Greetings from Capt. Dave & BAYMEN.

On board today a blast from the past. Larry Pietraszek and Dave Peterman who I have not seen in close to twenty years! So nice to have them on board for fly and LT striped bass – and they brought me muffins! Spoiled Captain.

At first light, a high tide dropping. Water temps 58-62 degrees around the bay. Sunny with a cool, light north wind that swung west, touched SW, and then settled back to NW. Bay was near calm all morning.

We made a longer run than usual to start the day’s fishing and it paid off big time. We found a lot of striped bass up on the flats on the dropping tide. A nice mix of fish with some 18″ inchers to fat keepers and one over slot keeper to 13lbs. A blast in 3 fow on light tackle!

As the tide pushed us and the fish off the flats, we ran to spot #2 of the morning. A couple fish but not what I was expecting. Boat traffic may have put down any holding fish so we moved on.

Spot #3 – STACKED! Striped bass were pouring off the flats and leaving the bay and we were right at the gauntlet! Wave after wave of fish came down the guzzle in 3-7 fow and slammed our topwater Intent Tackle Poppers (thank you Dick Bowman!). Dave could not take it any more and switched out to his 9 wt fly rod and white clouser and hooked into many fish giving him some great fights on the fly. I don’t know how many drifts we got out of this spot but I would guess at least ten and we got fish on every single drift.

As the tide began to bottom out, the fish began to thin out as they left the bay, most likely heading north. Worth noting is 3-4 MASSIVE expolsions on the water today, leaving wakes and boils seven feet across!!! Huge striped bass? Sharks? We don’t know. We never saw the fish only heard the explosive breaks and saw the massive boils.If they were striped bass, they were monsters!!!

Vintage BAYMEN! Dave wore a Baymen hat from 20 years ago. Cool! A few of these still around.

Total catch and release today was 19 fish, 3 keepers to 13 pounds. Fine fish all morning on fly and light tackle. What a great reunion with Larry and Dave after twenty years!

I am off for the weekend. Wishing everyone heading out great fishing. Winds are going to be light and variable and the bite should stay on.

Tight Lines & Stay Posted:

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, baymenlife.com 31 Years Guiding The Bay. Still In Love.

Soli Deo Gloria!

NOTE: I will post  some great pics from today’s trip soon… Replacing my mouse today that is on the fritz!