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(23:02):
Well, up next on this week's edition of the Mya Fishing Cape Cod podcast is our good friend AJ Ktz from down at the beautiful red top Sporting goods in Buzzards Bay. Aj, how are you this week? I'm

(23:13):
Doing well, how are you doing?

(23:14):
Doing well, aj hanging in over here. The first thing I wanted to ask you about to give me a taste of home is the Cape Cod canal. Something I long to see, how's that been fishing ahead of this big blow we're supposed to get this weekend?

(23:26):
Yeah, so the canal for almost a couple of weeks now almost since the last time we talked has been pretty steady. There's plenty of slot size fish around, there's plenty of above slot size fish around up to probably close to the 40 inch range. Guys are getting those early morning on top water evenings on top water. They're jigging during the day, even some guys getting them on chunks. So it's kind of like the late summer run, early start of the fall run if you will. And on top of all the bass that we have around, we also have blue fish around big blue fish. So they've definitely been putting a hurting on the guys jigging, the soft plastics and stuff, but nonetheless, they're still picking up plenty of blue fish. And then lastly, we finally have alies in the canal as some people like to call 'em canal bess, so it's always fun to have canal bes around. They pose an interesting fishery and being able to catch 'em in the canal is no easy feat, but it's pretty cool that we're able to do it.

(24:36):
Yeah, you not only mention it's a challenge, but it's also really cool from the perspective that you don't need a boat or to be out in a kayak. You can target these fish from shore, which is just a really cool opportunity.

(24:50):
Exactly. And some of the more heavily fished areas like Woods Hole and Falmouth and the Elizabeth Islands guys who were doing that out on the boat in the kayaks, those fish tend to be a little more pressured in those areas, whereas you get 'em up into Buzzards Bay, the north part of Buzzards Bay into the canal, and what we actually tend to see is that the fish are a lot less finicky in the canal. For example, one of my customers got two this morning on a top water pencil popper that he was throwing for stripe bass, which in Alby realistically has no business hitting. Yesterday I saw a picture from one of my customers, he had a five ounce savage hanging out in Al's mouth that he caught in the canal. I mean it just goes to show you if you threw those baits out in those normal spots that the guys are fishing for Avi's, I mean you get laughed out of there, but in the canal because they're less pressured, it's almost like they tend to feed harder and more aggressively. So it's pretty cool.

(25:55):
Yeah, we like the non-discriminatory feeding abbeys and what a cool byproduct. You're dragging something along the surface looking for a striper and to get an albee that's kind of a treat.

(26:05):
Yeah, I mean that's kind of the trifecta of the canal that, and you hit the grand slam if you get a tog or something in the same

(26:12):
Day. And speaking of tog in Buzzards Bay, is the water cooled down at all yet? Are guys trying for tog maybe out in Buzzards Bay yet?

(26:20):
So oddly enough, the surface temperatures in the marinas are still like bathwater. I mean low to mid eighties in some of the surface temps in the marinas, but as you get out into the deeper water and the higher moving areas of Buzzards Bay, there is tog starting to pick up. Guys are pretty much exclusively getting them on either high low rigs with a green crab or jigs with a green crab, but they're doing okay out there and there's still guys out there fluke fishing that are doing okay now that CVEs is closed.

(26:55):
Well that's good to hear this fluke and tog at least as an option in Buzzards Bay because for the last month to maybe almost two months that we've spoken, buzzards Bay has been pretty quiet, just too warm really for anything. So I'm encouraged to hear this and as the fall run goes right, we're going to start to get an influx of stripers moving through that area.

(27:15):
Exactly. And just to touch on what we spoke about with the Albe, the canal Albee's are also in Buzzards Bay, so now that the water is kind of probably well beyond its highest point and it's starting to drop, we will see that influx of stripers and blue fish making their way south and the als are around so you can fish for those and then bottom fish and starts to pick up this time of year too, so really starts to happen again after the peak warmth of the summer.

(27:44):
Now we also have a tuna fishery, AJ that I believe is active again, that just opened up. How's that been going?

(27:50):
Yeah, so there was a commercial bluefin tuna tournament on Sunday. It was hosted, you could only catch blue fin tuna of commercial size and you could only catch 'em in Cape Cod Bay and I don't know what it was, but the conditions were decent and fishing was pretty difficult. The next day, Monday, Monday it went off. One of my pro staffer, Matt Maher of fishy business sport fishing had a solo 104 inch fish because one of his charters, one his charters canceled. So he just went out, sold 104 or so, just goes to show you what a day can do. I'm turning that fish on.

(28:34):
And are these guys using the plethora blue fish as bait large baits for these giants or what are they using for bait of choice? I know the giant fishery tends to be a live bait one.

(28:45):
Yeah, so it's definitely a live bait. You can nail it down to three baits. You're either going to be using a live mackerel, a live poey or a live blue fish. Pogies have been working very well out in the bay. The macro's been pretty good as well. But if you could hook a, not a giant blue fish, but a large snapper sized blue fish and you throw him out on a kite, I mean that's a great way to get yourself a thousand pounder out there right now.

(29:15):
Yeah, I would have to think, what would you say for the size on the blue fish, but a kite or a balloon or something like that with a medium-sized blue fish has got to be a great appetizing bite for a 600 to thousand pound fish in the bigger the bait sometimes the bigger the fish, right?

(29:34):
Yeah, I mean no doubt. I mean a thousand pound tuna would look at most blue fish as a Scooby snack, so getting the bait, I mean you don't want it to be too big because then you have to worry about how to hook 'em and him screwing with your kite and stuff like that. But average snapper anywhere to an average sized blue fish makes a great T of bait off a kite.

(29:56):
Well that's good to hear that the giant fishery is doing well inside the bay. I know we've got this weather moving in, aj, I'm thinking about everybody back home. I know we're going to get some good wind and some good swell coming up. Hopefully that doesn't do a whole lot to the fishery, but it's going to blow a lot I think from the north and northeast as we head into the weekend, so hopefully it just doesn't kill everything. That would be my concern.

(30:20):
Yeah, it looks like the storm is going to be pretty far east of us and we'll just have some residual rain and wind given that the storm is looking like it's going to stay offshore and probably hit to the north of us. The fishery shouldn't just completely end. What we'll see is we'll see the water gets stirred up. It'll take a couple of days of the tide cycling and out to clean up that water and then could be kind of the start or maybe even the peak of the fall run and then right up until the storm when that pressure's dropping and those, the fish can sense that and they're going to start feeding like crazy. And then once that storm's here, they're going to hunker down and be nestled in for a little while. So it'd be interesting to see how good the fishing gets right before the storm hits.

(31:09):
Yeah, you feel like Thursday night into Friday, potentially Friday night till it gets dangerous toward midnight Friday night I think is when it's really supposed to kick up. You got to think Friday and Friday evening, especially early evening, it's going to be an optimal time to get down to the canal and potentially have a great night.

(31:27):
Yeah, I mean I would certainly predict that. Like I said, those fish sense, that pressure's dropping, that storm front's coming in. So I mean they know that they're going to have to feed and that they're probably going to be hunkered down for a bit. So it really is a great time to fish as long as you don't mind braving the weather a little bit.

(31:44):
Last thing, aj, what's been going on at the shop since I've been away? Anything new it's special or exciting you want to tell folks about?

(31:51):
We did just bring in island X lures. It's not necessarily a new lure to the market, but it is new to us. He's got a range of lures from Albee, stripers, even Bluefin for that matter. So nice to have. I think he's a local kid from one of the islands, and so it's nice to have a little bit more variety from some of the local guys. And we're actually in the hunt of getting a couple more local plug builders in for next year, so we're always trying to refresh the lineup.

(32:25):
All right. Aj, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule for checking in with us on the pod and we'll look forward to catching up with you probably the end of September, early October.

(32:34):
Sounds good, man. We'll talk to you then. Thanks.