Behind the Booth: Discovering Bull Bay Rods at RISAA 2025

Hello My Fishing Cape Cod, my name is Cooper Mark, and I have been working as Ryan’s intern for about two months. You may have met me at the Fly Fishing meetup with Chris Kokorda, the surfcasting meetups, or helping Ryan in Rhode Island at RISAA 2025. Or perhaps you've seen posts on Instagram and in the forum that I have helped create.

I am a local Sandwich angler and growing up catching stripers with my dad, mom, cousins, and friends has been the greatest way to spend the past seven years. Learning the surf has been challenging, but I am taking it head-on with rods, reels, lures, spots, belts, and everything else that goes into learning the sport.

The Show

Recently, I spent two days helping Ryan man the My Fishing Cape Cod booth at the New England Saltwater Fishing Show in Rhode Island. This show is a staple in my Spring routine, getting my plug wall and rod rack stocked up for the rapidly approaching fishing season.

At this year's show I picked up some custom plugs from Guppy, 247, and Stack Tackle, some acquisitions from Fish Snax, S&S, and Monomoy Tackle, and even some new rods from ODM and Bull Bay. 

The People

But far more important than gear are all the people I met and spoke with during these two days. Craig Cantelmo from Van Staal, Jimmy Fee from On The Water, Ian McPartland from Goose Hummock, Ryan White of Century Rods, and so many great members of the website.

Another great person I had the opportunity to meet and speak with was Captain Brian Kelly of RPS Fish. As a Bull Bay Rods pro staffer, Brian inquired if we would like to meet Bull Bay Rods owner Rick Hess. We jumped at the opportunity, and actually ended up walking away with some rods to try out and perhaps get some publicity for in the Northeast-which is far from Bully Bay's dominant presence in Florida and the Southeast.

Bull Bay Rods

Bull Bay is an up-and-coming rod company that's become quite popular for snook, redfish, tarpon, and more in the South. Owner Rick Hess is making sure every rod is up to their quality, durability, and weight standards to suit every species from bass to tuna.

At the booth, Brian and Rick let us pick up some rods in unique actions, lengths, and powers designed for fishing lures like Albie Snax and small swimbaits for largemouth. 

Our New Bull Bay Rods

We selected for Ryan a 7’ 2” medium heavy bass spinning rod from the Banshee series, a 7’ 6” heavy rod for fishing the Doc from the Karbine series, and a 7’ 3” medium heavy casting rod for largemouth bass from the Infantry series.

Rick and Brian were so kind to allow me to select a rod to take home as well. I picked a unique rod for a heavily used Cape tactic. This rod is a 7’ 8” Banshee series. It’s a medium-heavy power and an extra fast action. This rod is designed with heavy influence from Brian for fishing soft plastic baits.

I will be using it very heavily this spring to throw flukes and when squid arrive, to throw the XL pink Albie Snax. The action and length of the rod are crucial to get the proper twitches and pauses on these baits. I think this rod could be a game changer for My Fishing Cape Cod and striper fishing as a whole. Thank you Bull Bay!

In Conclusion

I am truly grateful for this opportunity to spend my time helping out MFCC and Ryan whether it’s making a post on Instagram that takes ten minutes, or writing a full blog such as this. All the people I have met so far and the ones I will meet down the road make this job very special.

Looking ahead I hope to continue in my role assisting with more blogs, shows and maybe some video footage as well. Spring can’t arrive soon enough and I can't wait to go out, use my new rods, my new plugs, and go catch some fish.

Tight Lines! 🎣