For a quick overview of the guests and what is discussed in today's podcast, please scroll below.

A full-length written transcription is also available at the bottom of this post. 

You can access Phil's full report by clicking play below, or by reading the podcast transcription.

You can access Bruno's full report by clicking play below, or by reading the podcast transcription.

Next up is captain Matt Reinemo of Nantucket Tackle Center. According to Matt, stripers are being caught on Nantucket, however the size of the fish is lagging behind the Cape. 

Matt goes on to recommend some places around the island worth fishing if you're looking to catch your first striper of the year.

Matt also provides us with a rundown of the other species and fishing opportunities available right now on Nantucket, including freshwater fishing.

You can access Matt's full report by clicking play below, or by reading the podcast transcription.

Wrapping up today's show is Abbie Schuster of Kismet Outfitters on Martha's Vineyard. 

Abbie has been guiding this week and she's been catching stripers on the fly. In our conversation she provides plenty of helpful tips for anyone looking to catch their first Martha's Vineyard striper of the year.

Mackerel and other species are also arriving on the island. The freshwater fishing is still plenty good too.

You can access Abbie's full report by clicking play below, or by reading the podcast transcription.

Podcast Transcription

Speaker 1:
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.

Kevin:
Hello, and welcome to another edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod podcast here from my fishingcapecod.com. I'm your host, Kevin Collins, back with you for another episode of the podcast, and this will be another one of our famous fishing report podcasts that we have here for you in the second week of May, and things are certainly heating up. The striped bass have arrived here to Cape Cod and the Islands, and we've got a great show in store for you today.

We've got five guests lined up for today's podcast. Starting with MFCC founder and creator, Ryan Collins, Phil Howarth, the owner of the Goose Hummock shop down in Orleans, Bruno Demir from Cape and Islands Mitsubishi, who will join us live from his boat, The Gaviota. Next step will be Matt Ranamo with a full Nantucket fishing report, and last but not least our good buddy Abbie Schuster over on Martha's Vineyard at Kismet Outfitters. So let's dive right into today's program.

Well, as usual on this week's edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod podcast, our first guest is none other than MFCC founder and creator, Ryan Collins, and Ryan joins us via the phone as he does every week. Ryan, how are you on this beautiful day?

Ryan's Report

Sea Robins catch and cook

Kevin:
One of the other things we talked about last week; I know that we're going to pivot to salt water here, cause that's definitely what's heating up and on everybody's mind as we head into the middle of may and push toward Memorial Day weekend. You talked about bringing home a sea Robin when we talked last week on your trip, and I know you caught it, and I've caught a bunch of those in my life fairly recently. I think they're one of the ugliest things I've ever seen, but how did it eat? I'm curious.

Ryan:
Really good. Really, really good. We fried it up alongside some scup and Maureen could not tell the difference between the two species. I couldn't tell the difference between the two species. The tricky part is filleting the sea Robin. I might've mentioned it in last week's podcasts, but there's a pretty well done little YouTube video that Toby, from the Fishermen magazine, has up on the internet.

So if you Google how to filet a sea robin, you'll see that video, and it shows you how to remove the nice white meat from the tail of the sea robin. The rest of the sea robin is like armor plated spikes.

It's a crazy fish to filet, but if you follow the instructions in that video, you get some really nice white meat. We fried it up and it was absolutely delicious. You can bet I will definitely be keeping a lot more sea robins this year, especially because there's so many of them. Why not eat some of these fish that previously, people smirked? They're really delicious, they really are. I'm enjoying trying different species of fish this year, and I hope to continue that.

MFCC surfcasting competitions

Black sea bass fishing

Kevin:
Another thing I know I'm looking forward to this coming week is sea bass season opening on the 18th of May, so that'll happen before our next podcast. I know there's a lot of folks excited to target the sea bass, which are already moving into the area. I know that's one thing you and I have enjoyed doing over the last couple of years.

Ryan:
Yeah. They're a beautiful fish. They're fun to catch. They're good eating. When you get into them, the action is fast and furious. Like you said, it opens on May 18th. I'm sure there'll be a lot of boats out there in Buzzards Bay a little bit later on; they move into Nantucket's town. I'm sure people get them. Maybe Abbie can talk about if people are getting them over on the vineyard when you talked to her. I know I already caught some sea bass about 10 days ago on Buzzards Bay that were just under the legal size. So, I'm hoping there'll be out there on May 18th. I'll probably be out on May 20th, and we have some group trips for black sea bass that will be sailing soon as well.

Group fishing trip update

Kevin:
Yeah. Why don't you give some updates on the group trips? I know that's something that you've been working on behind the scenes here.

Ryan:
We've got a whole bunch of group trips that I'm got a roll out on May 16th for online registration. If you're a member of My fishing Cape Cod, you'll be able to register at 3:00 PM on May 16th. We have trips for black sea bass; we're doing two trips on May 20th. We're doing two trips on... I can't remember the dates off the top of my head, but we have eight total trips in late May for black sea bass.

Then, we have an additional eight trips in early June for striped bass. We have five trips on the books as of right now for bluefin tuna. So again, we've got to open that online registration May 16th. If you have not been getting the emails about this, then reach out to me and I'll make sure that you get added to the list so you don't miss your chance to register.

Cape Cod Canal fishing reports

Kevin:
The last thing I want to touch on, Ryan, before I let you go is just the canal. Can you give us a brief canal report on the chatter you're hearing?

Ryan:
I can. Let me just pull up the forum here because I know there are fish being caught down at the canal and I've seen some posts the last 24 hours. So let's see here. Two days ago, Tyler Martin, he encountered a nice push of fish in the morning. He said there were a lot of blitzing fish. Looks like he was catching mostly little guys. I haven't heard about any real big fish yet in the canal, but there's definitely quite a bit of action going on. Nathan Valladares said little guys were chasing small bait today in the canal. That was 48 hours ago. Let's see, Leo Schmidt got into a few at night on a blurple SP minnow 48 hours ago. Tim Mogherini, the last 24 hours, hit the flack after leaving Buzzards Bay at night 24 hours ago, and he got 10 fish between 18 and 27 inches on small profile soft plastics. I think guys are maybe seeing some shrimp down there, especially at night, so there's definitely some small bait in the canal right now. I haven't heard anything about [inaudible 00:12:04]

Ryan:
I'll be in the canal right now. I haven't heard anything about mackerel, or pogies in the canal just yet. Tyler, looks like he got one jigging. Looks like that's probably a four and a half ounce jig, and he's got one that is not keeper size, but a little bit bigger. It looks like this morning one of Tyler's friends got into some, and he also caught a Sea Robin and a pretty good size Sea Robin too. So I hope he brought that down to eat, and then last night, Tim was fishing with Chris Goguen and he landed about a dozen schoolies last night down there, the biggest was about 26 inches. And they're definitely on small bait. These guys are throwing three to four-inch soft plastics. So yes, there's fish being caught in the canal, it's great to see. The next thing will be the big fish. Who's going to get fresh fish over 40 inches? It probably will happen any time now, I would say within the next week at the latest.

Kevin:
All right, Ryan, I'm going to let you get back to your day. Thanks so much for that detailed report. I know the members appreciate it, and we'll let you get back to your day. We'll catch up with you next week.

Ryan:
Sounds good, Kevin, have a great day.

Phil's Report

Kevin:
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 Hummock Shop in Orleans. And Phil, how are you doing on this beautiful morning?

Phil:
Yes, it's a beautiful day, feeling great, thank you very much. So good.

Kevin:
Yes, it really seems like people have kind of kicked it into gear, Phil. I'm hearing of a lot of boats in the water and people going out looking for flounder, and looking for tautog and people even running into, some black sea bass out in the Nantucket Sound area. What are you hearing in the store?

Outer/Lower Cape striped bass report

Phil:
Yes, pretty much the same thing. I know if we start, I suppose on the big news really, is the fact that the Stripers arrived, all be it the little baby ones, but I saw some. I caught my first Striper the other night, in one of the back bays, the Pleasant Bay.

And yes, it was I don't know... if it was 12 inches it was because I stretched it, but he's gorgeous, really cool, it was the first one where the eight of us from the shop went out after work. We probably caught 20, 30 of them, had a great time, and that's really what's motivating everybody now. It's kind of like you know it's game time when the schoolies show up and they're all [inaudible 00:14:18], so that's really good.

We're in a moon cycle at the moment, hopefully they'll start to push through from Buzzards Bay. I haven't heard great things about Buzzards Bay, normally the bigger bass is staging in there, but that seems to be relatively quiet. But yes, I'm not an expert on Buzzards Bay. But yes, they come in and they start just sketching Cape Cod Bay, but like I say, they're in town coast, they're in Pleasant Bay, they're in Bass River. So, get on a jetty somewhere and catch some small bites and you should get into it, yes.

Kevin:
And that's what I was going to ask you, Phil, when you and team goose were out the other night, playing around with the schoolies, it's also a great way to introduce the little ones to fishing. I was just going to ask, what were you throwing at them?

Phil:
We were throwing a lot of little small stuff. So, we were doing the surface bite because that's the best.

Kevin:
Yes.

Phil:
It kind of looked like a little Apollo's, little spooks just on the new Yo-Zuri is really good, just kind of like light colored. The bone colors are great on the top surface, try and rig him with an inline, hook if you can rather than an inline singles rather than the trebles. But, those small boats, were getting below us.

One of my staff Max, who you know, actually caught one on a Sproat frog pattern on the surface blocking around, which is very funny, because it will hit anything that's moving, it's just slow twitches in the rod. And then because the creek chub have all been busting out, we absolutely tonged him on. I use the hyper lastics, five and a half inch in the black Shiner pattern look just like one of those Creek chub, and they can't resist it, because it's a single hook. So it's really easy for anybody, especially the youngsters to safely release the fish, which is so important, especially with these smaller ones.

Inshore boat fishing

Kevin:
Now I hear people really, as I mentioned off the top of our conversation here, really putting the boats in the water this week. I know a couple of my friends are actually going out today for their maiden voyages. I know tautog has been really good, and I know that there's some, scup moving into the area as well. Can you tell me what you've heard by way of any boat reports, Phil?

Phil:
Yes, so on the outside, on the sound side you're absolutely right, scup togs being right. One of my customers was trying, he's catching tog is actually trying to catch scup the other day, so it's all mixed up. The sea bass are definitely coming, obviously Tuesdays is D-Day for the sea bass season. So, we'll be out on Tuesday for sure, because I always like to fish the first day of sea bass, because they taste amazing and they're great, beautiful looking fresh and beautiful to catch, but they're popping up everywhere, they're also in the Bay as well. So, that is definitely just starting to go off a little bit. And also, the good thing is the flounder fishing is doing really well, as well. So certainly on Billingsgate, the flounder are all there. So really easy fishing, just drifting with worms and yellow grub, basically. They're not massive fish, but you'll catch your limits in a few hours, which is great.

Kevin:
Yes, and flounder are excellent eating as well for those looking to poke around inside Cape Cod Bay for sure.

Phil:
Absolutely. Yes, it's really easy fisheries, really easy fishing. Again, great fun for kids and things. Very accommodating fish. That's just going off nicely.

Mackerel and sand eel reports

I know it's still a little bit early, Phil, but have you had anyone report any mackerel sightings as of yet?

Phil:
Two things, my son was working on a climbing boat, surf climbing, and he was out on... Monday I think it was, Monday or Tuesday, and Jake said they were picking up sand eels in the dredge, which is fantastic news because sand eels has been a bit elusive recently. I've heard some really good reports of people seeing sand eels, obviously that will bring in the mackerel. And they were marking schools of mackerel, but I haven't heard massive reports of people telling me the mackerel are definitely here. My wife and I walked down Nauset Beach last night and we found two pogies on the beach, two fresh pogies, but something had been beaten up now, seagulls were finishing them off, there's a lot of bait around. So I think the mackerel are definitely due to be here by now. And I don't doubt if you get out there, east of Chatham and look around, you're going to pick them off for sure.

Kevin:
In mackerel and bait that we're talking about, go hand in hand with my last topic here, which is the off shore topic of tuna. What are you hearing about the tuna early in the season here?

Phil:
I know it, it lights out in New York, New Jersey, so they're just closed two days ago, they closed the trophy category, which is one big fishing year for recreational anglers. They closed that really early, and I heard of a 1,02, a 1,04 and a 1,06 inch fish being caught on the spin, which is a huge fish to catch on the spin down there. One of my, one of my charter captains reported that one of his mates in the lobstering world heard of fish being seen east of Chatham in amongst there, busting on the pogie schools. I don't doubt the tuna there about. The really exciting thing about the sand eels as I said earlier in this conversation is, that if we have a really good run of sand eels, that will go a long way to push the body of small fish north, they all sat off Connecticut and New Jersey last year.

So if we can get that up here it means, recreational anglers will have an absolute field day, and in the next week the waters, going to be warming up, it's going to be in the sixties for next week. It's kind of all coming to a head June 1, I think Memorial weekend is going to be bonkers, like you said everybody's itching. A new customer had his brand new boat today, he picked it up, and he's driving home and he said, he's launching it this afternoon, which I don't blame his new boat. My Marine shop and every other marine shop on Cape Cod is absolutely cranking right now trying to get people on the water.

Kevin:
And that's what I wanted to ask you lastly about Phil, was just the state of the shop. I know the mighty fish.com is all geared up for sea bass season, starting on the 18th, next week. You guys are doing a great thing by offering free shipping on all domestic orders, over 75 bucks, including kayaks, right to your door, which is unbelievable. But anything else going on at store that we should know about?

Phil:
I think on the store side, we ordered very early this year and we ordered very big. We have an insane amount of inventory, I don't want to be too boastful, but I think we have more inventory than everybody else on Cape Cod put together, and everybody who comes through the door can't believe how much. I just had a rep actually come through different industry, but he's like, my God never seen so much gear in one place. We're all geared up for the spring season, with the offshore room is really coming together as well with a lot of investments in that we have some huge new, low lines coming in from IMS, which is a Serbian company. Those are going on the walls today, and I have Jackson from Italy going on.

I have some really cool new offshore lures, it's the new order strategic coming in. But generally I have immense amounts of inventory on the walls. I think we have everything for when our summer visitors get here. Talking about my son Jake, yesterday took his girlfriend to the airport, and he was driving back yesterday and he got stuck on the bridge, from Wednesday he was stuck on the bridge. There's a lot of people coming this weekend because it's going to be a nice weekend. I think we're running into what is going to be a crazy season. We are geared up, we're all staffed up inventories for, let battle commence, I suppose.

Kevin:
Absolutely. And if you're heading down the Cape this weekend, feel free to stop in, to see Phil and his team, team goose down at the Goose hummock in Orleans. Phil, thank you so much for the report, and we look forward to chatting with you next week.

Phil:
Yes, look forward to it, thanks very much Kevin.

Bruno's Report

Nantucket Sound update

Kevin:
Next up on this week's edition of the my fishing Cape Cod podcast, is our good buddy Bruno Demir, from down at Cape and Islands, Mitsubishi. Bruno is joining us live from his boat, the Gaviota this morning, Bruno. How is it out there?

Bruno:
Oh man, it is like glass out here, it's just lake status.

Kevin:
Where are you? You in Nantucket sound?

Bruno:
Yes, I'm in Nantucket Sound. My wife and I just out here fishing on the rocks.

Kevin:
Nice, and you get a bunch of green crabs to use today?

Bruno:
Yes, we got our green crabs were anchored up, we're just spending some quality time together.

Kevin:
That's what it's all about my man. I know you've been spending some quality time in Nantucket sound as of late last week when we spoke, you were out there fishing as well. So why don't you give us like a quick little synopsis of what you know about Nantucket Sound over the last week or so?

Bruno:
It's really come alive guys, on my way out here, I could just see birds. I could see bait everywhere. There was marks everywhere, it's filled with schoolies, the tog fishing. It's definitely alive right now.

Kevin:
What are you seeing for bait, if anything out there Bruno?

Bruno:
You got a lot of a bunker, I see bunker out here, I see some peanut bunker. I think the squid action is pretty much coming to an end, but the good news is wherever....

Bruno:
And to an end, but the good news is wherever guys were catching squid off Hyannis and Yarmouth in the sound, now we got some really big hubcap scup in town. So the scup fishing seems to be picking up and getting hot. I expect a lot of chatty guys to get out there and load up on scup, and I think we're going to start seeing a lot of schoolies and the blue fish right behind us, probably next week.

Black sea bass report & giveaway

Kevin:
We're also on the doorstep of sea bass season, Bruno. I think it opens May 18th in the state of Massachusetts. When do you think that will start heating Up?

Bruno:
I mean, like I said in the last podcast, the sea bass was so thick that I couldn't get my [crabs 00:24:52] in front of a [codfish 00:24:54] last week. So there's already sea bass here, which is exciting to see. And typically though, the bigger ones that come into our waters, when they start spawning, you're going to see that last week of May and first two weeks of June, when it gets really red hot. And you get those, what we like to call knuckleheads, which are the big male sea bass that are about 20 to 23 inches.

Kevin:
And when you're really targeting those fish, Bruno, can you talk a little bit about what you're using for bait and your setup for those fish?

Bruno:
Typically, I like a high low rig. My cousin, Eddie pre-ties those for me, you can get it from his website. He usually has them ready to go, but those usually will have a jig on the bottom with a teaser up top. And we'll bait it with squid, usually the local squid that we caught a couple of weeks back.

Kevin:
And Bruno, on the topic of sea bass. I understand you were kind and generous enough to put up a sea bass trip with yourself up on MFCC. Talk a little bit about that for us.

Bruno:
Yeah. Couple of things that I'm a big fan of is getting kids out, [inaudible 00:26:14] on the boat and fishing and showing them the beautiful waters of Cape Cod, and getting them into fishing. And then the second thing is, sea bass is probably my favorite fishery on the Cape and I look forward to it every year, because it's just drop, lock and load. And when you got kids on the boat to keep her [mantle tamed 00:26:37], they get to be pulling meat over that rail back to back. And that's the type of fishery it is if you catch it right, so I'm going to give away a fishing trip on the [inaudible 00:26:50] with myself, my kids, and there's two qualifiers for it. One, You have to not have a boat, because I want to give this to someone that doesn't have the boat to get them out to that fishery. And secondly, you have to have a kit to bring with you, so that we can show them some of the great fisheries of Cape Cod and get them into fishing.

Cod and haddock

Kevin:
Well, Bruno, I know on behalf of everybody, that's an awesome idea. And I can't wait to see who ends up with that trip, and see some photos, and also hear about it here on the podcast. Another fishery I wanted to ask about was haddock. You and I spend a lot of time talking about haddock, and cousin Eddie's haddock rigs that he's been putting together for Monomoy Tackle. Have you heard anything about haddock?

Bruno:
Yeah, actually, Eddie went out last week up into Cape Cod Bay, and they found him not on Stellwagen, but west of Stellwagen in deeper water. And he was using his normal high low rigs with clams and they limited out pretty quickly. So the haddock is in full force up there in Cape Cod Bay. I'm also seeing a lot of winter flounder up there right now. So, the best thing for winter flounder is, try to find any sort of mussel bed and catch him using mussels for bait. That's another great fish right now in Cape Cod Bay. And then far as haddock goes for me, my boat is always at [Sacra 00:28:28], [Taka Marina 00:28:28], and Howard. So going to the Bay's a little bit of a drive for me. So what I do is, I go East to Chatham. So tomorrow, we have a trip lined up, we're going to leave early and we're going to be going East of Chatham for cod and haddock.

Kevin:
Well, I look forward to getting a report on next week's podcast Bruno, about that trip tomorrow. But in terms of this weekend, I know right now the weather's beautiful, it's supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. Folks are really going to start, I think, venturing out this weekend, the wind's kind of laying down a little bit, it's getting warmer. It's up around 70. Can you give people some tips that might be looking at fish, Nantucket sound, kind of what you would do if you were heading out there this weekend?

Bruno:
Yeah, like I said, scup is big right now. If you've got kids, just get yourself some squid and some high low rigs and go right out front of the south side, whether it be the [inaudible 00:29:25] off of [inaudible 00:29:26] or right in front of Hyannis Harbor, those are all going to be holding scup. Plan B is, if you're looking for something bigger, get some crabs, just find yourself a big stone or a rock formation, and drop some crabs down there. And lastly, keep an eye out for birds because there are schoolies around already. I was marking them left and right on my way out here. So I would say those are among your three best bets for the south side.

Kevin:
And the last thing I wanted to ask you about, Bruno, is there anything going on at the dealership this week?

Bruno:
Yeah. I got to tell you, I said it before, I'm going to say it again. The new 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander, and it's a full-size SUV that Mitsubishi just came out with, and it is an absolute game changer. If you're in the market for an SUV, before you look at the Toyotas and the Hondas, you got to see this car. It was about $8,000 less, and it has a 100,000 mile warranty.

Kevin:
All right, Bruno. I'm going to let you get back to it with your beautiful bride out there on the water. Hope you guys have a great day together and catch a bunch of [tog 00:30:35].

Bruno:
All right. Thanks, [Chuck. 00:30:38].

Matt's Report

Kevin:
Well, next up on this week's edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod Podcast is our good buddy, Matt Reinemo from over on Nantucket, in the Nantucket Tackle Center. Matt, how are you this week?

Matt:
I'm doing very well. How are you?

Kevin:
How's business been at the shop? Has it been pretty busy over there? People starting to make their way over to the Island?

Matt:
It has. Yeah, everybody's getting in for the season. You know, locals are getting their gear checked out and getting their new rod or their new reel, getting new line and, plenty of summer visitors arriving too.

Nantucket striper fishing report

Kevin:
So everyone's talking about striped bass. They're starting to show up pretty much everywhere around Cape Cod and Nantucket Sound. I'm hearing reports of giant schools of schoolies up on the surface feeding. What's the striper bite like out on Nantucket?

Matt:
We're still lagging behind the Cape. That being said, it is still getting better all the time. We've had fish over 25 inches caught, so we're thinking of keeper size any day now. And they're spreading out a little bit, instead of the first spot they arrive out in Madaket, they're fishing in the Nantucket main Harbor, there are fish on the south shore. There's fish in Madaket Harbor, and then a bunch of different places.

Kevin:
Well, I'll tell you what, Matt, it's encouraging to hear of fish of that size, even just the 20 to 25 inch range. Because I'm hearing a lot of, I'll say micro schoolies in the 12 to 15 inch range being caught with sea lice in this area. So, at least the fish that are showing up in your area are a little bit bigger class.

Matt:
Yeah, there's a good tournament going on now, the Spring Sea Run Opener, a charity tournament, and there's a handful of 20 plus inch fish on the leaderboard right now. And it's a month long. So I'm sure they won't hold up as the biggest fish, but yeah, there's some decent ones around.

Kevin:
If someone was heading to the island, let's say this weekend, wanted to get over there for a day and do some fishing from shore, what were some areas that you'd recommend to check out?

South shore report

Matt:
The south shore is easy because you can find it and walk along, and know one part it is going to be unproductive. Obviously there's better little points and holes and everything, and everybody's got their favorite little spot. But if you just walk along the South shore with a rod, you're going to hit plenty of productive spots. This time of year, early, the beaches from my [comet 00:33:14] west. So from about the middle of the Island towards the west end of the Island, tend to be a little better.

The water around [Sanctity 00:33:23] and the East end tends to be a little colder. So you definitely want to be looking for warmer water this time of year. And then there's a lot of shallow flats around the harbors. There's not a bad edge of a Harbor to try right now, whether that's a little creek mouth or the jetties and Hither Creek is also, the popular first, best spot the last few years. And there's some walkable shorelines around there, there's a couple of piers you can cast from if you want. So any one of those spots is a good bet.

Nantucket Harbor

Kevin:
I was going to ask you about three spots here really quickly. I'm going to start off with Nantucket Harbor, any reports of life in Nantucket Harbor?

Matt:
Yeah, there's definitely striped bass in there. There's plenty of birds diving on bait. I'm not really sure what sort it is. I think it's small rather than large, but there's probably mackerel in there too, chasing a little bait around. I know some guys have caught mackerel. I'm not sure if they were in the harbor or just outside of it in Nantucket Sound, but the Harbor's getting warm and that's definitely one of the first places that will get good. So if I was going to fish now, Nantucket Harbor would be high on my list.

West Jetty and Tuckernuck Flats

Kevin:
How about the west jettie, Matt?

Matt:
The best fishing that I've ever had, and the best spots I like along the west jettie are sort of in the Harbor. So if you call the west jettie inside, on the Harbor side of the jetty, there's a strip. There's a nice sandbar that runs from [brand 00:35:06] point to the west jettie. Drops off pretty nicely on the outside of that sandbar, I think it's a great spot. It's a great early season spot, it'll continue to be productive through the season. If there's mackerel in the Harbor, they're running around all over that bar, probably. So that's a good bet.

Kevin:
And the last thing I wanted to ask you about are the flats. I know you love sight casting to these early striped bass on the flats. Can I get a flats report from you?

Matt:
I usually go and I'll go in another week or so, and take a look for the first time. A lot of those flats are in and around Madaket Harbor and there's definitely fish there. So it's good, there's fish there. I'm going to check it out a lot.

Matt:
It's there, I'm going to check it out a lot harder in a little while, I haven't looked too hard there. I wouldn't think that it's great to get out on the middle of the sand flats of Tuckernuck right now. I think we're a couple of weeks away from that. But the flats that do butt up against Nantucket and are on the edges of the harbors and are around the Creek mouths and stuff. Definitely. Great, great spots this time of year.

When the big bass will arrive on Nantucket

Kevin:
In terms of the bigger fish that should be arriving to your area over the next couple of weeks, hopefully, is there a general point in time in the month of may, whether it's Memorial day, maybe just before or after, is there a general point in time that you kind of look to, where the first keeper generally starts to kind of make his way into the area or that class of fish moves into the area?

Matt:
You know, it changes so much from year to year. I think a lot of years, we've already seen a keeper by now. Early in mid may, there are a few bigger ones around. Years when I first started running a charter boat, and this is 20 years ago, we used to have pretty consistently a big fish in the rips by Memorial day, which hasn't happened in a while. So I think it's too hard to call. I would say this year, we're looking at, I would think a keeper's going to be caught this weekend, based on the size of the fish that had been caught in the last couple of days, but anybody's guests really.

Freshwater fishing report

And the last thing I wanted to ask you about is the freshwater bite. I know people are starting to kind of pivot and focus more toward saltwater, especially with the arrival of these first stripers the last couple of weeks, but any scuttlebutt going on that you're hearing in the shop? Is the freshwater bites still pretty good over there?

Matt:
Yeah. The freshwater bites, I think it's hard to tear yourself away from when you look. I mean, everybody's obviously excited about the first stripers and getting out there and getting the salt for the first time. But the reality is, I think this time of year you're going to be cold and you're going to take a lot of casts and success is far from guaranteed. And even if you find, it's not easy. Whereas if you go to a pond right now, it is pretty easy. Those fish are are active, they're hungry. And so if you're looking for action, I would give the ponds another week or two before you, before you transitioned over to salt.

Kevin:
And how about the shop? What's going on at the Nantucket tackle center this week? Any specials, anything going on we need to know about?

Matt:
You know, like every tackle store, we're trying to get set up and what's been sort of a crazy a couple of years now, or the beginning of a crazy year too, struggling to keep, to get in everything we ordered and look for it. We're doing pretty good. We have reels, we have rods and just trying to keep that stuff coming in and keep it going out on the shelves. That's what we're facing every day, I guess.

Kevin:
All right, Matt. Thank you so much for carving out some of your time to join us here on the podcast this week and hopefully when we chat next week, maybe you'll hear some reports of a couple keepers being caught.

Matt:
Sounds great. Thank you very much.

Abbie's Report

Martha's Vineyard striped bass fishing report

Kevin:
Well, next up on this week's edition of the MyFishing Cape Cod podcast is our good friend Abbie Schuster from over on Martha's Vineyard at Kismet Outfitters. Abbie, how are you on this beautiful day?

Abbie:
Great, thanks so much for having me.

Kevin:
It's a gorgeous day here on the mainland. Is the weather still pretty decent over there?

Abbie:
Yes. It finally feels like spring, so happy.

Kevin:
Yes. Spring fever has hit. Everyone is getting a little bit of a taste of summer. I know a lot of my buddies are putting their boat in the water this weekend and if someone's looking to catch their first striper of the year on Martha's vineyard and get on the board. Do you have any advice if they're heading your way?

Abbie:
Yeah. The pawns have been fishing really well still, the ocean is starting to pick up just a bit, but it's still a little bit slow. In a couple of weeks here, we'll have a good worm hatch.

Kevin:
Yep.

Abbie:
So that will be great and that will be in those warmer pods and stuff. So that's where I've been mostly guiding and it's been pretty good.

Kevin:
Yeah. I don't want you to give away all your spots, but any general areas for folks to head to if they're coming over for a day or for the weekend, maybe this weekend?

Abbie:
Yeah, [inaudible 00:40:39] has been great. The more the North side of the Island. I've yet to, I saw fish at [inaudible 00:40:46] one day, but that has been at [inaudible 00:40:52]. I don't know what happened to him, so I was stick to the North side of the Island

Kevin:
In terms of the fly, I know that's your passion. What types of flies or which is the hottest right now for you personally?

Abbie:
I've been using [inaudible 00:41:06] mud dog pattern actually, the dazzle bait. That's just basically all I've been using, but in a couple of weeks, the cinder worms is what I'll switch to for the evening?

Kevin:
And if you're a spin guy heading over there for this weekend or in the near future, any idea on what folks are using on the spin rods?

Abbie:
I haven't used any spin rods, but my buddies, we're talking about some top water action, which is pretty cool.

Kevin:
That is encouraging to hear. And speaking of top water action, a couple of places that folks wanted me to check with you on where Squibb Knocket and Lobster Ville. Where are you here in terms of the top water action?

Abbie:
Right up there, right up in [inaudible 00:41:49] . I mean, it's only been, I haven't done it, so don't Mark my words, just a buddy of mine and I were out and he was getting them on the top water, just on the [inaudible 00:42:00] right there. Super easy spot

Sea bass and other species

Kevin:
In while we're talking about salt water, I know we touched last week very briefly on some of the other species, Flander, sea bass. Are you hearing anything about those type of species fishing right now on the vineyard?

Abbie:
I haven't heard much, to be honest. I heard blue fish are on their way up, haven't seen them yet, but I haven't heard much for sea bass or flounder, no.

Kevin:
In terms of, if you were, a family guy with a couple of little kids and you were heading over to the vineyard, whether it be, this part of the year or maybe a little bit later in the summer and you wanted to go fresh water fishing. I know fresh water is a great intro to fishing for a lot of little kids, it was a great intro for me, small mouth bass fishing, before the age of 10, let's say, if you were looking to go freshwater fishing on the vineyard, maybe introduce your child or somebody that had never fished before to fishing, are there any areas you'd recommend?

Fishing spots for famillies/kids

Abbie:
Yeah. Well one that's not freshwater fishing, but where I learned to fish as a baby is Memorial ore, it's so much fun right there. There's always fish there and it's a great spot for kids, right in Edgartown. [inaudible 00:43:15] That is a really good spot that I recommend. For fresh water, Brian's pond on Sappy, it has some bass in it. There's a lot of little ponds.

Mackerel reports

Kevin:
And Abbie, I know these migratory stripers that are making their way into the area. I'm hearing some reports, very kind of second hand reports of makeral being spotted in the waters off Cape Cod. Are you guys seeing any makeral or larger Bay fish moving into the area?

Abbie:
Yeah, for sure. We have been seeing the makeral and then the other day too, [inaudible 00:43:50] and it was night and I could just hear [inaudible 00:43:53] water's really cool, bunker and stuff. So they're here, but yeah, we've caught a couple makeral, you know, they're not, I think the cape definitely has more of them than we do right now, but they're around.

Kevin:
And the last thing I wanted to ask you about Abby is just the shop, how things are going, and if anybody needs to know anything, are there any specials or anything going on this week or weekend?

Abbie:
The shop is good. It's starting to pick up. We just got a bunch of new flies in, we got the new sextant from Thomas and Thomas in this week, which is awesome rod to cast. And we're just having people stop by and cast it, in the yard here just to get a feel for it. So if anyone is interested in that, have them stop by, it's awesome.

Kevin:
And for those that might be heading to the vineyard this weekend, I know that the Cape traffic has been brutal already and it's only Thursday. I know it really started yesterday, so I can imagine there's going to be a lot of visitors may be headed your way, but Kismet Outfitters located right Edgartown. Abbie's also available on her website, kismetoutfitters.com and Abbie, are you going to be back at it guiding pretty soon?

Abbie:
Yeah, I've already started. I have a trip tomorrow and a few casting lessons, but the shop is open between my sister and I this week. So it's been good.

Kevin:
Well, it's a family business and be sure to stop the Kismet Outfitters if you're headed to the vineyard this summer. Abbie, thank you so much for joining us on this edition of the podcast and we look forward to catching up with you next week.

Abbie:
Looking forward to it as well. Thanks so much.

Kevin:
Thanks to Abbie Schuster for joining us from kismet Outfitters over on Martha's Vineyard. And that's going to put the wraps on today's action packed show. Want to thank all of our guests today, starting with MFCC founder and creator, Ryan Collins, Phil Howard from the goose hummock in Orleans, Bruno Demir from Cape and islands Mitsubishi, Matt Ranamo from over at the Nantucket Tackle Center and last but not least Abbie Schuster from Kismet Outfitters and Edgartown, Massachusetts. Hope you enjoyed today's podcast and got some good intel and information out of it. Hope everyone gets a chance to get outside and do some fishing, supposed to be an absolutely beautiful weekend. So until we chat again next week, this is your host, Kevin Collins signing off. Tight lines and take care.

Speaker 2:
Thanks for tuning in to the MyFishing Cape Cod podcast. For the latest local news information and fishing reports, be sure to log onto myfishingcapecod.com. From all of us at MyFishing Cape Cod, tight lines and take care.