16 Fish
On board today I had repeat client, Jeffrey Ryan, for fly fishing striped bass.
Conditions were near perfect on the water at first light. A high tide dropping, almost no wind with a slight southern breeze. Lots of pogies.
I had been scouting the past few nights and found topwater fish under birds in a few places. The plan this am was to go to those places and clean house! But nature is fickle and bass are where you find them, not where you want them to be.
First spot of the morning there was a couple lesser terns searching for bait and bass around the oyster grants. Second spot of the morning void of fish. Third spot of the morning had a couple of skittish bass in two feet of water. We made a few casts and moved on. Fourth spot had fish on it last night and I was hoping they were there this am. We found one topwater school of bass that stayed up and stayed around for all of one minute. Then they were gone and never showed again. My guess? Moving out with the tide. FIFTH spot of the morning: one swipe at a popper. SIXTH spot of the morning – you all know what it is – Kingston Rip. Zero hits. SEVENTH spot of the morning: one fish… Ninth spot of the morning… one fish…
TENTH and final spot of the morning: 14 fish! We set numerous drifts and found bass holding on the bottom and a few fish busting on top. A seal chased a school of pogies for a short time and we thought it was maybe a small whale of GW. But it was a seal and it never showed itself again. Moved out with the tide. But our school of striped bass held and I think we had bass on every drift for the rest of the morning!
Total catch and release today was 16 hard-earned fish. Top patterns were a cut down Baymen Universal and an all synthetic pearl/white baitfish minnow. We tried a Lefty’s Deceiver and got a lot of short strikes. We cut it down and landed one fish on that pattern and then switched it out. We also had a few hits on a topwater popper.
I was very surprised at the lack of striped bass in the bay. Also, very little bait, (other than pogies) in the bay. Water temps were around 71 degrees. We are about 10-12 days out from the start of the FALL RUN. In 2019, we had 80 fish August 20, 100 fish August 21, 70 fish August 22, 32 fish August 27 and 40 fish August 29th. On September 9 we had 273 fish, and September 10 we had 121 fish. Today’s 16 fish were well earned on the fly. A great job and a lovely summer morning on the bay!
Back at it. Stay Posted:
Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com 27 Years guiding on the bay.
Covid-19 protocol observed on all Baymen Charters & guide services
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