I had a very late start Monday due to a random drug test. I left the dock promptly at 11:00AM under a cloudless sky and no wind. The first spot produced a bass on my second cast. They were packed together in behind a large boulder. almost every time I put the fly there one would grab it. It was great because I was the only boat there. I left when company arrived and went in search of the elusive ones. I found more bass and blue fish where they were last week. It was too hot to stay out so I started back to the dock when a couple of fish popped up 100 feet in front of me. There was something vaguely familiar about the splashes. I got the rod ready and when they came back up an expertly placed fly caused one to eat it. Mr. Expert saw the strike and after a ten second fight pulled the hook on our first bonito of the season. I can only remember one time that they arrived this early and that proved to be a pretty good year for the bones.

Gail and I took a trip out this morning and we were fishing the tide so I got to sleep till six AM. It took us two casts to double on stripers. We stayed until the sun was high so we only stayed in the same spot for two hours. We headed out to see if we could locate the elusive bonito. Its a little early for them but a few have been caught locally by accident. We did find more bass and bluefish so we didn’t get bored.

I took another trip to do a little scouting. I didn’t find what I was looking for but I did find a bunch of bass. The tides are going to be perfect this week. The news is that some medium sized Blue Fish have arrived. I donated a couple flies to them and left them alone. This could be a pretty good week on the water.

Thursday morning I took a last minute solo trip to see what I could find. I pulled into the first spot and hooked up on my first cast. That is often times the kiss of death for the day. But not in this case. It was a steady bite for about three hours and by then it was a pretty good day. So far this year most of the fish are around five pounds or so and they are fighting harder than you would expect. I might just have to try this again.

Saturday morning brought Bob and his brother Marion over for a shot at some bass. We have an incoming tide this week so we had to fish in other areas. Marion brought the first couple of fish over the side and had the lead until Bob got started. We found fish in four out of the five spots that we hit. In one place we had a half dozen boats around us and our guys were the only ones catching. A pretty good day on the water.

Thursday brought the infamous Dr. Jim down for the first trip of the year. I had tied up some prototype flies for us to try out. It took Jim about five minutes to hook up the first of many stripers. There were a lot of hungry fish liking that fly. We were in fish pretty much the whole trip and we fished several different spots. The big ones aren’t here yet but the ones that are will give you a good workout on an 8wt.

Friday Gail and I went out For a look to see if the fishing is still holding up. We found the fish right away and we had steady action for four hours. It slowed a little through the tide change but picked back up quickly. Lots of fish up to about five lbs. and they are eating sandeels. The bigger ones should be showing up any day now. I can honestly say that I haven’t seen this many bass around in quite a while. The good news is that they aren’t all in one place. I’ll keep you posted.

Gail and I left the dock at the crack of 8:30ish this morning for our check out the spots cruise. The first few were barren but after the tide changed we moved and the fish were waiting for us. We did really well with bucktails and flies. Most fish were around five lbs. and feisty. The larger ones should start showing up pretty soon. The water temps are good and there is plenty of bait to keep them around.