Friday August 21st Cape Cod Fishing Report

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- Welcome to the, "My Fishing Cape Cod" podcast. The "My Fishing Cape Cod" podcast is your local source for the latest news and information on fishing, Cape Cod. Now here's your host, Kevin Collins.

- Well hello and welcome to another edition of the "My Fishing Cape Cod" podcast here from myfishingcapecod.com. I'm your host, Kevin Collins, back with you for episode number four of our biweekly 2020 podcast season and it's beautiful out right now as I look out my window. The last week to 10 days, we've had a little bit of gnarly weather. We've had winds kinda coming from the North Northeast. We had tropical storm, Kyle churning out off Cape Cod, sending us plenty of wind and waves but it looks like things have quieted down. We're back to our 80-degree temperatures and our nice warm wind from the Southwest, which makes Cape Cod Bay pretty much flat as a pond and that's what we like here during July and August here on Cape Cod. So we got a great podcast in store for you today. We've got our usual panel of guest experts lined up. We're gonna be joined in a moment by MFCC founder and creator, Ryan Collins. We're then gonna be joined by Bruno Demir from down at his office at Cape & Islands, Mitsubishi and last but not least, we'll be joined by Phil Howarth from down at The Goose Hammock in Orleans. So let's dive right into today's program, shall we? First step on this week's edition of the, "My Fishing Cape Cod" podcast is My Fishing Cape Cod founder and creator, Ryan Collins. Ryan, how are you on this beautiful day?

- I'm doing well, Kevin, it is a gorgeous Friday. A little bit cooler, it definitely feels like late summer.

- I know one of the first things that we wanna talk about is the amazing accomplishment of the members and let's talk about the members in the forum and the sum of money that they raised this week for Rifles to Rods.

- Yeah, I just wanted to mention, thanks again to all the members in the forum who contributed and donated to Rifles to Rods. We raised exactly $2,000, which is great and if you're not familiar with Rifles to Rods, they are a nonprofit that takes veterans fishing and they use fishing as therapy. So always awesome to be able to help them. And I just wanted to say, thanks again to everybody who donated to that cause.

- We're gonna talk a little bit about black sea bass, Ryan. Later in the podcast, I always ask our good buddy, Bruno Demir from down at Cape & Islands, Mitsubishi about black sea bass but I know some of the members are still getting into the black sea bass as well.

- Yeah, Tim Donnelly, I was going through the forum today and I saw that Tim, I think yesterday or the day before had a pretty nice trip for himself in Nantucket Sound and everybody gets so excited about black sea bass during the spring time and they often come in very shallow water, especially in Cape or Buzzards Bay, excuse me. But I haven't really been hearing about or seeing people posting too much about black sea bass since the spring. So I was really happy to see that Tim got into some keeper black sea bass. I believe he was around Bishop and Clerks, which is a reef in Nantucket Sound. I believe that actually back in the 1800s, they used to be a lighthouse on that rocky reef. It can be kind of a little dicey area but it's very productive for bottom fishing. So that was good to see and I think Tim got those black sea bass using a big buck tail jig with a gulp curly tail, which is always a go to.

- Now, Ryan, we were talking a little bit. Yesterday, we had a chance to visit but it seems like some of the funny fish have arrived here on Cape Cod.

- I haven't heard anything about albies yet aside from some stray rumors and that's pretty much how it goes. Who knows, maybe somebody has caught an albie but I haven't personally seen any evidence of albies just yet but the bonito are here in force. They really arrived big time, they weren't here earlier in the year but then they kinda went quiet. But then again, just this past week, yesterday and the day before, in particular in the forum, Jonathan Gaitlin, who's one of our top posters in the forum. I always like reading his reports. He got into some really big bonito. Based off the pictures on the forum, I don't know how big they were but they had to be at least 25 inches long, I would guess if not a little bigger, monster bonito and he said he was out over by Nantucket and the South side of Martha's vineyard, which is normally I believe, where you get those real big bonito. I know last year at this time of the summer, trolling Azores and swimming plugs around Squibnocket and that area produced some 30-inch long bonito. So, hopefully that will happen again. There are smaller bonito in Cape Cod Bay as well, so you've got the smaller bonito in Cape Cod Bay and then if you want a really monster bonito, then I would head over towards the islands.

- A lot of times, Ryan, the albie show up in Buzzards Bay when they do show up. Can you give us a little bit of a report on Buzzards Bay and the conditions out there?

- From what I'm gathering, there's plenty of bait. So the stage is set. That's what everybody always says, right? So when the albies do arrive, there's gonna be plenty for them to feed on at Buzzards Bay, unless things change. I've seen quite a few flocks of birds myself and in the forum, I've been reading about members such as John Kingston, who's another top poster in our forum. He reported tons of bait and birds all over the place in Buzzards Bay this past week and Alice Cadet, who we've talked about before on the podcast here, he got into a ton of bluefish this past week. I think mostly snappers up to like, five pounders all throughout Buzzards Bay, looking under or working under the birds. So if you're heading out to Buzzards Bay, the stage is set and I think the albies could show up at any point. Last year, they showed up the last week of August. So it's just about that time of the year. It's definitely worthwhile to bring some binoculars with you whenever you're surf casting or going on the kayak or the boat because there are plenty of birds in Buzzards Bay and definitely lots of bluefish in schoolies and hopefully some albies sooner than later.

- Ryan, let's talk about the canal real quick. I haven't heard a ton about it. Can you give us a brief report on the canal, the East end and the West end?

- Well, I think people got spoiled this year or excuse me, people got spoiled in previous years and seeing the videos on YouTube, et cetera, of these huge canal blitzes, there's been some nice fish, some nice blitzes here and there but in general, it's been a slower year for sure. And I don't have any big news over the past couple of days. I did see in the forum, Steven Nassawits, he reported a few schoolies and one small port of fish that he saw for like 10 seconds. I think that was yesterday or the day before. Tim Mogherini, he did well earlier in the week at night, he did catch some slot-sized fish in some shorts and he's been using teasers to imitate some of the smaller bait that's around. There's a lot of silver sides around, there's a lot of small peanut bunker around. So there's definitely bait in the canal but I haven't really heard too much about big fish. I guarantee there's some in there but you're definitely gonna have to work at it. It's not gonna be blitz type fishing. Hopefully that'll change and maybe we'll have a great September, October but it hasn't been blitz all out, everybody getting 40-inch fish that's for sure. You gotta really work at it and most people that I'm seeing in the forum or talking to are reporting schoolies and not a heck of a lot of 'em, but a nice thing to keep in mind off the East end of the canal, there were some really nice bonito feeds yesterday. So that is something to keep in mind. If you're going down to the canal, maybe check out the scarce at Jetty and bring some lawn cashing metal lures with you 'cause you might have a chance of hooking a bonito.

- And Ryan, I know you've been doing some floating around in Cape Cod Bay in the tin boat from time to time. What are you seeing out there in Cape Cod Bay?

- Lots of birds. That's pretty much what I'm hearing from people all throughout the Cape is, there's lots of small bait around, small peanut bunker and there's lots of turns and all sorts of birds working over these piles of bait. And yesterday, I found schoolies and bluefish. I actually got one 28-incher in the tin boat. Like you said in Cape Cod Bay, that whole stretch of the South side of Cape Cod Bay from the canal down to Trunchbull and East towards Brewster flats, if you gotta be fishing in that area, just look for the birds. And sometimes the bass are extremely finicky around when they're on a small base. Like yesterday they were hitting poppers pretty good.

- All right, Ryan, thanks for all the intel this week. Really appreciate you taking some time to catch up with us and we look forward to our next visit.

- Thanks Kevin, I'll talk with you soon.

- Well, up next on today's edition of the, "My Fishing Cape Cod" podcast is our good buddy, Bruno Demir, Bruno, how are you today?

- Doing fantastic on this lovely windless sunny afternoon. Unfortunately, stuck at work but not for long.

- How are things down there at Cape & Islands, Mitsubishi?

- They are awesome, deals are hot, inventory is low but we still managed to get some really good trucks in and foray to cater to our fishermen.

- That's good to hear and let's get right into the fishing, Bruno. We're gonna talk about a wide variety of species on today's podcast but let's start off with striped basses. I know that's what most of our members wanna hear about. What are you hearing about the striper bite right now, Bruno?

- Your striper bite, your best bet for a striper right now is going to the Brewster flats if you're casting from land and then if you got means to a boat, your best shot is to basically go from the East end all the way down towards Scorton Ledge. There's plenty of striper. Your only obstacle is they're on really small bait so they can be finicky. So bring in your smaller jigs and see what you can pull up.

- Any intel, Bruno on Nantucket Sound as far as striped bass are concerned?

- I haven't heard too much about striped bass on the Sound side but I am hearing that guys are starting to get on funny fish on that side of the cape.

- Well, that's good to hear. Talk a little bit about the funny fish bite that's moved into the area.

- Well, I could tell you, I'm seeing a lot of activity and a lot of guys call me and telling me because I'm a bonito addict and if you're a member of MFCC, you'll see that John Gaitlin pulled up one of the biggest bonitos I've seen in a long time and they really got on him around Nantucket. He gave us some details on where he caught it on the forums but if you're a member, you could see what he was talking about on the forums, which is one of the best advantages of it. But you can see some funny fish starting to pop up, especially I've seen albies coming up on the West end of the canal and you're seeing albies around the island. So, it's a matter of time probably next week when you're gonna see the albies start coming right into the Sound.

- Bruno, I know you like to get out on the boat from time to time when you can get away from the office. What kinda bait are you seeing floating around out there?

- There's a lot of small, like silver backs, a lot of peanut bunker. If you're a bait fisherman, it's tough to find bait, as far like lifeline and mackerel, you're gonna have to go up to P-town to get it or East of Chatham to get your mackerel. So far as bait goes, you're gonna have to stay smaller this time of the year or if you don't wanna guess and you wanna hook up and you wanna make it fun for kids, you can't go wrong with the tube and worm this time of the year. I don't know if you saw, we pulled up a 28-inch fluke last week and it had a mouth on it, the size of the striper but the fluke bite down in the Nantucket shores are still on. I think those fish are gonna be there for the rest of this month and next month. And then, naturally when our first storm comes in in the fall is when you'll start, you'll go there and there'll be nothing. So if you're a fluke fisherman, you gotta get down there now, not another time. I'm even seeing guys pulling fluke up in Cape Cod Bay, which I haven't seen that in, God knows how many years. So it's nice to see that the fluke are making a big comeback but if you're looking for the doormat, your best bet is take a long ride down to Davis Shoal in Nantucket and that's where the bigger ones are. But if you're looking to fill your limit, Nantucket Shoal is the way to go.

- And have you heard anything about sea bass still kicking around, Bruno?

- The sea bass were pretty thick in the shoals for a while but I think after some of the wind that we've gotten, they're starting to go back into the deeper water.

- And last thing I wanna ask you is just 'cause I know that you're relatively an expert on the Nantucket Sound area. We get a lot of people asking, Bruno about sort of tips or intel on how to fish in Nantucket Sound from the beach or if you wanna go out and launch a small craft. Any tips or advice for this time of year on people trynna fish in Nantucket Sound either from the beach or by boat?

- One of your best bets as fishermen is the landing over by Bass river. I would definitely try that if you're coming to the cape and trying something from land and you get a pretty good shot at picking up a bluefish, a striper and even a possibility of a funny fish. This time of the year, you never know what's gonna swim by the beach this year. If you're hitting the Soundbite boats, I would highly recommend Horseshoe Shoal. If you wanna get on some gator-sized bluefish this time of the year, there might still be some sea bass out in Horseshoe Shoal. And you could definitely try the entire reef if you wanna do some bottom fishing and keep the kids entertained. But if you take a little bit longer ride and get out towards the Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard islands, you're gonna see a good shot at some funny fish and some bigger striper.

- Well, that's great intel, Bruno. Really appreciate all the information that you're willing to share on the podcast. I know the members appreciate it as well. I'm gonna let you get back to work down at Cape & Islands, Mitsubishi, my man and we will talk to you in the near future.

- Sounds good, thanks.

- Well, next up on this week's edition of the, "My Fishing Cape Cod" podcast is our good friend, Phil Howarth from down at the Goose Hammock in Orleans. Phil, how are you on this beautiful morning?

- Well, it's certainly a beautiful day, Kevin. I wish I was fishing but you know, another day, another working day but no, it's glorious, thank you.

- Phil, I know you're a really busy guy and we appreciate you taking time outta your busy schedule to share with us some information and let's dive right into the topics that we have this week. And we wanna start off with some surf casting reporting. Any surf casting action along the bank beaches this week?

- Yeah, it's slowed down a bit because the pogies moved off last week. Last Monday, they all disappeared. So for a week or so now, the pogie's been hard to find and that storm we had blew some cold water which kinda slowed it down a bit. With that said, what day are we on? Friday, on Monday night, one of my friends had a 45-inch fish off on the beaches. So yeah, the fish are still there. It's more of a nighttime bite and we're still casting the big plugs since the big outcast lures or the big ocean bones or big dibs and things like that, the classic old big, heavy pencil poppers do well, especially when the surf's been up out, that after that rough run, that really gets the bass going. So it's been pretty good but the people trying during the day aren't doing so well now. Like I said, the pogies were 50 yards off the beach. They're not there anymore.

- How has the action been inside Cape Cod Bay in general and out toward P-town, whether it's, you're hearing things from the beach or by boat in the bay?

- It's mainly boat bites, aren't doing okay. Anderson, he fishes in Cocoa Bay from Rock Harbor and Richie , he had two, 40 pound fish on at Chatham last week during the day of my pogies up near Wellfleet Harbor. So there's still some big fish in there. The water temperature has gone down a bit. So yeah, that ironically in the bay is a good thing 'cause it's like 80 degrees at one stage and now it's in the high 60s again. So that will get the fish a little bit more turned on but the other thing that's been really good, which actually is helping the beach guys as well, especially at around Wellfleet. If you can get off the Turnet Island, there's been a really good bluefish bite and yeah, bluefish are always hungry, always aggressive. So sporting to catch and especially around the Wellfleet area off the beaches, especially in the evening, more so in the evening during the day, there's been some really good blitzes and some really nice sizes, eight, 10, 12-pound bluefish been caught.

- Phil, are there any folks talking about funny fish arriving yet in the lower cape area?

- It's fair to say, everybody's talking about it. Everybody's talking, nobody's catching. I think the, so the albies aren't really here yet up this way but the bonito run has been insane. Again, I was speaking to Richie this morning. He had a 31-inch bonito on his boat yesterday. That's a honking grow of bonito and from a sporting perspective, epic fun and that was in Cape Cod Bay. So the bonito are running really strong, the biggest they've ever run and we know the albies are not gonna be far behind them. There's peanut bunker starting to appear everywhere and that's normally the trigger but I'd say, I know Danny from the story, Danny's got his day off on Sunday, he will be albie fishing. So I don't doubt in the next week or so. It's normally right about now that it starts. So it was kinda eminent but not here yet but they are down. I know down, I've heard of him down I've heard them as well. So they're coming.

- We just talked about baby tuna. Let's talk about big tuna, bluefin tuna. What are you hearing in terms of a report on the bluefin bite?

- Still batshit crazy. If you fish East of Chatham now, it's harder not to catch than it is to catch. I don't mean that in a blaze fashion, it's the fishing's feast right now. And I was talking to captain John Cozier on the Shearwater yesterday and what he reported was that south of the Sword, there's a huge pile of small fish in the sort of 45 to 70-inch category and yeah, they're starting to move North through the Sword. I've heard more and more people at the Sword catching smaller fish in amongst the bigger fish, which is fantastic for the guys with a recreational license. They're still deep but yesterday when John was down there, he saw surface breaking small fish and he marked them at 30, 40 feet. So the fish are starting to come off the sand dunes on the bottom and hopefully, I think I told you in the last report is we fished the Peach Canyon last weekend or we can just go on the weekend before and we came across five miles of halfbeaks just off Nantucket and as those halfbeaks come in to the Chatham waters, then these smaller tuna are gonna get very aggressive on the surface and we could get run and gun season, which will be phenomenal but there's still big fish out there. One of my customers yesterday received his first ever bluefin, it was 86 inches. He got that way safely and then his next fish of the day was a 72-inch fish, which he kept. So he's got tuna for the winter. So yeah, really good. I'm still hearing it more of East. I know middle bank is, especially well but the traditional areas off the golf ball and things are still quiet and that's mainly 'cause of halfbeaks someone caught there. It's all coming together and I think, come Labor Day, I think it's just gonna start getting going, mate. I really do.

- I know the Big Game Battle just took place. What are you hearing about the canyons?

- Yeah, I heard I was in the wrong one. I fished the other day and I should've been in Hydro 20 miles ago. The Hydro bate was insane during the Big Game Battle. One of my customers went to for eight on White Mile and another guy got wolf packs by big big eye, 200 pound plus big eye and pretty much broke everything he had on the boat 'cause they're that disruptive a fish. Bigette actually ripped one of his, one of his stingers was hanging in the outriggers while he was fighting another fish and another big eye came up and took it out midair. The beach where we were was quiet. We tonged the mahi-mahi and we got a few yellowfin but Hydro is where it's at but the waters will slowly be going South with that ref whether the canyons are just settling down for this weekend. I'd move in-house tomorrow. So I'll kinda tried to stay focused on that rather than reading. I get the daily Ross reports, which torments me on a daily basis 'cause I can't see where it is. I haven't looked at that for a day or two but the canyon still will be hot, yes. You just gotta find out where the break is and obviously after rough weather, you don't get a settle temperature break for very long. So it doesn't give the time for the fish to consolidate but if you get on, the bait's been red hot out there.

- Phil following the Instagram for The Goose Hummock, it seems like your son's been doing some freshwater fishing and cashing some largemouths and we've talked a little bit about the great kettle ponds that Cape Cod has to offer. Talk a little bit about what the Goose Hummock has to offer the fresh water fishermen and how freshwater fishing is going this summer?

- Yes, this obviously, yeah, as I say on these reports, the trout things, a waste of time but the largemouth fishing is really good. Jake caught a four and a half pound fish the other day. One of his mates, he lost it to the boat, estimated five pound fish. There's fish in St. Cozy, also fish in, there's a lot of juvenile poach around and the largemouth bass, absolutely love it. So throw perch pattern, whether it be Yo-Zuri stick baits or something. , they've been doing really well and gearing up for the fall, we were low on inventory. We've just brought in a huge striking order and a huge freshwater bought at about 30, $40,000 worth of freshwater gear to help everybody get ready for the fall as the striper fishing starts to slow down. So yeah, we've got it all. It's a part of Cape Cod fishing that gets overlooked. The largemouth, catching a four or five pound fish, Jake was in his pedal kayak. It's a great sport, great fun and the waters actually stay pretty clear this year. So you got, yeah, you've got great visibility. It's really good, really good fun and you can go any of the ponds. A little bit of advice would be to try and search out the more remote ponds without giving Jake's pond away because the ponds in Nickerson, for example, again, absolutely hammered now because there's so many people in the park. Be a bit more adventurous and subject to making sure you've got legal access to a piece of water. Try and get on somewhere different and if you can't try and get out on a kayak or something, just peddle around the boat.

- And Phil, we also saw an Instagram that The Goose is fully stock with some clamming gear. I've been doing a lot of shell fishing this year. I got my shell fishing license up here in Plymouth. It's been great, I've been getting sea clams, steamers, mussels. Talk a little bit about what The Goose has for the shell fishermen.

- Yeah, the shell fishermen, we stock at a company called R.A Ribb. So Maggie Ribb is a wonderful lady. We sell her ribb breaks. So we have a full range from, the only thing we don't have these little at the moment because a guy left the business but they're coming soon. We have basket race, we have scratches and the lovely thing about them all, they're all handmade in Harwich. So it's nice to be dealing with a local Cape Cod company but it's a wonderful family activity and come the social distance in rant. It's a wonderful gateway to get away from everybody and just easily catch your dinner. You don't need the expensive fishing rod and rail or anything, just go climbing and have some fun at low water. The other thing is as the water starts to cool off a bit, we've got a full range of whether it be sidewaders or chest waders, depending on how keen you are to get wet. But all you need is a raker basket and a gauge and a license from the town that you're gonna be shell fishing in. Really cool way to spend the day, really is.

- Thank you, Phil so much for your time today. We really appreciate you sharing so much of it with us and so much information with all the members and I look forward to catching up with you in the near future.

- Thanks, Kevin. Yeah, speak to you soon. Have a great weekend.

- Well, thanks to Phil Howarth from the Goose Hummock Shop down in Orleans for sharing some time with us on this beautiful morning and thank you to all of our guests that joined us on today's edition of the "My Fishing Cape Cod" podcast, starting with MFCC founder and creator, Ryan Collins, Bruno Demir of Cape & Islands, Mitsubishi and last but not least, Phil from down at The Goose Hummock in Orleans and also a big thank you to all of you, the members who are listening to the podcast. So thank you so much, everyone for joining me on this week's show. This is your host, Kevin Collins signing off the, "My Fishing Cape Cod" podcast and until we talk again, tight lines and take care.

- Thanks for tuning in to the "My Fishing Cape Cod" podcast. For the latest local news, information and fishing reports, be sure to log onto myfishingcapecod.com. From all of us at My Fishing Cape Cod, tight lines and take care.