On board today, regulars Chris & Molly DeVillers for light tackle striped bass.

After the Noreaster, I was wondnering if there would be any more fish in our bay. Typically, a hard NE blow for many days in the fall can end the season early inside. But today, there were lots of bass from the harbor to the power plant and beyond.

At first light, we got into a nice couple of pods of bass half-way across the bay. Some birds were working the fish, but lots of fish had not bird activity around them. The bass shoulder to shoulder for minutes at a time as they pushed the baitballs of peanut bunker to the surface.

Our next stop was a recon trip to search for more fish. Some parts of the bay were void of bait, birds and bass. Other parts held lots of fish. We did find a nice pod of small fish at Bug Light. From there we ran to Gurnet and got into numerous pods of bass up to two-hundred yards across.

All the fish today were rolling in typically fall migration feeding pattern. They were all pushing south and moving at a good clip and you had to work to stay ahead of the pods. They were finicky and a tad boat shy, but if you kept at it you would get your fish. Lots of small schoolies today with a handful of big bass. A few looked to be 36″-40″inches but hard to catch in the middle of hundreds of smaller fish. We did get one keeper that went home with the anglers.

Total catch and release today: 108 striped bass, 1 keeper, all on LT rubber crank baits. No blues in sight. 108 is Chris & Molly’s best morning with me to date. At the end of the season, I will tally up our season numbers and the number of days we boated over 100 fish. This year, we had quite a few days with big catch and release numbers that we have not seen in many years. Remember 2020: All these fish we are getting are coming back as keepers and I am predicting a very, very good season that year…

Tight Lines & Stay Posted. I am fishing into the the first week of October.

Capt. Dave
www.baymenlife.com