Greetings from Capt. Dave & BAYMEN!

What a difference a day makes in many ways in life. And what a difference a day can make on the bay! On board today, Chris & Molly DeVillers, two of my long-time regulars. This husband and wife duo are pro level all the way.

As you know, the past few BAYMEN trips have been a little slower than usual. We have had to work hard to find a handful of fish. But today was different. We had a storm overnight and a low pressure system that dropped the air temps and gave us a lot of rain, thunder and lightning. Then it all lifted and the key ingredient was added: A West wind. “West is best, east is least” Today, the West wind was like a switch turned “ON” and fishing was solid.

At first light, a slight chop, a west wind, and a tad chilly. I was back to wearing grundens and wool for the trip out and am glad I did. Water temps inside the bay were 62 degrees. No birds, no topwater, no bait on the surface. We pulled into the first spot of the morning and began fishing structure. Poppers, jigs, rubber crankbaits… WHAM! FISH ON! First drift and we were into striped bass! Molly started the day off with a fine bass over slot that was released. Molly continued the day with a second “Keepah” bass that taped out to under 31″ inches. Then Chris began to hook-up and we started to have several double hook-ups.

At one point, I looked across the bay and saw a MASSIVE explosion on the surface – BIG FISH! We fired up the boat and headed right to the area. First cast – fish on! Second cast, third cast, WHAM! Fish on again. This pattern continued for most of the morning until high tide slack hit and a small low pressure system set in over the bay and the bite shut down. But not before we had an absolute monster bass slam a topwater popper…

This hurts me to tell, but Chris made a perfect cast and a striped bass we all estimated at over 30 pounds slammed the popper and began to scream line off the reel. I got a good look at that fish and the mass of the fish from it’s back to it’s belly was amazing! That fish continued to fight and Chris fought it perfectly, gaining line, letting the fish, gaining line again, letting the fish run…. And then the line went Slack….

You know that sick feeling you get in your stomach when you lose a really good fish? I’m going to be sick the rest of day. But that’s fishing and it was still a thrill to see that big fish hit the topwater popper and send the drag into high soprano.

Total catch and release today was 21 fish for two rods and 4 really nice fish. All boated and released except two slots for the grill that will make the memory of this morning even sweeter.

Back at it. STAY POSTED:

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

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