In today's report Ryan Collins of MFCC) tells us about the success he's having with tautog and black sea bass from his kayak. He also fills us in on the shore-based striper bite from the beaches and at the Cape Cod Canal.
Ian Bragdon (Pro Staff Capt for The Goose Hummock) updates us on striped bass inside Cape Cod Bay & off the Backside Beaches. "Gator" blues are also still around, and freshwater bite is picking up! Ian finishes our convo by explaining differences and pros/cons of trolling vs casting for school blue fin when they are feeding on butter fish.
Bruno Demir (MFCC member and owner of Cape & Islands Mitsubishi) gives his report on bluefin tuna east of Chatham. According to Bruno the Monomoy Rips are still red hot, and at times stripers have been in tight to shore feasting on peanut bunker. Bruno finishes with his cod and haddock Report. 🎣
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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 (00:16):
Well hello and welcome to another edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod podcast from myfishingcapecod.com. I'm your host Kevin Collins, coming at you with our first episode of the podcast for the beautiful month of November and the weather has been great lately, so hopefully everybody's been able to get outside and take advantage.
(00:35):
We've got a great fishing report-style podcast in store for you today. We're going to start off with MFCC founder and creator, Ryan Collins. We're then going to be joined by the Goose Hummock pro-staff captain himself, Ian Bragdon. Last but not least, we'll be joined by MFCC member Bruno Demir, from down at Cape & Islands Mitsubishi. So an action packed show in store for you today. Let's dive right in.
(01:02):
As always, first up on this week's edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod podcast is none other than MFCC founder and creator himself, Ryan Collins. Ryan, we've had a pretty nice stretch of weather, beautiful sunshiny day. How's your day going my friend?
Ryan (01:17):
I've had a great day so far Kevin. And it's been a really mild fall thus far on Cape Cod. The fishing is still good for a variety of species, so it's a pleasure to be speaking with you again.
Kevin (01:30):
Now, I know the weather's been warm. I was in Cape Cod Bay up to my waist, yesterday actually, on Tuesday. The air temperature was in the, I'll say upper fifties, low sixties, and the water felt like it was warmer than the air, which was pretty surreal considering it was November 1st. So, definitely a mild fall and I know that leads to some kayaking opportunities for you as well. It's a safe opportunity with the water temperature still fairly mild and the air fairly mild as well. Have you got out on the kayak recently?
Ryan (02:05):
Yes, this morning I was out tautog fishing. The action was tremendous. I got plenty of keepers. Nothing really big but quite a few that were over the 16 inch minimum size. I also was surprised to be catching keeper size black sea bass, which was a real bonus.
(02:27):
I saw stripers and here's the real kicker, Kevin, I am nearly positive I saw a school of false albacore this morning and I checked the forum and I'm not the only one who's seen albies. Anthony Besaw posted that he saw some four days ago. So I think there are still, believe it or not, some albies kicking around.
Kevin (02:50):
That sounds like a pretty unbelievable morning for you out there and I'm very jealous because sea bass and tautog, you'd be hard pressed to find two better eating fish, so I'm sure you got some good meat for the table.
Ryan (03:05):
I released almost everything. I brought home two tautog. Now the black sea bass are out of season so they have to be returned, but I did take home two tog. Could have kept more, but I figured that was good enough for me.
(03:19):
I also spent a lot of time putting a camera down on the bottom today and I could see the tautog and just how competitive they are when they're fighting over the crab on the jig. As soon as that jig hits the bottom, I'm watching right now six to 12 tautogs swimming full speed straight at that jig. and I'll be publishing this video on the blog very shortly here. If you enjoy tautog fishing, I think you'll get a kick out of this footage. And I also just made a little post in the forum about where I saw those albies, so if you're a member, you can log in and get all the details in the forum and I'll also be sharing more over on the website.
Kevin (04:06):
Now I know earlier in the week as well you got a chance to do some freshwater fishing. Tell us a little bit about that.
Ryan (04:12):
I met up with two high schoolers, Jared Coates and Lucas Osborne and they're also involved with My Fishing Cape Cod, which is tremendous. We went fishing for large mouth bass and we actually tried doing this a couple weeks ago and all we caught were huge pickerel. But I'm happy to say that we stuck it out this past Friday on Halloween Eve and just before sunset, Lucas hooked up with a fish that was probably over four pounds and that was the one we were looking for. So I had all my camera equipment with me and I'm going to make a little video that will air during season six of My Fishing Cape Cod TV.
(04:57):
It was really cool fishing with those two guys because all summer long they've been competing in high school bass fishing tournaments throughout New England and it's a really cool opportunity if there's any younger anglers listening in, you can join this bass fishing league and actually compete just like you would with the guys that you see on TV against other high schoolers throughout New England. So I'll be posting more information. Actually, I did just post a full report with information about the lures we were using and the town we were fishing and I'll also include some links for any younger folks who want to get involved. You can check it out and maybe next year join as a team and compete in these bass fishing tournaments.
Kevin (05:54):
Getting back to saltwater, Ryan, just wanted to ask you how the striper fishing is going? We're now into November. The migration southward is definitely well underway, probably pushing toward the tail end I would think, but are there still a decent amount of bass around?
Ryan (06:10):
Yeah, we're pushing towards the tail end, but it's been so mild that there are still plenty of stripers around. I'm hearing good things about Monomoy today. I saw plenty of stripers. The canal's been good the past few weeks and there are even some gator bluefish caught last week in the canal, like really big bluefish. I know my dad saw some schoolies blitzing off the east end of the canal this week.
(06:39):
And a year ago, Kevin, first week in November was lights out. The beaches off of the east end of the canal, schoolies to 30 inch class fish, first week in November last year. So there's definitely a lot of fish still around. If you check the Surfcaster 2022 thread in the forum, you'll see guys like Mike Marcus, they've been catching fish up to 33 inches this week from the beach. So there's still plenty of stripers around. There's absolutely no doubt about that.
Kevin (07:13):
Yeah, and as you mentioned there's also some decent size blues pushing through the canal and the forum as always is the place to go, whether it's the Surfcaster's thread, the canal thread, there's always good intel it seems, especially this time of year when fish can be a little bit harder to find. The forum is a great resource for spots to try.
Ryan (07:34):
It is for sure and you can glean a bit more information in there because it's more of a tight-knit community as opposed to other places around the internet. So it is a great place to get updates and reports and also connect and meet some people that maybe you can go fishing with someday.
Kevin (07:52):
Well Ryan, as we push toward the end of our chat here, also wanted to touch on the membership. Thank everybody for another great season as we're pushing toward the end of the 2022 season, we're going to keep the podcast cranking well into the winter and through next year, God willing. You and I have had a great run doing this. I think we're kind of around 10 years into this project. We started the podcast just as a little bit of a hobby, but talk a little bit about the membership. I know things are going to change a little bit in 2023.
Ryan (08:25):
Well, they're not going to change for anybody who's already a member, but the time has come for me to kind of take a look at how I'm running My Fishing Cape Cod and how I want to continue running it for years to come. Ever since I started, I've had the dollar for your first month, $9.99 per month after that. So we've had that now for over a decade, but the time's come in 2023 for brand new members, the price is going up.
(08:55):
I haven't decided just how much it's going to go up, but it is going up. It's got to go up because my costs have increased substantially, especially over the past few years here. So if you're already a member, you're locked in at that low $9.99 per month rate for life. That's never going to change for you, but for new people, starting in 2023, and I haven't even set a date yet for when the change is going to occur, but in 2023 for new members, the price is going to be going up. So there's no better time than right now to hop on board, lock in that low price for life.
Kevin (09:34):
And Ryan, as we push toward the end of this year and look ahead to 2023, we can still look forward to all the great content on the website, the forum, the podcast, the TV show. We don't have any major changes ahead of us, right?
Ryan (09:49):
No, it's just going to keep getting better and better and I just need to adjust the price accordingly for new people starting next year.
Kevin (09:57):
Sounds like a plan my friend. Well, I will let you get back to enjoying your beautiful day. I'm sure you're going to spend some afternoon time outside and as always, thank you for joining us on this podcast and look forward to catching up with you in another couple weeks before Thanksgiving.
Ryan (10:11):
Sounds great, Kevin. Have an awesome day.
Kevin (10:13):
Well, coming up next on this week's edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod podcast is our good buddy Ian Bragdon, who is a pro-staff captain for the Goose Hummock down in beautiful Orleans, Massachusetts. Ian, how are you doing on this lovely Wednesday?
Ian (10:27):
Great, great, Kevin, thanks again for having me.
Kevin (10:29):
Oh no, it's always a pleasure to catch up with you Ian. I know you're a really busy guy. Let's dive right into today's program. Let's start with striped bass, something everybody's passionate about. Still seems like they're kind of hanging around in pretty good numbers because of all this warm weather and warm water.
Ian (10:46):
Yeah, this everything... I'm not sure what has caused it. You know, global warming, the warm weather, all this bait, but everything's a little later this year. The fall run is full on right now. There's bass off the beaches. There's big, big bass in the rips and there's even bass coming in with the tides in the bay. I've casted off all sorts of spots in the bay and got good schoolie action and Monomoy has some big, big migratory fish up to 45 inches. I even saw a bunch of pogies over there and I know some of the Nauset Beach guys have been doing great as well. So, overall it's been great. You just got to wake up early or fish the right tides.
Kevin (11:33):
I was going to ask you in particular, you know, I think we've seen a lot of reports from Monomoy and from Nauset, a lot of the outer beaches. I haven't heard a ton about fish, I think inside the bay. I've heard the canal has actually been half decent and maybe some of the beaches close to the east end. Just kind of curious as to what you're hearing about for regions in terms of guys wanting to try surfcasting the bay.
Ian (12:03):
Yeah, definitely the northern part of the Cape has produced but some of those guys are fishing at night and probably fishing bigger baits and only fishing for... You're not getting that many hits, but when you do get a hit, it's probably a larger fish.
Kevin (12:18):
Sure.
Ian (12:19):
Yeah, I also heard the canal had popped off and I also saw one insane video of a guy completely alone and there were upper slot fish just blitzing top water. It looked insane. So I know the canal guys have been venturing down big time. I personally haven't, but yeah, the nighttime in the bay and then just recently the canal, but haven't ventured down there myself.
Kevin (12:45):
Are you also hearing, I'll say some reports of bluefish sticking around?
Ian (12:50):
Oh yeah, there are gator blues. I went out with Cory Farrell, Miss Savannah Charters out of Bass River, on a guide's day off, and I think the smallest blue fish was like 34 inches. They're all huge and they're cutting full grown pogies right in half, all top water. They're always a good time.
Kevin (13:11):
And in terms of the offshore fishery, I know there's still a ton of wreck bluefin around, right?
Ian (13:17):
Yeah, I wouldn't say a ton. You got to-
Kevin (13:19):
You got to work for them?
Ian (13:20):
They're tough to find. Yeah, I mean, actually there's a lot of them out. They're probably likely on butterfish, which is a sub four inch bait, so they're tough to get. It's been foggy too, so I know that's always tough to spot fish, subtle fish eating on top when it's pea soup fog. But yeah, there's quite a few fish around and just like bass, it seems like this October fishery, this October season has pushed into November and it's been pretty great. So all the guys are excited.
Kevin (13:53):
It brings up an interesting question, you know, you mention the recreational bluefin. They're still around in decent numbers. The weather's warm so people are leaving the boats in the water and still getting out there. When they're on the butterfish, I know that there's multiple ways you can fish for the wreck fish, right? You can troll bars and you can kind of run a gun and basically cast for them as well. Is there a better method when they're on these smaller baits?
Ian (14:21):
I mean, you could try trolling small ballyhoo and the bar guys still are getting them. It's definitely not an epic bar bite, but I heard of a couple guys getting one or two in their early morning. But casting is going to be the way to do it.
Kevin (14:38):
Sure.
Ian (14:38):
So yeah, just a big 20k reel. Even though these fish are in the 50 to 60 inch class, you never know what you're going to get and you want to land them pretty quick just in case you do want to release one or two. I know everyone's keeping one or two, but if you do get into them good, you can have multi-fish days and you're going to want to throw them back. But yeah, 20k reel and a stiff rod and any small bait that's heavy enough to cast, but small enough to represent a butter.
Kevin (15:12):
Well, that sounds like great intel. The last thing I want to hit on, Ian, is just the fresh water fishery. Something that gets overlooked here quite a bit on Cape Cod, but in the fall as the water cools down, there's a lot of great opportunities.
Ian (15:26):
Totally. So the kettle ponds are just popping off now actually. It was like I woke up to fish really early the other day and it was like 47 degrees or 48 degrees, something absurd. So I know some of my buddies have caught some trout and I know they're targeting smallmouth as well. So I think as the salt water fishery starts to slow down, people start targeting the kettle ponds as usual there. It's a pretty underrepresented fishery and it can be insane.
Kevin (15:58):
Well, that sounds great and definitely something for folks to look forward to as we continue this very warm fall are those extended opportunities in the freshwater fishery here on Cape Cod. Ian, really appreciate you taking some time out of your very busy schedule. I know you're a really busy guy, but it's always great to catch up with you and we'll hopefully catch up with you again relatively soon here on the podcast.
Ian (16:24):
No problem at all. Thanks again for having me. Hopefully we can meet up on the water, otherwise I'll talk to you guys soon.
Kevin (16:31):
Well, next up on this week's edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod podcast is our good friend and proud MFCC member Bruno Demir from down at the beautiful Cape & Islands Mitsubishi, and Bruno, how you doing on this sunny Wednesday afternoon?
Bruno (16:46):
Well, I don't have much complain about Kevin. It's 65 degrees, sunny, and a beautiful afternoon here on Cape Cod.
Kevin (16:54):
Yeah, there's really no better spot to be right now. This time of year when the weather is like this. We've had a crazy mild fall.
Bruno (17:01):
Yeah, you got to love these. I believe they call it Indian summers.
Kevin (17:06):
Yep, exactly.
Bruno (17:07):
Right?
Kevin (17:07):
The summer that just kind of doesn't end. It lingers well into the fall. So we're going to go from summer straight to snow, probably the way we roll.
Bruno (17:15):
Most likely, that's usually how that goes down.
Kevin (17:18):
So let's dive right into the content, Bruno. I know that you've got some tuna trips coming up. I'm blessed enough to probably be part of one tomorrow on Thursday as long as the weather and the wind lays down, but there's still plenty of tuna roaming around.
Bruno (17:33):
Yeah, you know it's a fantastic year so far for the wreck side tuna fish out here on the Cape and that doesn't seem like it's slowing down at all. They're back out off of east to Chatham. They're on butterfish, so they're a little finicky, but they're still out here and they are fat. My gosh, some of the fish I've seen landed are just absolute pigs. So yeah, the tuna fish bite is still on. Don't put the boat away, get out there and troll some bars around.
Kevin (18:09):
And additionally to that, Bruno, I've been hearing a lot of reports of stripers still kind of roaming around the area into November here in pretty good numbers.
Bruno (18:19):
Yes, as a matter of fact, this morning I was on my way to Witchmere Harbor to gas up my boat and there was some nice size striper blitzing right outside the harbor in about six to eight feet of water. And I didn't have much time to fish for them, I had to get the gas and get out of there, but you could see him coming right up and feeding and blitzing with birds on him. So, they're definitely around.
(18:54):
And as a matter of fact, there's folks still catching really big bluefish and really big stripers at Monomoy still. There's just still tons of bait. Those tiny little peanut bunker have gotten bigger. The peanut bunker now are like four inches from what I'm seeing and that's kind of what you want. When they're on that bigger bait, they're not as finicky and it's a heck of a time out there when you're just casting and catching. Yeah.
Kevin (19:27):
The rips are still producing pretty well, huh? I know we've been talking about them for weeks it seems.
Bruno (19:32):
Well, you know I was talking to my cousin Ade the other day and it's like the water temperature's still 55 degrees. 58 degrees in some spots and you still got ton of bait. So, there really is no incentive for these fish to start migrating just yet. So I don't know when that'll be. I think that first really strong blow that pushes cold water in and pushes the bait out, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. So the fishing is still awesome out at Monomoy and in the south.
Kevin (20:13):
I talked to Ryan earlier in the show, Bruno, and he was out on his kayak and I think he was somewhere over in Buzzards Bay, maybe toward Falmouth. I'm not quite sure where his spot was but he was still getting keeper tog and actually keeper sea bass still as well this time of year.
Bruno (20:31):
Wow, that's unbelievable, isn't it?
Kevin (20:36):
And in line with the bottom or ground fishery, I know one thing you like to try your hand at this time of year as well before the season wraps up, usually do one last trip or two last trips on the Gavi to go poke around for some cod or haddock.
Bruno (20:50):
Yeah, absolutely. It has been a banner year for cod this year east of Chatham. The cod that guys are getting out of there are just the biggest I've seen in many, many years. I mean, these things just have shoulders to them, you know? It's difficult and a very sensitive subject, but now there's a slot on codfish south of Cape Cod, which I don't know if you're aware of Kevin.
(21:24):
So the issue with that is when you're pulling up a 35, 36 inch cod from 250, 300 feet fishing out at the Figgs or the shipping lanes, by the time you bring that fish up, he's hurting. And if you don't properly burp them and you don't properly handle that fish, it is very difficult to get a codfish that big to swim away and make it, you know?
(21:59):
So it's kind of interesting that they threw a slot out there. It's not the easiest thing to try to navigate around, but we're going to do our best to try to save as many bigger fish as we can and try to hit the slot. But yeah, the haddock, the pollock fishing has been unbelievable out there, so not sure what it is, but that has been a fantastic fishery here when it comes to the cod and the haddock this year.
Kevin (22:30):
So last fishing question, now we're in November, it's our first podcast for this month. What are your plans for yourself and the Gavi? You going to leave her in since the weather's so good for another couple more weeks?
Bruno (22:42):
Yeah, we were fishing out at Sesuit for a while out in Cape Cod Bay, but now she's back at Saquatucket on the south side and we're getting ready to do a couple of tuna trips, couple of cod and haddock trips and we'll be pulling her out first week of December.
Kevin (23:07):
And lastly, what's going on at Cape & Islands Mitsubishi?
Bruno (23:11):
Mitsubishi is just absolutely on fire with this new Outlander, the new SUV that they've redesigned. We just got like 30 of them off the truck because we have a huge year end clearance on them. This is difficult because we've only been able to get like 10 or 15 vehicles at a time from the factory, so they really stepped it up and gave us 30 vehicles. So, we got a great selection right now. If you're in the market for an SUV, before you decide on anything, you owe to yourself to come check one of these things out.
Kevin (23:52):
And Bruno, your year end sales event that you just hit on, when's that going to start? And when's it run until?
Bruno (23:59):
It starts right now and it's running until we run out of cars.
Kevin (24:03):
Awesome.
Bruno (24:03):
We don't anticipate will take too long, so if you're in the market now is the time to come check one out.
Kevin (24:11):
All right, buddy, I'll let you get back to getting on with your day. I know you've got some prep to do for your tuna trips upcoming and God willing, weather permitting, I'll see you on board the Gavi tomorrow.
Bruno (24:22):
Sounds good, Kevin. Talk to you soon. Tight lines guys.
Kevin (24:25):
My thanks to proud MFCC member Bruno Demir for his time on today's show. And I want to take a moment to thank all of our guests starting with MFCC founder and creator, Ryan Collins. Ian Bragdon, who's a pro-staff captain for the Goose Hummock down in beautiful Orleans, and last but not least, you just heard from Bruno Demir of Cape & Islands Mitsubishi. So that's going to put a wrap on today's podcast. Sure hope you all enjoyed it and until we get a chance to chat again, this is your host, Kevin Collins, signing off. Tight lines and take care.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
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.
