28 Fish
Greetings from BAYMEN!
On board today, new clients Jack and Peter from Oh, Deer Tick & Mosquito Control, for light tackle striped bass.
At first light, a beautiful sunrise and a bay full of fish. The Fall Run has started. Big schools of micro peanut bunker are holding the fish. If you are a fly rodder, it is GO TIME and you can match that tiny bait with your fly patterns. With LT, we are limited but we still got fish.
All the bass in the bay imprinted on the tiny peanut bunkers, maybe 1/2″ inch in length. We tried 5″ inch, 4″, 3″ in pearl, olive, bunker, and chartreuse. We got a a few fish but be warned they are ultra selective at the moment. You have two options if you are fishing light tackle. 1) Use a fly pattern dropper that matches the color/shape/size of the bait 2) Drive away and go find other fish that are not imprinted on the peanut bunker and have no idea there are massive schools of them a few miles away.
I opted to go with #2 and it worked well. After landing ultra selective fish with a lot of effort, we drive a couple miles across the bay and found some new fish that were not selective and began to hook up regularly. The Baymen Bounce technique worked, but it has to be modified. A slower bounce and an immediate bounce as soon as the lure touches the water. Also, keep your rod tip higher than normal to keep the lure right near the surface. For bass that we marked down deep on the bottom, we used the cast and count technique and fished normal.
A big rumble of thunder towards the end of our trip and dark skies moving in from the south fast. We got back to dock minutes before it all let loose in heavy, steady rain.
A great trip on a flat calm bay today with a wisp of East wind and rising tide. Total catch and release was 28 striped bass, all on LT.
Back at it as the Fall Run is officially under way! Stay Posted:
Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com Fly Fishing & Light Tackle For 30 Years On The Massachusetts Coast. Booking 2023 & 2024. Book early – dates for very quickly.