On board today, I had Ryan Hibbard Jones from Colorado, for Fly Fishing Striped Bass. Ryan fished with me in 2017 and it was great to have him back on board again today.

At first light, a flat-calm bay and a dropping tide. Very strong currents today with the recent full moon. We cut across the bay and found some fish pretty quick, busting bait on shallow topwater. We also marked some fish on the bottom and mid-water column.

We tried a sinking line and Baymen Universal and then made the switch over to a floating line a topwater popper and never looked back. Some very exciting topwater hits as bass were coming completely out of the water to attack the fly. It was just so exciting watching them airborne!  We fished out the tide and then moved on to our next spot of the morning.

The flats were quiet and almost no water over them, so we concentrated on cuts, troughs and channels today. We worked a nice little cut that held a couple of fish on the dead low tide. Then as the tide began to turn, we left the area and cut back across the bay to fish another spot that has been on fire recently. But today, it was void of almost all bass!

Next spot we wanted to fish had two jet skis running back and forth through the drift. After they moved on, we decided to fish it anyway and picked a few more fish. We trolled a fly on a sinking line at one point to try and locate a school of bass. But most fish today were solo fish or in small schools.

We wrapped the morning fishing a flooded flats edge where I caught my first keeper on the fly many, many years ago. Today, this spot was also void of fish.

The best fishing today was the first few hours of the morning on the dropping tide. Not a lot of fish inside the bay, but enough to keep us busy setting drifts and casting the fly popper. Our best spots were any rips and drop-offs we could find. That is where we got some exciting action including a nice keeper on the fly!

Total catch and release today was 9 striped, 1 keeper. Ryan fished a 9 wt rod with an ORVIS floating line, 20 lb leader, and a red/white topwater popper.

I have one more trip and then I am back on vacation for a week. Then it is non-stop charters right into October.

Stay Posted:

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com Fly Fishing & Light Tackle Striped Bass on the Massachusetts Coast For the Past 30 Years. Now booking 203 & 2024 seasons.