What a morning! On the bay at first light with Lt. Col. Richard “The Machine” Comstock for Day 2: fly fishing only striped bass. Water temps were 61.4 at the dock and winds were flat calm out of the west. Later in the morning they turned East but it was barely noticeable. The bay stayed flat all day and it was perfect conditions for fly fishing.

We left the dock and headed for the first spot of the morning. Absolutely stacked with striped bass with a few small chopper blues in the mix. Bass had bait balls schooled up all over the place: up on the flats, in the channels and tight to shore. We fished the last two hours of dropping tide with these fish. It was a fish every other cast and they hit every fly we through at them including a topwater fly popper (the Colonel’s favorite way to fish), a Baymen Universal, a Baymen Clouser, and a Baby Baymen. They hit it all with gusto.

We drive away from breaking fish and headed for our second spot of the morning. Not a bump! We tried a piece of structure that holds fish in the summer and it was void of bait and fish.

We headed for our third spot of the morning and it was absolute lights out fly fishing up on the flats in 21″ inches of water. Every migrating bass coming down the coast stopped in to chase our fly. I counted SEVENTY striped bass in one school going by the boat in 21″ inches of water. If you are a bone fisherman, this was exactly like it but the numbers of fish were just amazing. We stayed up on these flats for the rest of the morning and the fish hammered the Baymen Clouser and Baymen Universal. We also fished a very small pattern very similar to a Baby Baymen. Richard was hooked up on fish non-stop and we said we would quit when we got past sixty fish. Then seventy… Then eighty… Then ninety…(!) Then I knew he had a shot to catch and release one-hundred-striped bass on the fly and we decided to go for it. And then it happened and Richard landed his 100th striped bass of the morning on the fly!

This is a new BAYMEN Charters boat record for a solo fly rodder. In my 26 yeas of guiding on the bay, many, many fly rodders have come close, but Lt. Col. Comstock is the first to do it. Congrats, Sir! What an amazing morning on the fly rod!

Capt. David Bitters, F/V BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com Instagram @baymencharters

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