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(12:29):
Well up next on this week's edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod podcast is our great friend AJ Ktz from Red Top Sporting Goods in beautiful Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. Aj, how are you on this sunny day?

(12:41):
I'm doing well, fishing's been good. Business has been pretty steady for this time of year and right now I'm outside recording with you and it's a beautiful day. So what else could you ask for? Right,

(12:51):
So let's start off with the Cape Cod Canal. I got a chance to get down there on Saturday night. I didn't fish, I was just walking my dog aj, but I saw plenty of people fishing very successfully down your neck of the woods by the railroad bridge. I walked from the railroad bridge, which actually went down in my honor since I was down there right around sunset. The train went over and my dog Brady and I walked all the way past the Bourne Bridge, maybe almost halfway to the Sagamore. We walked a really good hike in the dark and we checked in with a lot of folks that seemed to be doing pretty well.

(13:28):
Yeah, I mean fishing has been prototypical, fall run fishing in the canal, it's been excellent. There's been top water fish once that fight kind of subsides in the morning. You can still continue to catch 'em on jigs. There's still some guys catching alves in the canal, which is great for this time of year. They ventured more east and north than they typically do with them being off of P-town this year they went up all the way to the Gurt and Duxbury Plymouth was loaded with 'em. So it's like that's an unusual thing for false. So the fact that they're that far north and means they're going to come back down through and they're probably going to come through the canal again. So there's definitely a good chance of getting those. And again, striper fishing's been good and still some blue fish around, not as many as we had, but again, it's just prototypical fall for us.

(14:22):
And in terms of the striper fishing in the canal, aj, it was tough for me in the dark to see what they could potentially be eating. It was relatively low tide when I was walking. Folks were well out onto the rock fishing and it seemed like the fish were pushing and schooling a lot of small bait up on the sides of the canal and I could hear a bunch of tail slaps in the dark, any idea on what those fish are eating?

(14:51):
So it's definitely a combination of a small skinny bait. My guess would be silversides or some kind of bay anchovy or something along those lines for sure. And then there's still a peanut bunker a little bit bigger than a traditional peanut, maybe like the small ones are three inches. The big ones could be like five inches, but still that silver and black profile where they don't have their adult color yet. And you still want to keep in mind that you want to keep your baits if you can try to keep 'em a little smaller and mimic what they're feeding on. But that's my best guess as to what they are is peanut bunkers and silversides or bay anchovies.

(15:38):
Very cool. In terms of moving through the canal in the fall run as we tape here in the second to last week of October, it's going to be our last visit, aj, how long do you think these nice schools of fish will keep pushing through the canal you think? We still got a couple weeks left

(15:56):
As long as mother nature doesn't throw us a left hook or anything and hit us with a bad storm or noea or a hurricane, whatever term the weatherman wants to use this week. As long as mother nature's on our side, I don't see any reason why you couldn't consistently canal fish until easily early November. If you're super hardcore, I still think you can catch a fish in the canal by Thanksgiving. It's normal, but people find other things to do that time of year with family going on and holidays and whatnot and football, they find a lot of real world excuses to not go fishing. But I can confidently say if you want to catch a fish regardless of size, you could easily do so until Thanksgiving in the canal.

(16:47):
And when we're talking about this migration as well, one thing that kind of came into my mind as I was walking just from the sheer amount of bait that you mentioned that is around in the canal and throughout the west end there, it's almost like some of these fish might say as they're migrating or their instincts are telling them feed and push south, once they see the amount of food there, they might just hang out for a while.

(17:13):
Well yeah, I mean that's obviously included in my forecast with the fish staying around and unless we get some kind of huge blow that's going to churn up the water and get these fish out of here with the amount of bait, why would you leave the all eat can eat buffet? I mean there's no need to yet.

(17:31):
Yeah, not only is it an all you can eat buffet, but really when you see it in person or you hear it even at night when you can't see that much, it's not just an all you can eat buffet, but it's a trapped all you can eat buffet and at low tide there's not many places to hide for all that.

(17:49):
No, no. That's why you see, I mean when you mentioned it that when you were walking, the fish are breaking on shore, you don't have to cast halfway across the canal this time of year because the smaller bait hang out by the rocks and the macros sometimes will get caught out in a rip in the middle when the big bass are feeding on those, but when the small bait are in, they're nestled up against the rock. So a little sp minnow or a little magic swimmer or something that can prove very effective with a minimal cast

(18:18):
Now pushing out into Buzzards Bay. What are you hearing in terms of a Buzzards Bay report? What's going on on there?

(18:25):
Yeah, it's been windy, so a lot of guys have been stuck at the dock or stuck at the ramp, but for the guys going out tog fishing's picking up significantly and we've actually seen a huge jump in shore tog fishing. Guys have been doing it off the fish pier. They've been doing it quite a bit in the canal. And when you think about what tog like, they like rocks well for seven, well 14 miles of shoreline, seven miles down each side is rocks in the canal. So it's a difficult way to fish, but it can yield a very effective fishery

(19:04):
That you figure

(19:04):
It

(19:04):
Outj. Can you give us a little bit of a hint or perhaps some just knowledge from what you've been able to accumulate talking to these guys? Is the setup for a tog that you're trying to fish in pretty major current potentially in the canal, is it different than say a guy in Buzzards Bay out in 25 feet of gentle current just drifting over a boulder field?

(19:29):
No, I think you want to get your cast out and you want to make sure your weight's kind of settled and not drifting, but obviously not so heavy that it's going to get stuck in the rocks and you lose your rig.

(19:40):
What kind of weight do you need for the canal?

(19:42):
Yeah, I mean honestly two three ounces is all you need for the canal for tog fishing. You want to hold the rocks, you want to get your crab down, but I know they call it like jigging for tog, you don't jig, you just leave it on the bottom, they eat it. It's a different fishery than jigging for sea bass, basically jigging for sea bass. You're slow pitching, you're jigging actively with tog fishing. You just set it on the bottom and let them come to you. They're lazy, they fight hard, but they're lazy

(20:16):
In terms of fish that maybe aren't quite as lazy, what are you hearing about the bluefin tuna fishery both from a giant and recreational perspective?

(20:25):
Yeah, the most recent report I've heard good fish, commercial fish at the southeast corner of Stell wagon and you could work all the way from the southeast corner to pigtail bar on the backside of P town there. That general area has had bulk commercial size and recreational size fish. So if you've got a weather window, it's still a good opportunity to get out and get one.

(20:52):
And one other thing I wanted to ask you AJ, is as we go through the late fall here into the early part of our winter and head toward the holiday season, I know a lot of folks will want to try their hand at freshwater fishing as well, the many kettle ponds that Cape Cod and the South Shore have to offer. Just wanted to talk to you a little bit about a freshwater forecast from you and what the shop also has for those folks that want to try their hand at that.

(21:20):
Sure. So forecast wise, I kind of have some insider information here. If we were on the stock market, we'd definitely get charged for insider trading, but one of my part-time employees runs the hatchery and sandwich. So every time they stock or getting ready to stock, he lets me know to make sure that the shop's fully stocked for the trout fishery that we have. The state does a remarkable job with loading up trout and the ponds. They have an interactive function on the website where you can see when they stocked what they stocked and where they stock. So they really give you tools to be successful and we're right there trying to give you the tools as well. We carry shiners all year, night crawlers all year. We have a huge selection of spoons and small selection of flies. If they're into that, you can get 'em on the fly rod. So I mean pretty much everything you need we're ready to go for the fall freshwater fishery.

(22:22):
And from a logistical standpoint, the store I'm hoping itself will be pretty much open. You guys will close probably for some of the holidays coming up, but you'll pretty much be open throughout the remainder of the winter I would think.

(22:36):
Yeah, we are closed on the major holidays, so Thanksgiving, Christmas, we do have a little bit of, we're probably going to have a transitional period at the first of the year. We're going to change our point of sale software, which should allow us to get up an online store. So we're really looking forward to that. But it's going to be a big transition. So there may be a week or so around the end of the year where we're closed for a whole week and we will put that out on our website and our social media and everything so that our customers don't show up and go, ah, what the heck? But other than that, yeah, we're here seven days a week. We are only here a half day on Sunday. We run like eight to one. I mean I know the Patriots aren't doing well this year, but when they wear a powerhouse, we weren't busy typically after one o'clock on Sundays because of football. So that's pretty much the only day we close early, but hopefully we have everything you need and hopefully we can help you out.

(23:36):
Well, it's been a great year AJ being with you. It was a pleasure to have you on the podcast for all these months and I'm really hopeful we can do it again next year.

(23:44):
Yeah, looking forward to it, man. It was great and happy to be on here and hopefully help some folks catch some more fish. That's kind of why we opened the doors.