On board today I had new clients Greg O’Brien from Oregon, and his cousin, Mark, for Fly & LT striped bass.

At first light, we had overcast skies, a dropping tide, and light SW winds. The winds soon cranked up and we had some white-caps, but it was manageable and we got into lots of fish!

First school was all topwater action for about an hour over the flats in Duxbury. After that, we ran across the bay and found another very small pod fish and picked up a few more.We then headed for Kingston bay but never got there. The sonar lit up! We set drift after drift rolling off a flat, into a deep channel and back up onto a flat. Bass and bait were stacked up and we caught numerous fish on each drift, including a 30″ keeper.

We tried to fish the Kingston Rip but it was so rough at this point, we could not locate the rip line. We decided to duck in behind Clark’s and joined a few other boats doing the same. We caught a couple more fish and called in a great morning. Total catch and release today: a whopping 75 fish, 1 keeper, 1 pogie (!) on fly and light tackle. Top light tackle were rubber crankbaits in bunker color, using the cast and count and Baymen bounce techniques. Top fly was a pattern that Greg tied and fished all morning on an intermediate line with a sinking head. The fly pattern was a chartreuse/white clouser with black synthetic back, chartreuse thread wraps, and (this is the secret) a generous amount of Purple crystal flash. The bass absolutely slammed it!

A final word: most of the fish we caught today were on drop-offs, with no birds and no bait seen in those areas. But that is where the fish were holding the dropping tide and incoming tide. It was a great morning even with the SW chop. The weekend is looking good!

STAY POSTED:

Capt. Dave, BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com 26 years Fly Fishing & Light Tackle on Duxbury, Plymouth, Kingston Bay.