On board today, I had repeat angler, Bill Brett, filling in for regular, Billy Tedeschi, for light tackle striped bass.

A lovely flat bay, overcast skies and a rising tide this morning. Several small schools of bass scattered around the bay from Duxbury to Kingston to Plymouth waters. We never saw the bait, so it had to be small. I am guessing the same 1-2″ slim, silver minnow with a dark olive back that we have seen on previous trips.

We started out with rubber cranks in 4″ and also Fin-S weighted with 3/4 oz jig heads. The bass hit them all but the Fin-S seemed to have the advantage over the rubber cranks. Later in the morning, we switched over to all topwater poppers and did well. Some of those fish began busting topwater again when clouds came over the bay and blocked out the sun. Others were hanging on structure in very shallow water and came up from the bottom to hit the poppers.

Top poppers today were Spooks in bone color and Cotton Cordell in Red/White with a custom tied white bucktail off the rear hook. I crimp the barbs on the my treble hooks. Just remember – if you slack, you lose! We dropped a few fish but landed almost all of them. One bass in particular threw the hook at the boat and looked to be 28″ -30″ inches. Other fish gave amazing fights and took drag but were FAT, aggressive schoolies to 25″ inches or so. Great fun on light tackle!

Total catch and release today was 37 striped all on LT, most on top-water poppers.

Back at it. STAY POSTED!

Sincerely,

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, baymenlife.com,

#yobilly