?! I retrieved a Jitterbug over the heads of countless north country smallies and not one ever hit it.

Thank you, Brian, for going fishing, catching some bass, and posting some pics. I feel so far from fishing, as it was six below this morning, plus it snowed yesterday and is snowing again tonight and is supposed to snow some more tomorrow night. It helps to know that someone somewhere is still catching bass and I'm glad it's you. I did order some lures from Mike Siebert (siebertoutdoors.com) and I'm excited to try those when the ice does melt, both spinnerbaits and blade baits. When I do catch bass with Mike's lures, I'll let you guys know!

I have a couple Shimanos that I've used for 40 years.

@The Rooster: Thanks for the photo of your dad. It's great.

They are fat. One after another after another are footballs. Just not long, topping out at about 18.5", but I did have one hit that moved so much water that I'm thinking the pond might hold a kraken or two. My problem is that I'm not a fan of eating bass. I'm spoiled by walleye and yellow perch. I invite others to keep bass, but I don't think that's happening...much. I suppose I could keep some to fertilize my garden. I think Native Americans did that.

@Pat Brown: Would you classify the 169-acre pond where I own property as little and in need of culling or big and just fine on its own?

Do tell! When someone has caught a bass bigger than 13 pounds, I'm all ears.

Like Tom, I only use Daiwa and Shimano, but when I was younger, I also used Mitchell, D.A.M. Quick, Abu Garcia, Zebco, etc. Not me. I trust Shimano and Daiwa and just buy one on sale.

@Glenn: "You don't need a bass boat to catch bass. You don't need electronics to catch bass." Swamp Girl: "Yup." Swamp Girl's P. S.: "When I arose this morning, it was six below. I do need a little heat to catch bass."

To be clear, my hair is always a mess, so attributing it to my 70 mph hitchhiking ride is hasty and might not be prudent.

One wicked cool thing about bass fishing is that I'm on edge of a continent and you're in the middle, I'm surrounded by trees and you're surrounded by corn, I smell salt in the air and you smell hay, but we fish, more or less, the same way. We both bounce down dirt roads with little boats and launch where there are no ramps and few other anglers.

@T-Billy: I just want to be sure: By blade bait, you mean a chatterbaits, right? If so, @Siebert Outdoors is making me five of them, as well as spinnerbaits in the colors he suggested. That is comforting.

Is it largely casting and retrieving? I can't imagine bumping a jig on the bottom because a lot of Maine's lakes have jagged boulders on the bottom, boulders as big as cars or buses. I can see the big rocks on sunny days.

I too love swimbaits and spinnerbaits. And I've caught them with lizards. But jigs still intimidate me. I've caught a LOT of walleyes with jigs, but with walleyes, of course, you jig a jig and so I really don't know how to catch bass with a jig without jigging. I am so open to a little direction.

I used them on Ohio farm ponds to catch lmbs as a kid and tried them in northwestern Ontario, but never caught a smallie up north on one. I have yet to try one in Maine. I should and can because I own some.

I will never forget the first time I walked into the Art Institute. I felt like I was walking into an art history book, "The World's Greatest Paintings." And walking downtown feels like I'm walking into a book titled "The World's Greatest Buildings." Then there's the food! And the blues and jazz clubs. And the lake. And....

If I were you, I'd fish Iowa's rivers, streams, and farm ponds. Is the Mississippi within reach? That's a fish factory. I Googled Pond Prowler and it looks like a real comfy way to fish. I'd like the high seat. It's hard casting from the low seat of a canoe.

It's great to hear from someone who has actually lived there and lives there still.

I carry two to six rods, all spinning, but that might change in 2025 as I'm thinking of adding a casting outfit or two to the mix. I carried just two rods if I'm fishing my pond for an hour or an hour and a half in the evening, where a canoe, paddles, and net await me. I have tried a couple soft-sided tacklebags with Plano utility boxes inside. I did not like those. When I return from a fishing trip, I usually remembered to open all the utility boxes to let them dry, but not always and I lost some hooks to rust. So, for 2025, I'm trying an old-fashioned hard tacklebox with two trays like a kid 50 years ago might have owned. Instead of removing and opening all the utility boxes, I'll just have to open the lid. If a canoe is already at a pond, I carry all my gear in one trip, with the rods in one hand and my tacklebox in the other. I strap wheels to my canoe at one pond and just load all my gear into the canoe and pull it. The water's a long walk from my car at that pond, thus the wheels. If I can't use the wheels, it takes multiple trips to carry the canoe, net, paddles, and fishing gear to the water, which is a lot of work, but sometimes bass like these await me: I do retie and change my lures before each trip, depending upon where I'm going and the weather will be. I rarely retire during a trip.

Ebay. There are many old catalogs for sale. I'm thinking about framing it and adding it to my collection of old fishing mags. Here are two of the old fishing mags. All the old fishing mags that I collected have canoes, female anglers, or both on the covers and some are more than 100 years old. I have a couple old fishing signs too (99.9% of the "old" fishing signs for sale are replicas.): Alex was also surprised by how vivid the colors are. I expect it's because it's sat in an attic or box for decades.

@TheSwearingAngler: I thought your fat bass was one of @Bluebasser86's Kansas hogs.

I wish I could place an order and pay 1937 prices. The cover makes me laugh, since they're pushing fishing as a way to stay fit, but 1937 was a time when many anglers were rowing boats, which does take muscle.

I bought a 1937 South Bend fishing catalog. Oh, how times have changed. The catalog is a hybrid of a book about fishing, as it shares info about different species, a fishing magazine, as it has articles about fishing, and a catalog. Here is the cover and four pages. I like how they put the species beneath their lures that the lures might attract. There are pages showing rods and reels too and photos of big, recent catches. If you'd like me to share anything I just mentioned, let me know and I'll photograph and post those pages.