12 Fish
On board today, I had repeat client Jack Manley, and his son and grandsons (Luke & Jack ages 6 and 8) for light tackle striped bass.
At first light, we had flat-calm seas, a rising tide, and thick, dense fog rolling into most of the bay. There was no bait outside the harbor and no fish to speak of around the bay. What to do? Pick our way through the fog and search for solo bass holding on structure and cruising the flats!
First stop of the morning, we fished a flat and drop-off that has been producing well my last few trips (see previous posts). Nada a bump. On to our second spot of the morning called Willy-Willets that was free of fog. I told the boys if we landed a bass there today, I would re-name the spot “Luke & Jack’s Place.” No luck so Willy-Willets is safe for now…
Next, we picked our way very slowly across the bay to one of my channel spots and we found our first fish of the morning. But the fog was thick, a large Bertram-type boat was trolling through it past us, and we decided to leave and cut across the bay (very slowly) and fish a structure spot. We fired up some fish with a topwater pencil popper and the boys hooked and landed a couple of fat schoolies.
As some of the fog started to lift way up inside the bay along shore, we motored over and set some drifts past structure. Bingo! A couple more fish landed and released, one of them 26″ inches. As we started to leave, a school of small bass pushed bait against the shore, almost into the grass. We zipped over and set a few drifts and landed a few more fish. The boys were having fun, getting the hang of casting light tackle on spin reels, and fighting and landing some healthy-looking schoolies.
Next stop was along Standish Shore by default. More dense fog rolled into the bay and it was just too slow going, and a little dangerous with other boats motoring around, to cut across the bay again. We pulled up into a nice, fog-free cove and found a small school of bass under some birds, busting bait. We landed and released several more striped bass, all shorts. As we headed back to harbor, I really wanted to find a keeper for this crew. We stopped at four more spots on the way in and fished guzzles, cuts and drop-offs without a bump.
Total catch and release today was a dozen fish on light tackle. The fog took away our visibility and made for slow going. The gentle East breeze had cleared almost all bait and bass outside of the bay and what bait we did find did not have a single bass on it. We did not mark any fish on sonar the entire morning. But the boys fished hard, non-stop, and caught what fish there were inside the bay. It was a fun and educational morning getting use to LT gear and fighting and landing fish. They boys also learned a couple new words from somebody on the boat, and enjoyed using them in conversation. One of new words was “Shark Bait” that refers to paddle boarders and kayakers. But I don’t know who they heard that from.
Back at it. Stay posted:
Capt. David Bitters
www.baymenlife.com
Book your 2019 Charters Before August 15th, get the dates you want and save BIG.