30 Fish!
On board today I had new client, Kent Sorenson and his friend from Frank, from Germany. At first light, dense high fog the eventually cleared out to a bright, beautiful sunny day!
We found fish right away this morning on the dead low incoming tide. A few birds were working small schools of fish in a few spots around the bay from 34 fow to 8 fow up on the flats. But most fish were hanging in the channels at 15-25 feet.
At one point, we marked a half-dozen really big fish. We set several drifts and never saw them again. Most of the fish today were very healthy, fat schoolies with sea lice. Our best fish was 27″ inches on the fly.
For fly gear we used 8wt and 9wt TFO fly rods, 20 lb straight tippet of 7 feet. Intermediate and sinking lines. For the flies, we fished a Holy Baymen (all white Baymen Universal), a Mike Rice FLC Gray, and a standard olive/white clouser. By far, our best outfit today was the TFO Bob Clouser rod in 9wt, loaded with a 300 Wulf Triangular taper line that shoots like a rocket, 20lb leader and the Clouser fly pattern.
For Light Tackle gear, we used TFO Inshore 7 foot rods (the blue one) in 8-17lb line weight, Okuma spin reels loaded with 30 lb Power Pro braided line, and 20 lb mono leaders. Top lures were the rubber cranks for shallower waters, and my Baymen Jig (made by Jecks Jigs) for deeper waters where fish were hugging the bottom.
Total catch and release today was 30 fish to 27″ inches – double what I was expecting!
Back At It – STAY POSTED.
Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com 30 Years On The Bay With Fly & LT Gear