On board today, I had repeat client and good friend, Richard Comstock, for Day Three of fly fishing for striped bass.

Yesterday afternoon, I spent the evening and had dinner with Richard and his wife, Jamie, at their beach house on the Gurnet. Just a fun time of haninging out and talking hunting and fishing among other things. The highlight of the evening was watching sharks feeding just offshore of Duxbury Beach! One shark looked to be a 22 foot basking shark and it stayed in the area feeding for more than an hour.

After dinner, I headed back to my house and hit the hay. At 4:00am I was back on the bay, trying to beat the dropping -1.5 tide! That is what we call a “drainer” because most of the water leaves the bay and you can walk on the bottom of the ocean! Pretty cool. I got the boat in and tied off at the dock and slept in my truck until sunrise.

Richard and I headed out under overcast skies and a light NE wind. We found birds working bait at first light. Then, as the tide bottomed out and started coming back in, more and more fish came into the bay.

At first, the baits were small minnows maybe two inches long with olive backs. Then, about mid-morning, foot-long herring showed up and the stripers put on a show! For several hours, schools of bass would chase herring to the surface and smash the baits and knock them into the air. Gulls would swoop down and they picked off quite a few. Richard switched over to a top-water popper and hooked up five times. He had at least another fifteen hits and misses as several bass at a time would charge the fly and swipe at it. It was exciting fishing!

My camera of two years stopped working so I could not get any pictures of our trip today. A new one is on order and my future posts will have pics once again.

Total catch today: 33 striped bass, 2 keepers. One was 31″ inches 11lbs, and the other was 28″ inches 8.5lbs.

Not a bad morning with Richard “The Machine” Comstock on a -1.5 tide and a NE wind!

Tight Lines & stay posted:

Capt. Dave, BAYMEN

www.baymenlife.com