Greetings from Capt. Dave & BAYMEN!

Here we are starting out the second week of April. I have always loved the phrase “April Showers Bring May Flowers” that I must have heard for the very first time as a baby in my mother’s arms. It has always been significant comfort to me as a reminder that the seasons will continue until the end of time. And New England has all the seasons in all their glory.

With the April Showers also comes the sweet perfume of budding trees, the arrival of singing spring birds, herring filling up all the runs, and of course the arrival of very first striped bass of the season in our waters. A few “hold-overs” have already been caught in our region on the MA coast by those willing to put in the time. Or have the time to put in the time, as it were. Over the past 32 seasons that I have been guiding on the bay, somebody always tries to land their first striped bass by April 15th. And most years somebody does!

Going back many years, I was always the one pounding the waters in search of the first fish. “Bragging rights” to get the first one of the year. But more importantly, that first fish was the fanning of the fires and the promise of good things to come for all of us. I no longer pound the pre-season waters to find that first striped bass of the season, but I am glad many others do and always look forward to hearing “who got the first one” in our local waters.

I would be lying if I told you that the striped bass fires in my heart still burn as brightly as they once did, as bright as the day when I landed my first striped bass on the fly with the late Konrad Gesner on Duxbury bay, many years ago before I became a guide. Age and time tires the body and soul and wisdom teaches us that it’s not really fish that we have been after, after all. But I think it may take a lifetime to realize this.

But…with the arrival of spring, love is in the air. Love for God, love for his amazing creation all around us, love for my children, my friends, passionate love for wife, Laura, “The Admiral.”A revelation that I came to realize, or perhaps always have known is this: God is love and all love flows from him into us.

Wishing you all an amazing 2025 season on the water.

Sincerely,

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, baymenlife.com 32 Years Guiding The Bay. Soli Deo Gloria!