40 Fish
On board today, Mr. Dick Bowman for fly fishing and light tackle striped bass. Dick has been fishing with me for many years.
At first light, flat calm seas and high tide dropping. We began the morning by sight fishing striped bass around the bay. The bay was looking like a ghost town as far fish goes. No topwater, no fish on the structure. Water temps were 74 degrees and the air temps were 90ish and very muggy.
After some running, we found a couple bass and a couple of baits up on the flats. That was it! We picked up two fish. But we kept moving around the bay like yesterday, and eventually we came across a genuine topwater “fall blitz” of striped bass under birds in 3 fow! We set drifts and began to hook up on the fly. Dick was using his 7′-10″ fly rod with intermediate line with a sink tip. It is a really fine set-up and he was deadly with it.
Many times over the morning, we had bass up to 36″ inches (or bigger) swimming with small schoolies. We would watch as a big bass would track the fly and then out of nowhere a small bass would slam the fly. This happened many times. Also, the big fish didn’t really seem interested in feeding. They just ran with the small fish. I changed out fly patterns many, many times and the smaller bass would get the fly every time. It was a fly fisherman’s paradise up on the shallow water flats!
We ended the morning with a whopping 40 fish caught and released, almost all of them on the fly rod. Top patterns were quite a mix: Baymen Universal, Big Baymen, Holy Baymen, Chartreuse/White Clouser. I will share something with you I have observed over the years. Sometimes, after you land a few bass on a certain fly, you never get another hook-up on that fly. The striped bass will track it, sniff it, nuzzle it, and then turn away over and over. You change to a “fresh” pattern and it is back to a hook-up on almost every cast until the bass began not taking the new fly any more. You change up to another fresh pattern and it is game on again! My theory is the pattern gets a striped bass scent on it that other bass smell as “DANGER!” and will track and follow and not take. Or perhaps there is some minute visual appearance in the pattern they don’t like after it has been hit by several bass. I take these fly patterns home, rinse and dry them, and then touch them up as needed. Once again they catch fish on the next trip out.
I once got into a school of all keeper bass on the fly off Plum Hills one day. I hooked into a very nice fish on my 8Wt and after a great battle, I landed that fish. I cast again and over and over BIG bass would track my fly and not take it. I changed to a new pattern of the exact same fly and WHAM! Another big fish slammed it and I landed that fish as well. The school then moved on and the “blitz” was over in a matter of minutes. The lesson? Change your fly when fish track and don’t take.
Back at it. Stay Posted:
Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com, Covid-19 protocol observed on all Baymen Charters and guide services
***BOOKING 2021 & 2022 Fly Fishing and Light Tackle Striped Bass Charters on the Massachusetts South Shore***
27 years guiding on the bay