Greetings from Capt. Dave & BAYMEN!

On board today, regulars, Chris & Molly Devillers and their goddaughter, Emily, and her boyfriend, Patrick, for Light Tackle Striped Bass.

At first light, two hours on the dropping and dead-calm seas. Wind was a wisp of West. To my surprise there were no birds, no topwater, and no Spring Blitz anywhere on the bay… And no bait. Where are the acres of striped bass busting topwater bait in the Spring Blitz? Rhode Island. 

BUT not to be dismayed, I began to run some recon and checked all three bays for fish. Nothing. On a whim, I decided to try another spot that has been on and off with fish this Spring. BINGO! We pulled into a half-dozen High Fliers looking for striped bass. I watched them and when they tilted their wings, I knew they were seeing fish. Once in a while a big explosion on the surface in a couple feet of water. We found our fish!

I began to set drifts on the outgoing tide and rigged all the light tackle with topwater poppers and spooks with single inline hooks by BKK. Pop… Pop…WHAM! Fish On!!! BIG FISH on in skinny water – my absolute favorite way to target striped bass! We had four rods out working the tackle and the hits were almost non-stop. Just wild fishing for better than two solid hours. We had several double hook-ups on some hard fighting fish screaming across the flats in search of deep water. There were some big fish in the mix chasing after our tackle. We boated a total of 14 striped bass and the biggest one was 15 pounds, 36″ inches, in four feet of water! Wow… Just great fun!

The tide finally told us if we didn’t get off the flats, we were going to be stuck there for half a day until the tide came back in. I fired up the Merc, raised the engine, and we slowly picked our way across the flat in barely a foot of water until we got to the channel. Whew… We got off that flat just in the nick of time. In 31 years of guiding, I have never bottomed out on a dropping tide, but boy have I come close a few times…

At the bottom of the tide, the winds shifted light East but it was enough to shut down the bite. We covered some of my spots in Duxbury, Plymouth, and Kingston bays and only had a few “East Winder” tail swipes the rest of the morning. But that morning bite made it all worthwhile. Just insane.

Back at it: STAY POSTED.

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

Soli Deo Gloria!