On board today, Baymen Dick Bowman, USMC. Fly fishing for striped bass. Dick has been a regular at Baymen Charters for about twenty years.

At first light, dead-calm, low tide rising, and a wisp of W/NW wind. Water temps in the mid to upper 60’s. Absolutely perfect morning for topwater action in the bay. One problem: there was none. No bird, no bait, and no topwater except for one small school that showed and then vanished.

So, as we have been doing after RECON, we made the switch over to structure fishing only and found some fish. Two spots held enough fish to keep us busy for the morning on the fly. We found a third school of fish that had maybe a dozen bass in it and they would take nothing. The would followed the fly and then turn away. We changed patterns three times and made many, many drifts and then moved on.

It was another hot, humid day on the bay today with air temps close to 90 degrees. The Spring Blitz has been a bust here on our bay this season. Duxbury, Kingston and Plymouth has been dead for topwater bait, bass and birds. Structure fishing has saved the day on many charters. There are still good fish north and south of us. But I have to think it through on why we are not seeing a Spring Blitz in our bay here this season. Bass follow the bait and there has been ZERO bait inside our bay for the most part. And birds need bass to push the bait to the surface so they can catch the bait. No bait means no bass and no bass means no birds. It begs the question: Why…? Why is there no bait this spring? If the bay was filled with bait, I would expect the bass to follow. It is something to ponder. It has to be balanced however, with areas north and south of our bay that have bait, bass, birds and a typical Spring Blitz.

That is the word for today. We worked very hard for 15 fish today, all on structure. The day was beautiful weather that we all dream about and long for. Let’s hope as the season progresses, bait and bass come inside our bay.

Back at it. Stay Posted:

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com 29 Years Guiding The Bay