All the fish left the bay overnight along with the bait. I mean nothing left. A few stragglers on structure but that is it. Those THOUSANDS of fish that were here all week – gone…. Moved south in the fall migration. I finally called the trip and we came in re-booked for a better day.

Now for a FISH STORY you won’t believe!

We are up on Browns Bank this morning and see a Great Black-Backed Gull swimming around, obviously injured with what we thought was a broken wing. So, we drive by slowly to get a close-up look and see ten yards of braided line trailing behind it. Ahhhhh…. Poor bird must have a lure in his feathers.

We decide the right thing to do is to try and help the gull out. One of the crew grabs the net and another reaches for the line and we bring the bird on board. I put on my gloves and pin the bird down and hold its massive beak closed and hold the wings tight to the body.

Now the interesting part. One of the crew begins to haul in the braided line that was trailing behind the bird and suddenly says, “HEY! There is a fish on this line!!!” We all stood there and watched as he hand-lined in a twenty-something inch striped bass! The braided line was badly wrapped around the birds feathers and feet. Really bad and we had to cut it out of the bird. The trailing line had a circle hook at the end of it and a striped bass on the hook! The gull was being towed around the bay by the fish!

Well, we unhooked the bass and let it go. Then we began cutting the braided line off the feet and wings of the gull. After we finished the gull just stood there on the front deck of the boat resting. He was obviously exhausted and had been tangled up with the fish for at least a day. After some prodding he went back into the water and we wished him well.

We concluded that an angler had cast out his line with some bait, and caught the striped bass. While fighting the fish, the gull must have flew into the line, got completely wrapped up in it, and the line either snapped or the angler cut it to avoid tangling with the big, angry gull and it’s massive beak. We happen to come along a day later and landed his fish and rescued the bird!

And that is Capt. Dave’s latest fish story from the bay.

New fish will arrive in our bay after this NE weather pattern passes, and it should be back to GAME ON once again in the Fall Run!

Stay Posted:

Capt. David Bitters, F/V BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com