81 Fish
On board today, I had repeat client, Jim Crosta, his son-in-law Mike, and grandkids Al and Jack for light tackle striped bass.
At first light, rain was departing and heavy overcast on the bay. High tide dropping and a West wind! “West is best and if you can add a low pressure system, all the better. Today, the fish were back in the bay!
We found a school of fast-moving bass under birds at our first drift of the morning. The fish were moving out fast on the dropping tide. We picked up several and moved on. Next, we had to run a ways and glass for fish. Nothing in sight anywhere… On a hunch, we decided to make the run across the bay to one of my spots that usually holds fish in this type of weather pattern. They were there! Jim and boys hooked into a bunch of fat schoolies that took our tackle with gusto.
Next, we ran back across the bay to a spot that has given up several keepers for my charters this season. No keepers home, but it was stacked with fish and we caught a bunch more. Then the winds began to pick up big time and they turned (you guessed it) EAST! Hard east with white caps. “East is least” and the bite almost immediately began to slow down. We set a new drift where the mack heads have been drifting for weeks. We were hoping for a big fish and Jim was the luck rod… WHAM! Big fish on! The bass began running, taking line and Jim’s rod was doing the bass dance. I was waching Jim’s spool as line zipped off thinking I was going to have to back the boat down on this one, when SNAP! Yup, that sick feeling when a big, running bass breaks off… Sometimes you get the bass, sometimes the bass gets you. That’s fishing.
On to our next spot in the micro rips, and we landed several more fish. Then the tide began to bottom out and the fishing shut off. We hit a few more micro spot and called it a wonderful morning on the bay. The winds turned NW laied down on our bay back in. We saw a huge seal by the #7 can. A future meal for a Great White!
Total catch and release today was a whopping 81 fish all on LT. A great morning with some great anglers.
Back at it. Stay Posted:
Capt. Dave
F/V BAYMEN
www.baymenlife.com