10 Hard-Earned Fish
On board today, Lt. Col. Richard “The Machine” Comstock for Fly or Die Striped Bass DAY 3: And it is the Colonel’s birthday!
At first light, overcast, winds NNE light and water temps 66 degrees. Bait packed into the harbor and a few fish busting through them at the docks.
We ran to where yesterday’s huge school of bass were and today they were there but the numbers were about half. Still spooky, still avoiding the sound or sight of the boat at 70 yards away. But we got on them and Richard landed a fish on a topwater popper. We worked the school until they began to thin out and decided to try and find some other fish around the bay.
We ran to Browns Bank to search for fish that we found up there yesterday. Ghost town! Then we ran down toward’s Burts chasing the rumor fish. Zip! We came back into Plymouth flats and found some fish and landed a couple on a Baymen Universal. But these fish were the portent to the rest of the morning: We would spot a school of bass, set a drift and they would vanish within 30 seconds or so. We would find another school, set a drift and they would vanish in 30 seconds. Some fish would reappear within five minutes a few hundred yards away and we would get upwind and uptide and set a drift and they would vanish or give us one cast/one fish and be gone. This was the pattern for most of the morning. Two hours after sunrise, there was no birds, bait or bass working topwater in the bay. It was tough fishing.
Then, towards the end of the trip, we found a big school of bass tight to shore with loads of birds working over them. I thought this was going to be IT and we would really get into them. I was wrong. We got into them for sure, but they would take nothing. We managed a fish or two, but I was thinking it would be a fish on every cast. They were that stacked up.
So, we finally called it a great, beautiful tough morning of fishing and headed for home. My guess is the ENE winds yesterday and today had a negative effect on the fish and pushed them out of our bays. Everywhere there should of been fish was void of bait and bass. The spots that did hold bait and bass were ULTRA selective and at times ULTRA spooky.
But we didn’t get skunked and the Colonel caught and released 9 fish with a lot of hard work and non-stop stellar casting with poppers, Mike Rice patterns, and my Baymen Universal which accounted for most of the fish again today as yesterday and many days this season.
So, all in all, it was indeed a great day and it was great to be on the bay with “The Machine.”
POST SCRIPT: I was walking Big Dog on the beach this evening and I had my 8 wt Axion II with me rigged with a Baymen Universal – just in case. Well, wouldn’t you know it, a school of bass pushed bait right up to the shore and I cast to them and landed one fish that gave me a heck of a fight. And then they vanished.
Back at it. STAY POSTED:
Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com Fly Fishing & Light Tackle Striped Bass On The Massachusetts Coast. 30 Years Guiding The Bay. Now Booking 2023 & 2024 Seasons. Don’t Wait – dates go quickly…