Greetings and happy September from Capt. Dave & BAYMEN!

The Fall Run is underway and depending on what bays you are fishing, it is either good, OK, poor, or very poor, based on bait and striped bass activity. We have been running charters almost daily since late August through early September on our three bays here on the MA coast and fishing has been poor so far. North of us and south of us fishing has been OK.

For those that have been fishing with me for years, you know my target goal is always fifteen fish landed and released each trip. And as most of you know, we typically do much better than that! This fall however, has been our slowest season in 33 years of guiding on our bay here on the MA coast. We have no bait (yet) and no striped bass to speak of. A few nice fish here and there but it is very slim pickings and we have even got skunked on a few trips. I can count the number of skunks we have had in 33 years on one hand – until this seasons Fall Run…  All that said, we are still having some wonderful mornings on the bay here. Any day is good day if you can be on the water and fishing.

With advances in technology being used more and more to watch everything from bird and butterfly migrations to striped bass migrations, there are some massive isolated schools of fish moving south. Sooner or later some of those schools will come into our bay in the migration. We are currently in one big huge gap between schools of migrating fish. In all past seasons, we always had fish all season long from spring through fall. This year has been different. One other factor is we have seen almost zero bait (in our bay) over the past twelve days or so. No peanut bunker, no big schools of mature pogy. We have had tiny schools of sand eels, mumachogs, and fingerling herring. Also sporatic shad, harbor pollock, sea herring, and of course macks offshore. But in almost all cases of recent, zero striped bass on them. Where are the acres and acres of bait and striped bass that typically pack our bay late August through September…?

Water temps may also be a factor in our bay. Dock temps at sunrise have been in the mid 70’s and bay temps have been in the mid 60’s. As you all know, striped bass magic temps are around the mid 50’s. So, perhaps as temps continue to drop in September, we will see more and more bait and striped bass pass through our bay in the Fall Run. Our bay has historically been a world-class striped bass fishery and we all have taken it for granted – especially us locals!

Are the striped bass stocks in trouble? In a word, yes! They have been in trouble and have been falling for many years. We have been watching a slow decline (with spikes in populations) for years. Overall numbers are way down. Then the “schoolie” populations started to fall. And the Spring Blitz has been “off” for many seasons but still OK. Now the Fall Run is off to a very slow poor start like we have not seen since I started guiding 33 years ago. But some of those big isolated schools are passing through some of the bays on the East Coast right now and you would never suspect the striped bass stocks are in trouble… There have always been “Gap Days” in the Fall Run. But what we are seeing right now (in our bay) is historically way off…

If I had to take a wild guess, I am willing to bet managers of fish stocks will propose a complete moratorium on striped bass fishing on the East Coast for upcoming seasons. I will further guess it will be a moratorium of recreational catch and release only with a commercial striped bass fishery to continue with additional management measures. I am purely speculating here but lets watch and see what happens for 2027/2028 and beyond… For what it is worth, I have proposed and mailed in my proposals for striped bass management off and on since the early 1990’s as follows: One recreational striped bass 36″ inches or greater from Maine to Virginia, everything else catch and release. I even stood up in a public meeting and proposed this management idea nearly 30 years ago and was booed and worse from multiple groups. To be honest it may not be the best management idea, but I’d bet my boat it would stabilize the striped bass population…

Science tells us most of our striped bass on the East Coast come from spawning fish in the Chesapeake Bay. A small amount spawn in the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. All of these fish make up the total striped bass population in our waters mid-April to early December. Most fish are here May-September during the peak of the migration. There are also small schools of “holdovers” in our east coast rivers that appear to not migrate and may spawn locally?  Striped bass typically migrate inshore during the spring and offshore during the fall.

(Also for what its worth, striped bass are migrating (or holding over) as far north as the Miramichi River in New Brunswick Canada and decimating the wild Atlantic salmon stocks there by eating the spawning eggs and fingerling).

The Bio Index (tracking of young of the year fish) in the Chesapeake suggests striped bass stocks are WAY down. So low that they scare me. (Do your own research online and draw your own conclusions). A primary food source for striped bass is menhaden “pogies” and also river herring. These are the two main food sources and I have already mentioned some others. The pogy population appears to be in trouble as well due to commercial over fishing. Again, do your own research online and see what conclusions you come up with. I am not a fisheries biologist. I am just sharing my thoughts and ideas based on my observations from time on the water the past fifty years and 33 of those years as a guide.

Final Word:

I am fishing all of September and wrapping up this season on the 30th. I don’t get on the computer much, but I am posting on FB and IG in short posts with pics. Find me on both of these platforms. Baymen Charters.

Currently booking up the 2027 season! My last season of guiding on the bay… I will be fishing some in 2028 to wrap up any outstanding trips. E-mail is still the best way to reach me. Use the form on my website.

Tight Lines!

Capt. Dave, BAYMEN, baymenlife.com 33 Years Guiding The Bay. Still In Love.

Soli Deo Gloria!