(Photo: Dick Bowman hooked up in today’s chop on the bay)

Greetings from BAYMEN & Capt. Dave!

On board YESTERDAY, I had regular, Rolando Jeter for Fly Fishing striped bass. Rolando has been fishing with me for 21 years.

The bay was a sheet of glass and we worked hard to find 3 small schools of fish. Bass to 40″ inches were slamming baits all around the boat in one school. They would not hold, but would chase bait to the surface and crash through it, and then go down and be gone – only to appear a couple hundred yards away and do it all over again. The handful of bait/bass were VERY spooky of the boat and boat noise making it difficult to set drifts. And to top it off, they would take absolutely nothing even when it was dropped on their heads. We ended the morning with no fish landed, a few hits and spits. Frustrating for this Captain but Rolando took it all in stride and enjoyed a stunning fall morning on the bay. When he stepped off the boat, he turned to me and said, “book me two dates for 2025 and two dates for 2026!” I have been saying this forever and I will continue to say it from the bottom of my heart:  I have the best clients on earth!

TODAY, October 1st, I had regular, Baymen Dick Bowman for fly and light tackle striped bass. Dick has been fishing with me at least since 2011 if not longer.  Dick and I talked on the phone last night and decided we were going to give it our best shot and head for the bay today at first light. Winds were light NE and skies were overcast. Air was 58 degrees and water temps were about the same.

As were began running the bay we must of passed a thousands gulls all flying overhead, moving from South to Northeast. I paid a lot of attention to them and discovered they were leaving the flats in Plymouth waters on the low incoming tide, and repositioning on the front beach area to set back down. Migrating gulls that must of flew all night and were resting up for the next flight. Most birds migrate at night and there is a tracking satellite from space available online that is AMAZING to watch if you are into birding like I have been since I was a small boy.

No sign of working birds, bait or bass up in Duxbury bay anywhere this morning. We ran to Kingston a few times and scouted and glassed the entire area with no success. Then we ran to Plymouth where Rolando and I found fish yesterday, and those fish were long gone, most likely in the Cape Cod Canal or Buzzards Bay today on their own migration to the Chesapeake where they will spawn and spend the winter.

Back into Duxbury I glassed again and found birds working maybe a dozen striped bass on a drop-off at the edge of some flats. The bass would find bait in the deeper channel and push it up into 4 feet of water and destroy it. But at best, there were a dozen bass in this school. We worked them for a few drifts and hooked and landed two fish on LT. Then they vanished for good. We trolled around in big circles hoping to mark them but never saw them again.

We looped around and glassed the bay for the third time and no signs of fish on topwater. The NE winds really began to pick up and waves were that snotty 2-3 foot chop NE, very uncomfortable in a flats skiff. But we persisted a while longer and worked another handful of bass that avoided the boat every time we attempted to set up a drift. We decided to troll again in big, long lines on the edges with no hits and finally wrapped up the morning. Total fish caught and released: 2 striped bass. As I pulled the boat late morning, the winds and chop had picked up even more and were directly out of the East. Back in the parking lot, we talked with a few other anglers and compared notes, photos and stories from the season.

I will continue to scout and fish for striped bass until I am convinced it is over for good on our bay. It’s never over until it’s over.

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, baymenlife.com 31 Years Guiding The Bay. Still In Love.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Booking 2026 Season. Book early – dates go fast.