Friday Baymen Report 9/29/2023

Greetings from Capt. Dave & BAYMEN!

On board today, Dave Mulcahy and his Father-In-Law for light tackle striped bass. Dave is the COO for Oh, Deer Tick & Mosquito control and has been fishing with me for several seasons.

At first light, a small scattering for birds working a handful of fish around the bay. Nothing to get me excited considering we are in the Fall Run. Winds were ENE (Day 8!), skies were overcast, and water temps were 59 at the dock. Tide was a – 0.9 dead low incoming, and moon was full. We ran a couple miles and searched for the holy grail. The bay was very, very quiet…

Then another mile or so and I spotted what I was looking for: a nice school of bass had bait up against structure with a cloud of birds overhead. A Fall Blitz! With the low tide, we had to do some running to try and reach them. We finally found a channel that might work, but when we got there, the fish had moved many hundreds of yards away into shallow flats. We bottomed out and I had to back the boat out. We planned to visit this school of fish later in the tide when we had more water.

As we ran back down bay searching for Plan B, I decided to go back to that Fall Blitz of fish and approach from another part of the bay. We literally motored through 12″ inches of water, slipped over a sand bar and pulled into one of the top 15 Fall Blitzes of All Time!!! A thousand birds, hundreds and hundreds of bass, all in a foot of water with bait trapped and nowhere to go. It was INSANE! The fish were all right on the surface rolling, busting, and the birds were going wild. The ENE wind pushed the boat right up onto the flat and we bottomed out. And the bass were all around us in inches of water at times and they could care less about us or the boat. It was AWESOME and one of the best Fall Blitzes I have ever put my charters into…!

We all fished it and we had double and tripled hook-ups multiple times. The fish were all big and fat and runs in inches of water were crazy and powerful. In the melee, we landed four keepers among many, many other fish that were just shy of slot keepers. It was one of those Fall Blitzes you dream about and we slammed them. Right place, right time, right conditions, right tackle. And a willingness to not give up on those fish, and be willing to take a chance of grounding the boat to reach them.

Well, as the tide continued to rise, it created avenues for the bait to escape and after about an hour, the bait shot out of the flats and found deeper waters and the bass left with them. But wow, was that ever exciting! We followed them and fished them in deeper waters and got several more fish and also got into blues that were mixed in. We eventually left this end of the bay and went to search for other fish.

THE FALSE ALBACORE STORY

As we worked new water with bass blues mixed in, Dave hooked into a monster striped bass – or so we thought. That fish hit and began to take off at high speed and it just kept going and going and going…! I am watching the line peel off the spool and it is still dumping. Then – into the backing! And the fish is still running! I fired up the boat and we began to give chase to gain line. I was thinking 1. Massive Bass??? 2. Massive Blue??? Then, suddenly, the fish hit the breaks, turned around, and started running right for us! 

I threw the boat in reverse and began screaming backwards all the time yelling “Gain the Line! Gain The Line!” to Dave. He was doing awesome and some how was keeping that fish tight. The fish came close to the boat and I said “Now we got him! He’s done!” Wrong! The fish turned around and screamed away from the boat at high speed after doing a 360 degree circle around the boat! Now I am thinking this has got to be a football tuna!!!

Off it went without letting up and I watched line peel off the spool – again, right into the backing for the second time!!! I fired up the boat and we give chase. Dave gains line and continues to keep the rod bent throughout the whole fight. Just perfect rod and reel and control, but he was getting tired.

Finally, the fish is done and starts to come close to the boat. We see color and then the fish shows itself. GIANT FASLE ALBACORE…!!! In Duxbury Bay! The big fish dives and circles the boat once more and then comes back up. I am nervous because we have had a 20lb mono striped bass leader on the whole time. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be tangling with a giant false albacore like this anywhere north of the Vineyard… The fish comes right up alongside the boat and it was massive! An absolute giant that I called out to Dave that it had to be in the low to mid twenty pounds. I reached for the line, slid my hand down the leader, and went to tail the fish. SNAP…………………………………!!!! The fish slowly swam away and we stood there in silence and disbelief…..for a long, long time…………..

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, baymenlife.com 31 Years Guiding The Bay. Soli Deo Gloria!