On board today, Mr. Dick Bowman, USMC, for Fly & Light Tackle Striped Bass (and blues). Dick has been fishing with me for many years and we originally met at Bass Pro Shops where I was doing a seminar, years back.

At first light, torrential rains. My bucket measuring tape said we had 2 1/2″ inches fall from the sky overnight. Fortunately, by sunrise, the rain was pretty much done and the storm was moving offshore. It made for some great photos. We got underway and were into fish within five minutes. Lots of striped bass coming into the bay on the rising tide in the Fall Run. We boated a lot of fish in 4 fow up on the flats. As we were leaving the area and going up the Duxbuy Channel, a Great White Shark surfaced right by the boat! I got a very good look at it as it broke the surface, its dorsal fin sitcking up out of the water, and the shark did a 180 degree turn about 20 feet from the boat! Pretty awesome and what a surprise! I had just spend the last hour hanging over the side of the boat unhooking fish with my hands and arms in the water. YiIKES!!!! The shark only showed itself for about ten seconds and there was not time to snap a photo.

Onward to Browns Bank, we found a handful of striped bass over the flat. The NW winds kicked up and it was very choppy. We landed several bass and a couple small bluefish and moved on.

Back in Plymouth Bay, we found a nice school of bass in flat-calm waters. We set numerous drifts on this school of fish and it gave us a lot of great hook-ups on Fly and LT. From there, we ran up into Kingston and found a handful of very spooky, finicky fish. Not much luck on those fish so after a few drifts we moved on.

Our last spot of the morning had no topwater action but fish were on the bottom hugging the weed beds. We used the cast and count method and boated several more fish.

Total catch and release today was 40 striped bass, including two small blues. All fish were landed on Fly & LT gear. Top fly pattern was my Baymen Universal. Top LT tackle were 4″ rubber crank baits and Sebile topwater lures in all white. A great day on the water that looked and felt more like early September.

Back at it as the Fall Run continues….

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

***The rest of 2019 is booked solid. I am Now Booking 2020 and 2021. Don’t wait, book now and lock in the best dates***