Greetings from Capt. Dave & BAYMEN!

On board today, regular customer, Baymen Dick Bowman, for fly and light tackle striped bass.

At first light – dead calm and sheet of glass. Water temps 67, a light overcast, and a stunning sunrise. Tide was dead-low incoming.

We passed a few very small schools of fish on the way out and did not stop to investigate. I had my mind on where we were going and we went straight to that spot a couples miles from the dock. Not a single fish on topwater in Spot #1 of the morning! That was quite surprise to me but the morning and the bay felt very “fishy” and I had an idea where the fish might be.

At our second spot of the morning, we pulled into birds, bait and breaking fish and it was GAME ON! Lots of bait (2″-3″ inch silversides) and the bass were thick and working hard to get the bait into a baitball and drive them to the surface. They did a good job and contained the baitball to a quarter square mile area for several hours. This really helped us dial in our drifts and we could predict where the fish were going to be on each drift.

Dick hooked into a bunch of fish, including a fat 30″ incher that peeled line off his reel. It was very exciting fishing! Some of the bass were breaking topwater a few feet from the boat on several drifts. Others stayed a ways out from the boat. These fish were some of the hardest fighting fish of the season and we were amazed at their strength and ability to take line and drag!

Well, after several hours, we decided to explore some other waters and we found small schools of skittish fish under birds sprinkled around the bay. No other big schools seen the rest of the morning. We worked many of these small groups of fish and picked up several more on fly and LT before calling it a great morning on the water.

Total catch and release today was 25 fish, 1 slot keeper of 30″ inches, and many fish in the 26-27 1/2″ inch range that fought like much bigger fish. Several of them took the fly line right into the backing.

Top tackle today? For flies a flashabou peanut bunker, a small topwater popper, and an olive/white clouser. For light tackle a pearl rubber shad, a hardbody topwater popper with flashy bucktail, and Sebile white topwater darter that looks a little like a heddon spook.

That’s the word for today. Big storm coming as I am sure you all know. Many, many anglers hauling out their boats today ahead of the hurricane threat. I hope is misses us, but as they say, better safe than sorry.

Back at it. Lots of fishing ahead of us after the storm passes through. STAY POSTED:

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

Soli Deo Gloria!

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