I am consistent.

[Swamp Girl]

Here are my bass totals for my last four trips: 25, 20, 22, and 19 this morning. A significant drop from my 35/45/55 totals in late May, June, and early July, but still plenty of fun. Yeah, I'm consistent.

 

I am amazed at the thickness of the 16 to 17 inch bass. That class of bass is feeding so heavily. See? She looks like she'll explode if she eats another shiner, but that's what she was trying to do in eating my popper.

 

 

I caught 17 of the bass on a Yo-Zuri popper, to which I'd added red trebles and an extra split ring. I caught the other two on spinnerbaits. I hooked a lot of the Yo-Zuri bass in four to five feet of water abutting shallow water.

 

My landing percentage is MUCH improved from earlier in the year thanks to three changes:

 

5/0 instead of 3/0 underspins

 

Not flipping my rod right to left or left to right in mid-fight. I keep it on the side where I hooked my bass.

 

A focus on my mechanics as I'm fighting the fish.

 

I land at least 80% of my bass now and many mornings, 90%. And I land pretty much every four-plus-pounder I hook. I cant remember the last time I lost a big gal.

 

Here are some of my longer fish:

 

 

I caught my biggest bass about a foot from a shady shore on a sunny morning. It was a rocky bottom, so I was expecting a smallie. 

 

 

According to my length to weight chart, it was a 16.31 five-bass bag.

 

And here's my pretty pic! It's calm in this pic, but the wind sure picked up and gave me quite a workout. However, the bass still kept hitting my little popper in the chop.

 

 

As always, thanks for going fishing with me!

 

 

[gim]

Whats the water temp up there these days crick?

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Whats the water temp up there these days crick?

 

@pdxfisher (John) asked me the same thing. I do have a thermometer. I'll have to take it with me next time and see. It's not warm to my touch. 

[bp_fowler]

Nice Quasimodo bass!

[Swamp Girl]

20 minutes ago, bp_fowler said:

Nice Quasimodo bass!

 

I love bass with hunchbacks, but my favorite look would be the first one, where they look like they're about to pop. 

 

[Swamp Girl]

Usually when I launch, I'll find the lure that works best that trip, but this time, I wanted to catch them on my popper and only cast that. I caught my two spinnerbait bass paddling to a new location and trolling them because I can't troll a popper. When the clouds cleared and the Sun was high, I stuck with the popper even though I knew it wasn't my best choice, but it still caught bass, even the 19.25-incher. It's a little lure and it was weird seeing its tiny hooks in that big girl's thick jaw.

[pdxfisher]

Great report! I tried a popper for a while on my last trip but never had a sniff. I am sure there must be some fish up shallow but all my bites and fish came out of 15 to 30 feet. 

 

That last picture looks so peaceful and serene, just beautiful. 

[GreenPig]

Very nice!

[Swamp Girl]

9 hours ago, pdxfisher said:

Great report! I tried a popper for a while on my last trip but never had a sniff. I am sure there must be some fish up shallow but all my bites and fish came out of 15 to 30 feet. 

 

That last picture looks so peaceful and serene, just beautiful. 

 

I actually had some company on the lake and both the canoe and kayak set up near me. I chatted them with them and all three were from California, renting an Airbnb on the pond. I'm guessing they figured the old local gal knew where to fish, so they'd fish there too. Of course, knowing where to fish and catching fish are two different things: I caught three bass and they caught none and moved on.

 

Calling a bass up from 15 to 30 feet would be quite a trick. I was stretching the limit at five feet of water.

[pdxfisher]

4 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

I actually had some company on the lake and both the canoe and kayak set up near me. I chatted them with them and all three were from California, renting an Airbnb on the pond. I'm guessing they figured the old local gal knew where to fish, so they'd fish there too. Of course, knowing where to fish and catching fish are two different things: I caught three bass and they caught none and moved on.

 

Calling a bass up from 15 to 30 feet would be quite a trick. I was stretching the limit at five feet of water.

 

When I am throwing topwater I am fishing shallow (just have not seen any shallow bass lately). Fishing deep is just slowly dragging a wobblehead jig around the deep rockpiles. The only tricky thing for folks like us is keeping our boats on top of the structure in the middle of a wind blown river. There are times I lust after spot lock - but I would not want to make it too easy

[Swamp Girl]

2 hours ago, pdxfisher said:

 

When I am throwing topwater I am fishing shallow (just have not seen any shallow bass lately). Fishing deep is just slowly dragging a wobblehead jig around the deep rockpiles. The only tricky thing for folks like us is keeping our boats on top of the structure in the middle of a wind blown river. There are times I lust after spot lock - but I would not want to make it too easy

 

I dream of SpotLock, but it will always be a dream. Too expensive and way too heavy!

[TnRiver46]

29 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

I dream of SpotLock, but it will always be a dream. Too expensive and way too heavy!

I use spot lock in my canoe sometimes, costs less than a whopper plopper. it’s only about 3 lbs but you need lots of rope if the current is strong 

[Swamp Girl]

Old Lady Angler of YouTube recorded the water temp at 61 degrees a week ago. Our cold nights have certainly chilled it since then. 

[gim]

16 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

Old Lady Angler of YouTube recorded the water temp at 61 degrees a week ago. Our cold nights have certainly chilled it since then. 

 

Water temps are a critical detail for me in the spring and the fall.

[Swamp Girl]

20 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

Water temps are a critical detail for me in the spring and the fall.

 

I'm fishing Sunday morning and will take my thermometer and let you know. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

On 10/9/2024 at 11:46 AM, Swamp Girl said:

As always, thanks for going fishing with me!

Thanks for taking us. It is more important than I can express!

[Swamp Girl]

2 hours ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Thanks for taking us. It is more important than I can express!

 

Here's hoping that we fish together one day for real.