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Bassin in da Swamp.....
By: Rob Johnson
         After dealing with what seemed to be a never ending supply of wind the entire turkey season, I figured I'd try to do a little bass fishing......
        And, as with the windly weather during the turkey season, there was no lack of it when I decided to go fishing! Ask any fisherman what they hate to deal with the most when it comes to fishing, no doubt, they would say the wind!
          But the desire had been stirred and I knew larger bodies of water like lakes and river were going to be off limits in the thirty mile a hour gusts! That left the bigger bass boat at the house, so I needed to come up with another plan. Then it hit me, I decided to use my pirogue and pull "double duty" by combining a fishing trip with a little scouting for new duck holes in the swamps of Bodcau Wildlife Managment Area.
          After loading the pirogue into the back of my truck, I added a couple rods and a small selection of lures. That selection was based on the fact that I'd be fishing in a place where weeds, sticks and logs abound. Also, there was the limited room that the pirogue allows! Then after everything was secured I headed out on my mid morning "excursion into the swamps.
          As I drove, the wind gusts continually buffeted my truck and bent tree limbs The area I had planned to scout, um.......fish, was the upper end of Duck Dam Road, there was a place I knew I could slide the boat into the water with mininum effort. When I arrived I noticed the Spanish Moss was hanging at a fourty five degree angle from the cypress trucks, but the water barely had a ripply on it!
          Slipping quietly along in a pirgoue using just a paddle is simply a really cool way to fish, no noisy outboards, or trolling motors to deal with, just you and the waterway. When I got close enough to what looked like a place that should hold a bass, I reached down and picked up one of the two spinning rods I had brought. This rig was loaded with Spider Wire line, and had a Snagproof frog tied to the end of it. This has got to be one of the most weedless lures I have ever used, with it's hollow body, skirted "legs" and the two up turned hooks, it was made for fishing this type of water!
         I fired that little rubber frog onto all kinds of mess, grass, tree limbs, you name it, and it always came right through it all. Then I came to a place where the wind had actually done something good for me! It had blown a lot of duckweed into one area making a thick mat that provided great overhead cover,and shade for lurking bass to lay in wait under. Again the frog was cast to a likely looking spot, just past the base of a large cypress tree. I worked it back to me in short hops with the rod tip, as soon as the bait neared the cypress, the water exploded! Duckweed flew in every direction as I leaned back on the rod, driving the hooks into a hefty fish. When I lifted the bass from the water at the side of the boat, I knew I had chosen the right lure, because he had taken it all the way to the back of his mouth! Always a good sign that the fish really wanted your bait!
         Another cast to a log that was floating near the bank was greated with equal aggresion by another hungry large mouth. That one patche of duckweed yielded four bass that were alomost identical! Then it was time to put the paddle back to work, and move on down the bayou, as i did, I continued to cast that little frog into harms way. With in just a few more casts, the medium action spinning rod was again doubled over from the weight of a good fish. The action was not fast and furious, but was steady, even to the point that you could actually "call" your shots, I mean fish!
         So keep this in mind......when you want to try something different, and the winds are to hard to fish open water. Load up a small boat and head to the swamp or backwaters, bring a few lures, some strong line, and a good paddle. What you will usually find is a under fished bass bonanza that will raise your blood pressure! be sure to bring a camera to capture the quiet beauty of the swamps, and the critters that live there! Heck, you may even see me slipping around out there!