Greetings from Capt. Dave & Baymen Guide Service, Inc.!

After 9 days of NE/E winds and big seas, we were finally able to get on the bay today with repeat Michigan Client, Dr. Ray Hutchinson, MD., for Fly Fishing striped bass. At first light, overcast skies, water temps 62 degrees, near high tide, and winds SE and choppy.

I had scouted yesterday evening and found a handful of fish and we cut across the bay to see if they were still there today. They were not where I found them yesterday but there were a couple of new schools of fish working bait along with the terns and cormorants. Small, very fast moving schools holding tight together, feeding on peanut bunker. They were VERY selective as they have been in our bay since September 2nd when the 1″ inch peanut bunker arrived.

There were not a lot of bass and not a lot of bait. But we did pass one bait ball that was four feet across and ten feet long. Most of the bait was loose, small schools running for their lives with 2-20 bass right on their heels. It took a little time to figure out their pattern and how to set the drifts. And it took some excellent fly casting by Ray to put the fly on the fishes nose! Miss the bass by a foot and they would not even look at it.

Our top producing pattern was Mike Rice’s Peanut Bunker in gray and white. We also tried a mullet that got hit and spit twice, a sand eel pattern that was ignored, and a topwater popper, also ignored. “Match the hatch” was the rule today and the Peanut Bunker pattern was all they wanted.

For as hard as it was to set drifts in the wind and chop, dealing with spooky bait and bass that would horseshoe around the boat no matter how much stealth we used, and trying to get ultra selective fish to take our fly patterns, all things considered it was a great success and a lot fun in tough conditions. We ended the morning with four fish landed and released, including two keepers, all on the fly. A run morning with Dr. Ray.

Watching the weather for winds and seas for my next charters. A lot of fishing still ahead of us as September winds down and October is on our doorstep.

STAY POSTED:

Capt. David Bitters, Baymen Guide Service, Inc. 31 Years Guiding The Bay. Soli Deo Gloria!

PS – Saw the first flock of sea ducks today. Eight surf scoters cutting across the bay.