Today was a perfect morning on the bay. Not a breath of wind, high tide dropping, and a decent amount of striped bass inside the bay. On board with me today, I had repeat client, Brian Ware for fly fishing only striped bass.

At first light it was flat calm and you could see a fish break a half-mile away. A few birds were working bait but not too many, just enough. Cormorants are here but in small numbers, just like the gulls and the bass. We found fish right away up on the flats. They were spooky and finicky. We landed a few and then moved on to another pod of fish (have not been able to say that in a while!). The shallower the water and the lower the tide, the better the bite. Kyakers dream… But in my skiff that drafts 4-6″ inches of water on the level, we could stay right with the fish.

The sky remained overcast all morning and that helped to hold the fish up on top, in my opinion. Our top fly pattern was my Baymen Universal fly, with a BPS red/white popper as a second choice. But the Baymen Universal was getting the majority of the fish. I tied one pattern without the 3/8 soft prism 3D eyes, and tied in a white saddle hackle instead of the usual bleached white bucktail (see my video on how to tie the Baymen Universal on youtube). The fish slammed it all morning.

Brian is a superb fly caster and easily switched from floating, to sinktip, to intermediate lines in 8wt-10wt as fast as I could hand him a rod. He did not miss a beat all morning. At the end of the trip, he was still casting like he had just stepped on the boat. He never tired out!

We ended the morning with 19 fish landed and released to 26″ inches. Conditions were perfect and the fishing was great.

More to come as the fall run continues. Stay posted:

Capt. Dave
www.baymenlife.com