Bass on Flies and Plugs tonight.

[CapeMayRay]

Checked the surf before we went out tonight. Only sharks, skates and rays. Water along the beach was ugly brown and the wind was honking high 20 and gusting higher, so the beachfront looked like it was out.

Left the dock with my one person charter around 4:30. Decided to work the back flats on the top of the tide on the leeward shore. Strong winds but calm next to the sod banks. I have been taking this guy out a couple of times a year for 3 years now and he invited me to fish along with him.
Felt bad, I hooked the first bass of the night. A 23 incher on a swimming plug.

Couldn't use the flyrod and control the boat for charter but did use it later.
It started a bit slow. His first fish was a small blue.

He finally got his first bass.

Then and then we found a little section with some bait and some bass swirling on it right up in the grass on top of the sod banks.

Here we picked up a few more bass and another blue. Knowing he does some fly fishing I was trying to talk him into trying the fly rod. He wouldn't budge.

Next we went to a small creek were we anchored up and I could use the flyrod. I started using a Bob's banger with intermediate line and caught three on popper. He switched to popping plug as we had lots of bass swirling on bait coming out of the creek mouth.


He still would not try the flyrod. When the water got too shallow there we anchored at another spot I like where we got more bass and blues.

Here I switched to a large deceiver and a floating line as we were fishing a shallow sand bar. Got a couple more bass, one bite off and missed the biggest bass of the night right as we got it close to the boat. Looked to be around a 30 incher.

As the sun went down so did the wind. It was only blowing around 10mph when we came in around 10:00 pm. Great night 17 bass, 6 blues total. 5 bass and 2 blues on the flyrod for me. About half of the fish were 22 to 24 inches and nice and healthy.

He is booked for tomorrow night and said he would try the fly rod if the action was as good as tonight. Looking forward to another fun night and getting paid too.

[Dave Sikorski]

Another GREAT report. Good for you for picking up the flyrod even when your client wouldn't. He doesn't know what he's missing.

-D

[CapeMayRay]

He is doing another trip with me this evening and said he will give the fly rod a shot. He doesn't get down to saltwater much and just wanted to take advantage of the great topwater action. I really appreciated being able to fish. Tough to sit there at times watching bass swirling and people fishing. Always like clients to catch, but hard to watch and no being able to fish. I made sure he hit the prime spots first and I would clean up behind him. Also if I saw some fish activity in the back I made sure he got a shot there. He is a good fisherman and always fun to take out. He had his doubts about catching fish last night. He fished the jetties all day in the blasting wind in ugly brown water on the beachfront with sand blowing.

[OneMoreCast]

Good luck tonight on your charter...
Those are some nice bass for back bay stuff. Real pretty place you have to fish there Ray... water looks great with tons of potential targets.

[CapeMayRay]

Not quite as good as last night but still a super night. Wind was much worse for us tonight due to the direction. It was creating a good chop that kept blowing us right into the shore where we wanted to fish. It was very difficult to keep the boat where you wanted it. Even ended up pinned on a sod bank for awhile trying to retrive a line fouled on the grass. Tonight there was no really one spot that was hot. The spots that were good last night were so so to nothing as we thought we would duplicate last night. We picked away here and there the whole time. We ended up with 11 stripers to 24 inches and 3 blues with most of our fish caught before it got dark and only a couple on the flyrod using deceivers as boat countrol was our biggest problem and never found a hot spot to anchor up and fish. Client did use the flyrod for awhile and lost a fish close to the boat. I had a tough time too with the flyrod, while trying to keep control of the boat. He did get a couple of small weakies on the fly rod this morning, at the point on small pink/white clouser.



Had to fight the wind all night and it got really cold as the sun was setting. Felt good to get in the truck and turn on the heat. The water was 57 to 58 degrees with no real warm spots and the weather felt like it was March. We had another great night only saw a couple of swirls, no real signs of bait and had to work for each fish.

[CapeMayRay]

Was suppose to go drum fishing this morning with a fellow captain and some of his friends, on his boat. Got to his boat at 8:00 and he said his friends couldn't make it. The two of us were going to do the trip, but we both didn't want to keep any drum and I can't get real excited about catching them.

I suggested we go out in my boat and see if we could round up a late morning striper or two in the back before the sun got too high. He had never fished the flats and it was a long time since he used light tackle.

Left the dock at 8:30 a.m. which is when I usually end a morning trip. Went back to where we were fishing last night and on his first cast he had one on and missed it. He was using plug and I was using the flyrod. Joe got one small bass to about 20 inches and missed a couple. I had two hits and couldn't hook up on the fly.

The water as about 2 feet deep and there was too much light. We had to move.

Tried another spot and on the first cast Joe hooked another bass and shortly afterward a small blue. We then moved to where a large flat drains into the intercoastal waterway and found lots of blues. They seemed to like his big plug better than my small flies.



I put on a big 5 1/2 inch silicone mullet type fly and started catching good.


I aso had three stripers on that same mullet. My last striper I hooked up right at 12 noon in very clear water. We came in at 12:30 after catching 5 bass and 25 or 30 blues. Great morning of fishing at a time I would not normaly fish.

[gottaflylee]

Hay Tide Do you tie those silicone mullet flys? If you do how are they tied? Would love to tie some up to try down here.

[CapeMayRay]

Gottaflylee If you go to Atlantic Saltwater Fly Rodders Site they show how to tie it. Bob Popovics shows how to tie it. Here it the direct link.
http://aswf.org/saltwater_flies_for_...ob_silicl.html

Show step by step. You can do them any way you want. Mine was different with different material, but the same idea.

[CapeMayRay]

Last night did a one man charter and was lucky to get it in between the storms head our way. Wasn't a fly trip, but the action was good. We missed more shots on popping plugs than we got. Ended up with 3 bass and 8blues as we watch a nasty storm go around us. Got him his first stripers and had a nice sunset to boot.

[CapeMayRay]

Had a one man fly charter this morning, It was dead calm, no rain and storms passed early in the morning. After last nights good action couldn't wait to knock them dead.

Got to first spot and knats where out by the thousands making fishing tough. Charter had a couple of hits, had one on and lost it. Knats were so bad we left for the inlet. New moon had lots of water flowing, it was a bit brown and there was heavy swell action making fishing the beach not an option.

Little breeze kicked up so we went back to the backbay flats where my charter had a few more misses with the fly. He was a really good caster, was doing everything right, just couldn't get a solid hook up. Too add more salt to the wound he broke his orvis flyrod as it slipped apart as he was casting and said why don't you fish. I elected to throw a plug so I could better control the boat for him, while playing around with a plug rod, I ended up catching a nice healthy 26 incher and 6 blues.

We had good water and the fish were not really wacking fly or plugs like the day before.

Some days you just can't do it for your charter no matter how hard you try. We even put in an extra hour. He is determined to get revenge on the fish and wants another trip later this year.