Alewife-fattened Bass

[Swamp Girl]

58 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

Get some of these Berkley Fusion 19 weedless wacky hooks and throw those worms anywhere you want. I like the 1/0 size. The fluoro weedguard is very effective and durable.

 

I'll order some tonight. Thanks, Tim!

[pdxfisher]

Now that is a day and a half! If those fish get any bigger they are going to pull your canoe under like a bobber

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Great job Katie!  Beautiful fish and beautiful location!  

[flatcreek]

Nice haul!

[Swamp Girl]

7 hours ago, Fishingmickey said:

Very nice, Katy! I'm counting down the four weeks for my Maine fishing adventure.

Fishingmickey

 

You'll be fishing the China Lake area, right? I just happened upon Beech Pond, which is in that area. It's got smallmouth and maybe largemouth. You'd need to carry a canoe about 25 yards and it's right off Hwy. 3. If you fish it, let me know how you did. It looked great to me. 

[GRiver]

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful….. seems like you had a great day on the water. I mean besides the reel that gave up the ghost, cracked rod and hooked.

You’ve been slamming it here lately.

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, GRiver said:

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful….. seems like you had a great day on the water. I mean besides the reel that gave up the ghost, cracked rod and hooked.

You’ve been slamming it here lately.

 

I think the bulk of my gear needs to be replaced. I bought most of the reels and rods I used 40 years ago and they've caught thousands of fish. They're understandably pooped!

 

I do have a new custom rod, AN AMAZING, GORGEOUS GIFT, paired with a Shimano Bantam XG that I'll be using soon, but I'm thinking some of my spinning reels and rods have had a long, wonderful run and need to be put out to pasture.

 

I further think that bog fishing takes a much greater toll on gear than fishing the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers, Lakes Superior and Michigan, and the wilderness lakes of northwestern Ontario. The bog bass are heavy and surly and the weeds are heavier. No wonder my rod cracked. 

 

As far as slamming it, much of the credit goes to the BR Braintrust (TM).

 

I remember fishing my first bog last year and thinking, "HUH? How do you do this???" 

 

So, I started asking questions and applying what you guys shared. I'm going fishing again tomorrow morning.

 

12 hours ago, pdxfisher said:

Now that is a day and a half! If those fish get any bigger they are going to pull your canoe under like a bobber

 

Ha! 

 

12 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Great job Katie!  Beautiful fish and beautiful location!  

 

Thanks, Alex. It is a pretty place. Once you reach the lake portion of it, the shorelines are lined with massive white pines. 

[Will Ketchum]

Nice fish plus nice waters. The creek photo looks like tannic acid waters like some places in the Pocono Mountains here in PA.

[Swamp Girl]

3 minutes ago, Will Ketchum said:

Nice fish plus nice waters. The creek photo looks like tannic acid waters like some places in the Pocono Mountains here in PA.

 

It's like fishing tea! I should bring a tea cup and enjoy a sip.

[Fishingmickey]

11 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

You'll be fishing the China Lake area, right? I just happened upon Beech Pond, which is in that area. It's got smallmouth and maybe largemouth. You'd need to carry a canoe about 25 yards and it's right off Hwy. 3. If you fish it, let me know how you did. It looked great to me. 

Hi Crickety,

     We've got a cabin rented for three nights and I'll probably be renting a Bass Tracker from Maine boat rentals for those three days. So most of my Maine fishing will be on China Lake. I've had pretty good luck there in past trips. 25-30 fish day's mostly largemouth with a few smallies and pike thrown in.

FM

[Swamp Girl]

17 minutes ago, Fishingmickey said:

Hi Crickety,

     We've got a cabin rented for three nights and I'll probably be renting a Bass Tracker from Maine boat rentals for those three days. So most of my Maine fishing will be on China Lake. I've had pretty good luck there in past trips. 25-30 fish day's mostly largemouth with a few smallies and pike thrown in.

FM

 

 

I hope you have a great trip! I've read good things about China Lake. I won't fish it because my slender canoe can't compete with bass boats with electronics. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

19 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I am not a Wacky worm fan at all.

But I keep waiting for you to get on the Z-Man Jackhammer Train.

Some of those places seem 'tailor-made' for it. 

All Aboard !

A-Jay

Beautiful Picture! My dad made this. Nothing stirs my heart more than a steam engine and memories of dad.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

8 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

 

Thanks, Alex. It is a pretty place. Once you reach the lake portion of it, the shorelines are lined with massive white pines. 

Everybody associates a thing with a particular state......Wisconsin and cheese for example.   

Never knew much about Maine before meeting you, and still don't, but forever and always the first thing I'll think of whenever I see Maine mentioned is Katie and her fat Green Tunas ?

[TnRiver46]

19 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Everybody associates a thing with a particular state......Wisconsin and cheese for example.   

Never knew much about Maine before meeting you, and still don't, but forever and always the first thing I'll think of whenever I see Maine mentioned is Katie and her fat Green Tunas ?

And lobster 

 

But the green tuna is way cooler 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Everybody associates a thing with a particular state......Wisconsin and cheese for example.   

Never knew much about Maine before meeting you, and still don't, but forever and always the first thing I'll think of whenever I see Maine mentioned is Katie and her fat Green Tunas ?

 

I'm taking a bluegill swimbait tomorrow. I can't remember what it's called, but it's big honker. I think it's the perfect size for those bog bass. 

 

Say, a story I didn't share about yesterday's bog is I was retrieving a Whopper Plopper parallel to weeds and I saw a big V come out of the weeds and CLOBBER the lure. Setting the hook felt like I was trying to drive the hooks into a cement wall. The fish responded and my line parted. There are big pickerel in this bog, so between the V and the line parting, I thought it was a pickerel, for that's their M.O., but now I'm thinking otherwise. I'm thinking it was a Cane toad, the Mother Bass. Pic below:

 

 

 

So, I put new hooks on today, oiled my reels, retied all my lines, and changed the line on two reels. And I've got monster lures on my reels, from the BIG Whopper Ploppers to 10" worms to the swimbait. Fingers crossed!

[12poundbass]

Well done! You’ve got some monster bass up there.

[Swamp Girl]

4 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

Well done! You’ve got some monster bass up there.

 

Thanks! It's looking like the planets will align Monday morning: low wind, a hot Sunday with warm nighttime temps sandwiched between two cold fronts. I'm going to launch at four a.m., paddle through the bog, and then paddle another two miles of pond to reach the inlet, where the current will be strong after weeks of rain. On the way, I'll troll either a Whopper Plopper or crankbait. There's nothing like hearing that splash behind me when trolling a surface lure.  

[T-Billy]

On 8/16/2023 at 8:26 AM, ol'crickety said:

 

It's like fishing tea! I should bring a tea cup and enjoy a sip.

Ah yes.... There's nothing quite like a nice refreshing cup of BEAVER FEVER!!! ?

[Alex from GA]

Love your stories and admire the fish.  BTW what's a bog?

[Swamp Girl]

@Alex from GA:

 

What most people call swamps, Mainers call bogs. So, it's water that's a foot to six feet deep with a lot of weeds. Usually the bottom two feet is grass that's my bane, for the bass dive into it and frequently free themselves.