Thursday, May 24, 2007

My first charter. Charles and Tim met me at 5:45 at the landing and within minutes we were off into the early dawn light. We hit it off immediately. Tim lives in Duxbury and it turns out we both have several common friends and acquaintances. But this is a fishing story. We found a very large school of breaking bass along the margin of the channel leading from Bug Light towards Clarks Island. Charles manned his flyrod, a nice Orvis 9 wt. that he bought in Europe. Tim was on his own light gear. The fishing was great: these two guys were landing fish on almost every cast for a good two hours. We used storm shads and Fin-S rubber baits, along with the Charles’ blueback herring fly. Soon Tim had a keeper on board and, with our spirits quite high, continued on many drifts through the busting fish until Charles looked at me and said, “John, I am sated.” Whereupon he simply sat down and smiled.

We all decided that even though there were plenty of fish around this spot, the remainder of the morning would be best spent exploring. I took them to some spots along Saquish and Clarks Island and neither of these produced anything. Then when we reached a hot area of the beach channel the fishing picked up again and each short drift resulted in numerous hookups. The stories continued and became more colorful. We were having fun.

After an hour or so we moved on towards the middle of Duxbury Bay where a line of birds and fish extended about a half mile. Again, almost every cast was met with at least a chase or hit. The guys landed numerous fish, mostly mid-sized (15 to 25 inches). Charles insisted I demo his fly gear and so I did and this was fun. I hooked a few and Charles took the helm to guide us to new drifts through the large school. We thought we spotted hickory shad, and they may have indeed been in the mix, but we didn’t hook any.

Again, sated and feeling full, the guys indicated that they’d had their fill, Charles and Tim stated that we should begin toward shore and maybe stop if they appear along the way. I toured them through Captain’s Flats, explained what the bathymetry was like there and how one can sight fish for stripers throughout the summer months there. Then, as we passed one of my favorite rips, I said, “Guys, do you want to stop here for a few minutes and give it a whirl – conditions are just right for some good sized bass right here.” Sure, that would be fine. I tossed out a Fin-S to demonstrate what I believed was the best way to fish the rip, and after three cranks of the reel I had a 31” striper on the line. This activity rejuvenated their interest and we ended up going through the rip 5 or 6 times, hooking many large bass (almost keepers) and seeing several follows that made our eyes bug out.

Then the time came to leave and get back to shore. We had a fantastic morning – couldn’t have asked for a better first charter.