On board today, Lt. Col. Richard “The Machine” Comstock (Ret.) for Fly Fishing striped bass.

At first light, dead-calm seas with a wisp of East wind and a rising tide. We found a school of fish right off, up on the flats, chasing bait. First cast of the morning and the Colonel was hooked up. We worked this school of fish until the flats were flooded and the bass moved on. These fish were in 4-12 fow.

Next up, we found a small school of fish, tightly balled on bait, in 74 fow. Every few minutes the bass would drive 5″ inch baitfish to the surface and cut through them for thirty seconds, and then they would go back down. We played the ping-pong game with them for quite a while and landed several fish.

We eventually left that part of the bay and began to fish structure. We picked off a couple of fish 1-2 miles apart. There were not a lot of fish on structure today, but it is always satisfying to hunt for them and to hook up.

The final part of our charter was on the high tide dropping, back up on the flats. We were blind casting over a little drop when a school of striped bass erupted on topwater nearby. We set up several drifts and landed some nice fish.

Total catch and release today was 22 striped bass on the fly. They were cooperative for the most part, but there were not a lot of fish inside the bay, nor was there a lot of bait. With the East wind, bass were also hitting and spitting the flies quite a bit, which is typical on an Eastly. It should also be noted that there are almost no keepers inside the bay so far this season, as was the case last year. All the fish we are catching are fat, healthy, and up to 27″ inches. We have landed only a couple keepers so far this season.

Top flies today were topwater poppers, Baymen Clousers, and Baymen Universals. We caught fish on floating, intermediate and sinking lines. The winds stayed flat all morning and never picked up until we were off the water. A lovely day fly fishing the bay.

Back at it.. STAY POSTED:

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