55 Fish
On board today, I had repeat client, Ed Foley, along with Sean Manning, Craig Cote, and Craig’s lovely daughter, Brielle, for light tackle striped bass.
At first light – a flat-calm bay on the last hour of the dropping tide. And the bay was stacked with fish! We had non-stop action for about an hour as the tide bottomed out. Lots of bass of all sizes on the sonar stacked up. Nothing on topwater to speak of, and we never saw any bait other than a small school of pogy on our way out. Water temps were a consistent 65-68 degrees around the bay.
We fished two rods with 5″ chartreuse/peal rubber crankbaits and two rods with our usual standard of 4″ in pearl/white. The fish were not picky and slammed both baits non-stop. Everything was holding on the bottom or close to it. I tried to tease some up with large poppers and spooks and and a few fish came up to see what all the noise was about. We had three follows from decent keeper bass and a nice fish of at least 36″ that we were seeing on sonar, chased down a topwater pencil popper and turned right at the back of the boat. Big fish but it did not take! Heart breaker!
After the tide ebbed, fishing slowed down as expected. But we kept at it and moved around the bay picking up a fish here and there. At the aquarium, we saw many fish including a nice keeper, in only a few feet of water, but they were not feeding and were not interested in our tackle. I shared some stories of big bass I had seen that ignored live pogy and live mackeral bounced on their heads. It happens and bass have moments when they just won’t feed on anything – usually on the low slack. But not always, and that is what keeps it interesting. Just when you figure them out, they change things up!
We saw just one seal inside today. It made several appearances in the channels and over the flats. We were on the lookout for great whites but none spotted. My greatest fear is, when I lean over the gunnel to rinse my hands or release a fish, in a split second a Great White could… Well, let’s just hope that never happens to me or any of you! Be smart and be careful. I say with dead-serious warning, it is only a matter of time…
Craig Cote and daughter, Brielle on board for some light tackle striped bass fishing.
Posted by Baymen Guide Service, Inc. Baymen Charters on Monday, July 30, 2018
On a more pleasant note, we boated and released a total of 55 fish today. All on rubber crankbaits with the exception of two or three that hit hard top-water tackle. It was a lovely summer morning on the bay with flat-calm conditions that lasted the whole trip. You couldn’t ask for a nicer day.
Back at it. Stay posted: Two solid months of Fishing and Baymen Reports will be posted right here at www.baymenlife.com
Capt. Dave
BAYMEN