Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Went to Round Lake again today because it doesn't cost too much to rent a rowboat for the day and I can cover the few good spots in a few hours. As always, I learned a few things like I should have started throwing a popper as soon as I saw the 2nd scared school of panfish (I'm stubborn...).

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And sometimes throwing a creature bait underneath a school of scared panfish will get you a bigger bass than the topwater might get you. ...though the topwater bite at this time is pretty darn fun!

I also went back for the 3rd time after my swamp bass I keep trying to catch. The water is back down about half a foot maybe since all the rain we had. It's still a swamp mess. And the darn swamp bass is still there. I missed the swamp donkey, not once, not twice... but THREE TIMES!!! Loser... ;D

I tried a popper-hollow frog this time and was just about to believe I wasn't going to get bit when the black swamp donkey smacked the frog on the inside edge of the pads near flooded shore! Frog was gone but I think I swung for the fences too fast. I made a couple more casts, and since I use a high speed reel to do this I was ripping the frog back to the boat when my 'primitive mind' told me a little slow (I had cut back on the coffee) that all was not right in the surface movement of the water, and BLAM, the swamp donkey tried to KILL my frog in the last hole in the pads AFTER I had just ripped it off the water surface!!! #$%@#$@%!

This hole was only 3 feet from the side of my boat. My primitive brain said, "DROP THE FROG BACK ON THE HOLE!!" (Yeah, it was yelling... in primitive speak...) while my 'regular' brain was thinking I've blown it again darnit.

Luckily, my primitive brain sometimes operates on its own taking over control of my body without my permission... so I dropped the frog back on the hole. Remember, it was like 3 feet from the side of my rented rowboat. Just as my 'regular brain' is starting to take control back to pull the lure in for another cast Swamp Donkey comes out of the water and down on top of the unlucky frog (or lucky frog I guess depending upon how you look at it!?!)!!! My 'regular brain' and primitive brain fight for response control and I lose... Best way to describe it.

The frog is gone. There's just a hole in the hole in the pads where my frog used to be. I try to lift up the rod to set the hook and see if I can power the Swamp Donkey out of the pads - I'm using the rig to do it anyway - and, I'm blaming regular brain here for getting in the way, I wrap the line around the oar handle and to make a cool story shorter that really only lasted a few seconds anyway... I missed Swamp Donkey. Loser.

Primitive brain tries to recoup and says, "throw your follow up bait!" I consider not listening because of regular brain again... there's no way this bass will hit again after 3 misses and the last one being a bonehead move 3 feet from the boat. I mean... the bass came right out of the water and probably got a real good look at me... but primitive brain is trying to look out for me and picks up the wacky-rigged stick worm dropping it back into the same hole in the pads.

This is a short rod yet I was able to drop the lure straight down just by holding the rod out a little. The stick worm is sinking and then I notice it picks up a little speed... and it starts curving in towards the boat believe it or not...!?! I lift up in regular brain surprise (though not really, these are bass after all and have a tiny brain) hoping in both brains that I'm about to go toe-to-toe on a real short line with a swamp donkey...

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And instead I flip this little mini-swamp bass all black and swampy right into the boat...! Disappointed is the first word that came into at least one of my brains...

Now, I got an honest to goodness real good, close look at the swamp donkey to took my frog down... and this ain't him... ;D Apparently I can only guess this little future swamp donkey was being mentored by the real Swamp Donkey and it was all excited by all the action so when it saw something new fall into the same hole, it ate it. And wallah! I get tricked.

I have to say this kind of fishing is almost always fun and exciting but anticlimactic is probably the word I'm looking for as to how this encounter worked out...

I guess the good news is, Swamp Donkey is still there and I've now had 6 bites in this same little patch of pads. Eventually Swamp Donkey's luck will run out and I will put steel to the bone and come out on top! That's my goal anyway.

Meanwhile, pitching Texas-rigged creatures, worms and tossing poppers to topwater bass isn't too bad of a consolation prize I guess.

I'll be back.