Greetings from Baymen Land!

I hope you have all been enjoying this fantastic, amazing, autumn season. October and November have been perfect: slow, easy and just stunning weather and fall colors. I am still wearing shorts! LOL… But thats all about to change with the winter weather, cold temps, and snow not too far way.

TUNA – The mid-late fall bite for tuna has been awesome. The seas have been flat for the most part, other than the two big NE storms we had. Anglers are reporting decent top-water blitz action for footballs as well as giants. Light tackle has been good to great, and vertical jigging has been very good – when they take. (See my FB pages for some short video from my FB friends).

STRIPERS – No word on any fish left in our area. Lots of bait from Boston on down, but most of the fish and the big blitz action is in CT now. A few guide friends of mine have said the action is excellent.

LEGISLATION – As you already know, the new striped bass regs take effect January 1st: one striper 28″ inches or greater for our waters here in MA. In my opinion, its not nearly enough restrictions. I have been proposing for the past ten years that the states go to one fish 36″ inches or greater, from ME to VA, for five years, but nobody is listening. So, one fish at 28″ inches will be the standard for many season’s to come. It may be a long, slow recovery of the striped bass stocks.

WATERFOWLING – We have been enjoying very solid waterfowling for ducks and geese in the Central Zone. Classic New England flights: never a ton of birds, but we have consistently seen 30-80 birds per morning in the flights, and 2-5 flocks decoying into our spread. You can’t get too much better than that in central/coastal zone 11. Brant, sea ducks and bufflehead are starting to show in good numbers in the bays up and down the coast. With the big cold front coming this weekend, Whatever birds are still north will be heading out way.

DEER – The rut is in full swing in Baymen Land. Please be watchful at dawn and dusk, especially. Lots of deer are getting hit and/or causing accidents in zone 11. We are getting reports of deer sightings daily in our area. The Bucks have thrown all caution to the wind and are chasing the does. Best of luck to all the bow hunters. Remember to wear a top of the line safety harness before going up into your stand.

RABBITS – We are having a lot of fun chasing bunnies with the beagle again this season. Two jumps per morning are average. The afternoon hunts have been slow to dead. Mornings have always been the best. Our pup, Daisy-Mae will celebrate her 8th birthday in January. We are starting to think about adding a new puppy for next fall to take over as Daisy starts to slow down over the next couple of seasons. She is the finest rabbit hound and family dog we have ever owned. She has many nicknames, but one that says it all is “Old Faithful.”

TROUT – Fall trout, rainbows in particular, have been good to excellent in zone 11 stocked trout ponds. Light tackle spoons and streamer fly patterns are two of our favorite ways to fish for trout. Some anglers troll and others use the power baits. They all work. It just depends on how you like to fish.

Well, thats the word for today. I will post new pics very soon once we upgrade our storage capacity. Photos use up a lot of space, but nothing tells the moment better than a picture!

Tight Lines,

Capt. Dave
www.baymenlife.com
GO BRUINS!
GO CELTICS!
GO PATS!
GO REVS!