I met Barrett at Kau Tapen lodge last year while fishing in Patagonia/Terra Del Fuego, on the Rio Grande for sea run brown trout. I knew Barrett through another friend who was a guide and he guided Tom and I for three days and we had a good time. Barrett recently came out west with another friend/guide from Patagonia and we crashed at Toms house in Jackson and all fished a few days out west together. Barrett is from Seattle, WA but has family from PA and his grandmother as it turns out rented a house outside St. Micheals for his family for Thanksgiving. Barrette had never caught a striped bass before so it was only appropriate that we fix that while he was here on the shore. So yesterday Barrett and I headed out of the Tred Avon River around noon. The river water temps had definitely dropped since the last time I was out a week ago. My unit was reading in the lower 40’s in the Tred Avon and in the Choptank around Choptank Light. We had no marks as we rode out in the river, finally towards the mouth we saw a few big seagulls sitting and found some marks, but nothing I thought was worth trying, so we headed out towards the main bay. Looks north in the glasses along Tilghman and nada other then some guys setting new stakes for a pound net. Talked to one guy in a Parker who ran down from Annapolis area and he said he did not see any birds or breaking fish running all the way down. That was not good news, but I was still hopeful as the water temps warmed up a bit from the river coming in in the higher 40’s. We ran across to the radar towers and nothing, then we ran down the western side doing zig zags looking for marks. Saw a wad of trolling boats out from Parkers Creek and saw a few people hooked up, but did not looks like any big fish. Soooo we kept going south. Finally landed at the fish bowl (aka rips) and there were a bunch of boats there, but everything was working together and drifting and it all went well. We tried LTJ and I hooked one right away, not big but at least got the skunk out of the boat. We decided to pick up the fly rods and it was not long before I had one and then the big moment came, Barrett hooked up with his first striped bass and on the fly as a bonus. After a while we moved a little of the rips and managed to locate a nice school of fish that were suspended from the bottom up to about ten feet from the top of the water and we had steady action of the fly for about an hour and a half. The sun was making its way down to the trees around 3:50pm so I checked my lights to make sure everything was good, but my bow light was out and I did not have a spare bulb. Barrett hooked one more and we decided it would be safe and warmer to get to the ramp at sun down. We unhooked his striper, backed up and put the hammer down back to the ramp. It was a smooth ride all the way home and turned out to be a nice day on the water. No big fish, mostly all sub 18, but still good action on the fly and for Battett it was heaven with his first stripers.
Saw Step Child at the ramp who had a good day LTJing and it was nice talking to a bunch of fellow TFers on the radio.
Barrett and I are meeting our friend Tom tomorrow in Ft Lauderdaleare and then headed to South Andros in the Bahamas in the afternoon to go chase some bones for a few days. I’ll report from down there.
Good talking and seeing everyone out on the water yesterday! Save some stripers for me while I’m gone.
Brandon