Fish the Shallow water Flats of Plum Island Sound, Massachusetts

Plum Island Sound's Warm Shallow Waters Are a Good Bet for Strippers Early in the Spring and in Late Fall

First thing Hasselhoff and I did after we landed was put our fish on ice and rinse down our legs with vinegar. If you've walked the flats while fishing, most of Ipswich Bay requires you to rinse with vinegar, because its outstanding fishing notwithstanding,curse of the place are the parasites which bloom here in summer. The parasites are effective histamine-activators, the welts they produce pencil tip-sized. Vinegar kills them before they have time to bite and work their way into your skin.

We'd been on the flats in our kayaks since dead-low tide at around seven a.m. The fall migration of striped bass was underway, and the bay was alive with large schools feeding on menhaden. We'd fished the shallows on foot first, casting into the flats' guzzles as we towed our kayaks behind us. We were both splattered with muck.

"Slap it on thick," I said.

"What's the genus?"

"Huh?"

"The parasite's zoological classification - "

Hasselhoff is a decent guy and an ardent fisherman, but also the kind of guy likely to argue with you about how many degrees of feather your paddle needs if the wind is blowing z knots, your kayak is model x, and the power bar you ate 47 minute a caloric value of mw-v+47%.

"They're called mud bugs."

Hasselhoff went to work. He is a fussbudget. .

"Come on, Hasselhoff. It's a rinse, not a beauty product."

On the other hand, he had paid me lot in guiding fees this year.