On board today, I had repeat clients Ed Foley, Scott Kehoe, and their friend, Craig Cote, for light tackle striped bass.

At first light, it was dead out there. A light N/NE/E wind was shifting back and forth. No birds, no topwater. We set drifts over some structure and landed one small fish.Then we started to cover some bay, searching for bait and bass with sonar. Zip. Not a fish to be found.

As the tide bottomed out and began to come back in, birds, bait and bass came with it. Not a lot, but enough to keep us busy. Fish were VERY tightly balled on bait and running fast. Miss them by ten yards and no hook-ups.

We started to get into some decent fish and they started to bust bait on topwater. We moved from one big school in deep water to another smaller school up on the flats in search of bigger fish. Bingo! Craig hooked into a big bass in 4 1/2 feet of water with a rubber crank bait. Amazing run, drag screaming! About ten minutes later, I netted a twenty-two pound, forty inch stiper!

We picked up two more keepers before the morning was done and landed and released a total of 42 fish! A great morning that started out very slow. Some days you just got to keep at it and keep saying your prayers ;o)

Half to today’s fish were landed on my Baymen Universal Jig. The other half were landed on rubber crank baits. We also picked up a couple fish on spooks.

Stay posted and good luck out there this weekend!

Capt. Dave, BAYMEN

www.baymenlife.com