Today I had Doug and Brian lined up for a bass charter. I had planned to fish CC Bay but when Dana launched early this morning and got the snot pounded out of him and his boat my plans were in trouble. I metthe guys at 0730 and laid out some other options. They liked the idea of the Bay and were willing to take a pounding if it meant getting onto fish. To avoid a long ride we trailered to the outer Cape to get closer to the destination.
We arrived at the ramp around 0830 and splashed the boat and ran out into a stiff NW wind. We found several flocks of birds and some small fish, but I told the guys we needed to keep going and find the real deal. We pushed on and found tons of birds and loads of bait. We worked Yellow Salty Needles and Gold Yo Zuri's through the hords of 10-15# bluefish and for every dozen we go we were rewarded with a bass between 34-38". This went on for most of the morning.
The day was getting better and better and soon the wind died off, the tide turned and the fish came up to the surface and cruised by the boat in HUGE numbers. Since we could see the fish we were able to target the bass more effectively and the ratio of blues to bass dropped to about 3 to 1.
Brian is a flycaster and once the wind got below 15 kts he decided to throw the fly exclusively. Doug continued to hammer the fish with the spinning gear. Both guys had taken fish to 38" and it was a race to see who would reach my days goal of 40". I told them in the morning that was my goal and we needed to reach it.
Dispite Doug catching more and larger fish with the spinning gear, Brian held firm to the flyrod. He tossed Leon's Special Riptide Pattern 100' at a time and the fish followed it in only to turn away right at the boat. Undetered he fished on. Then it happened! He dredged the fly a bit deeper than before and the 9wt doubled over. Brian worked an obviously big fish around the boat and around lobster pots. We couldn't see the fish, but the Tibor's drag let us know it was a solid fish. Finally I got my shot and I reached down and lipped Brian's biggest bass ever!!!! The fish was 40" long and 23.3# on my digital scale. Not only did Brian get the big fish of the day he got his biggest flyrod bass and his personal best bass ever to boot.
After several more fish we decided to head for the ramp. Thats when Capt Jeff Smith called and said he was tight with tuna number 2 nearby. We rushed over and got several shots at the tuna before they took off. We did not get tight, but we got to see Capt Jeff's sports land a nice tuna around 60#. Congrats to Capt Jeff and crew, and thanks for the call.
Final tally a bunch of nice bass from 34-40" and a TON of blues from 10-15#. The lures of choice, Yellow Salty's Needles and GOld Yo Zuri's. The fly of choice, Leon's Special Riptide patern. We fished water from 60-90' deep and it was in the mid 60's.
Overall a sweet end to a day that looked like it might be a bust at the start. It's been kind of hectic going from Tuna one day to Shark the next then Bass today, but Doug and Brian were such good anglers they made my job easy. With spot on casts and 100' fly casts all I needed to do was drive the boat and land allthe fish they caught.
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