On board today, I had repeat clients, Bill Gourley and his grandson, Joey, for light tackle striped bass. At first light, the bay was flat-calm, a light north wind, a high tide, and a slight overcast. The bay was loaded with fish.

The beauty of today was all the fish were sighted and fish stayed up all morning in several of my spots. We did fish a little structure towards the end of the charter, as topwater had died down and lots of the fish were leaving the bay on the dropping tide. But there was still plenty of fish to keep us busy.

We started on a school of very small fish right out of the harbor. They slammed out topwater Sebile lures and our rubber crank baits with gusto. Lots of fun on the light tackle. But I knew were some bigger fish were based on my guiding all week, so we made the run to look for them. On the way, we ran into another school of topwater fish with a handful of birds working overhead. Bill hooked into a reel screamer and it was so good to hear that drag singing on the light tackle reel! Bill played it perfectly to net and it was a keeper.

Next up, we continued our run to search for more big fish and found them. We pulled into a flat and found fish busting bait on topwater in about four to five feet of water. Both Joey and Bill were slamming a lot of fish and Bill hooked into our second keeper of the morning. The duo also hooked into several fish just under keeper size.

Top tackle today was again topwater lures in bone, and also silver/black. A small Sebile lure that walks the dog across the surface was the #1 lure and technique. A Super Spook would of worked equally well. Second choice was my stand-by rubber crank baits in 4″ and 5″. A 3″ inch would also be ideal since the bait was about that size.

A cool highlight of the morning: a young kyaker of 12 years of age pulled alongside us and the boy says, “Are you Capt. Dave…?” I said, “yes I am.” He replied, “I’m Bubba!.” Long story short, Bubba caught his first striped bass with me and his Dad, Ian, about nine years ago! So great to see him still fishing and hooking up on some nice bass from his yak. I wish more kids his age were out there enjoying the great outdoors. Great to see you Bubba!

Well, my crew ended the morning with a whopping 58 striped bass caught and released with two keepers. Bill and Joey have been fishing with me for… six years? and this was their best day on the bay with me to date! Great job, guys and great to have you on board again!

Tight Lines & stay posted. We have two more months of incredible fishing left on the bay.

Capt. Dave
www.baymenlife.com