22/15

[Swamp Girl]

I launched late for me this morning because I'd flown from Sarasota to Maine yesterday and was tuckered, but I needed to be on an empty lake after the hustle of Florida's Gulf Coast. I caught 22.

 

I landed an 18-incher on my fourth cast to a beaver dam (Thanks again, @Glenn!) using a little, chrome Whopper Plopper. I know Glenn has caught many bass from one dam, but that one bass literally beached me on the dam by pulling my canoe. I couldn't find a pattern after that and caught some here and there, but in the final hour, I located a wolf pack in the middle of the pond and landed three and then found some tight to the pond's north shore, catching another nine. I caught nothing small and even the smaller ones were thick with muscle. See two of the smaller ones here:

 

 

^This^ bass has the build to be BIG one day.

 

My last two were similar in length and even thicker, but my camera was dead at that point. I actually laughed out loud when I landed the last two. They were crazy thick.

 

I caught longer bass too and my five-bass bag was just over 15 pounds, using my length to weight scale. Here are the longer ones:

 

 

I know it's not as a big a bag as @gimruis's nor are any of my bass as big as the ones that @DaubsNU1 and @The Baron have recently landed, but when you've spent two of your last three days in airports and on airplanes and the third day in Sarasota traffic and then you're back on your pond wrasslin' bass, there's nothing sweeter. 

 

Oh, I also caught two smallmouth. Those hippity-hoppity brownies are also fun. Here's one:

 

 

And, of course, I took a pretty pic too!

 

 

My main lure was a Dobyns Beast spinnerbait with a Crush City Mayor in chartreuse and white. Hooray for coming home!

 

[gim]

27 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

I know it's not as a big a bag as @gimruis's

 

[DaubsNU1]

Outstanding work @Swamp Girl!!

[Swamp Girl]

15 hours ago, DaubsNU1 said:

Outstanding work @Swamp Girl!!

 

Thanks, Daubs. It was one of my most gratifying sessions this year because I fished for the first 2.5 hours and only caught ten. I couldn't establish a pattern. One came from a beaver lodge. Another from a mid-lake weedline. Another from a weed-choked stream.* And so on.

 

Then I caught another twelve in the final 1.5 hours, picking up the pace and finding two patterns, the first hitting that mid-lake wolf pack for three bass and the second hitting shoreline notches with my spinnerbait for the last nine. 

 

*The bass from the stream was the most fun because I miscast and hit a woody bush along the stream's edge. I feared it would stick in the branches, but it plunged through and the bass was directly below it, striking immediately. Those close quarters bass fight especially hard. 

[bowhunter63]

Congrats nice haul 

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks, @bowhunter63! I'm fishing again tomorrow morning, but then our weather might shut me down for a week, as everyday, the wind will be double digits and I'd spend more time paddling than catching. Even trolling would be hard. That'll take me to mid-October and there won't be a lot of fishable days after that. Sigh. However, I did catch a LOT of bass in 2024 and I'll use the winter to rest, recover, remember, and smile. 

 

 

[bowhunter63]

Be safe and Rock on 👍

[pdxfisher]

Another great report and beautiful pictures of bass and scenery! Sounds like an awesome day out on the water. You are lucky to be catching them on moving baits. I have been dredging the depths for my fish lately.  What is your water temp? It was 63 out here on Sunday. I am still puzzled why the fish are so deep out here. 

[Swamp Girl]

I don't know my water temp. Sorry.

 

I tried a Ned bait once and caught about 15 bass, but I didn't enjoy it as much as covering water with a moving bait.