Today we had a short morning planned. The crew was Ruge, Split and Me. We ran out of Bourne at 0515, it was supposed to be 0500, but Ruge was "detained". We finally got going and before we broke out of the no wake zone we had the skunk off the boat. The fish were all over the surface chewing on small bait. After a couple twinkies each we moved on.

Just about the time I got the boat trimmed out it was time to slow it down and start fishing. We went from pod to pod for about an hour. Most of the fish were small so we never stayed in one place long. We decided to run a bit to where we had fish the other day. The run across the bay was not worth the trip. We saw scattered bait all the way across but never found fish. So we headed back to the twinkie spot.

Just before we reach the nursery we found several flocks of terns working over larger fish. Split had the hot hand and he was able to pull several 34" fish into the boat while Ruge and I were several inches behind.
At 0830 we had to get Ruge back to the dock, so I hammered back to the marina and we dropped him at the fuel dock. A quick 360 and Split and I were back in the mix. after hanging a few more solid keepers Split decided to take it to the next level and broke out the flyrod. It wasn't long before his hot hand was landing a 32" bass on the fly.

We worked the fish for another couple hours and had a slow steady pick of bass from the mid 20"s to the mid 30"s. The fish were there in good numbers but like the other day they were very picky. From flies, to jigs, to surface lures everything caught fish, but nothing really got hit the way it should have with the number of fish we were seeing. You could toss a lure right into the mix several times and never get a strike. Then that same lure would get bit 2-3 times back to back. They were tough to figure out.

Final tally a couple dozen fish between us. Although the numbers were down, the size was up. There are some better fish filling into the bay and heading for the canal. Lures of choice, nothing in particular. We tired everything and everything caught fish, but nothing slayed them. Water ranged from 25-50' deep and most of the fish were feeding under birds. It was overcast and drizzly the entire time.

Overall, a solid outing. The early run of fish is always inconsistent. As the fish move through in waves you can hit small fish today, bigs tomorrow and none the next day. So we were pleased with the size and the numbers for this early in the season. Plus the 32"er on the fly was icing on the cake. From the looks of NOAA I'll be off the water for a few days, but as soon as the weather lays down we will be back at it.
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Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com