5 Tips for Transitioning into Saltwater Fishing

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles are brought to you by the Goose Hummock Shops, Cape Cod's largest outdoor outfitter, serving new England since 1946. Shop them online at TheMightyFish.com.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to the My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles. The My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles podcast profiles impactful members of our fishing community and beyond. Now here's your host, Kevin Collins.

Kevin (00:35):
Hello, and welcome to another edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles podcast here on MyFishingCapeCod.com. This is your host Kevin Collins back at you with episode number eight of the MFCC Chronicles, and we're going to kick off our Summer Chronicles podcast season today by interviewing an MFCC member, and the reason I mention that is because we're going to be on the lookout over the next several months for MFCC members who are active in the forum, who are active in the Cape Cod fishing community, and who'd be willing to share a little bit of their time with us to sit down and chat about various topics involving fishing and pretty much anything else they're wanting to talk about. We're looking to spend our summer season to hear more from you, our awesome membership base, and feature you right here on the My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles podcast. So if you have any interest, by all means, reach out to Ryan or myself and let us know.

Kevin (01:33):
Another important goal we're looking to accomplish by featuring so many of our proud and prominent members here of My Fishing Cape Cod here on the podcast is to cover a wide array of topics. For anyone who's been in the MFCC forum and has taken part in some of the conversation threads in there, you know from experience, basically. If you go in there looking for a topic, odds are there's a thread already up and running. So we're going to look to incorporate that same spirit here on the podcast by creating a wide variety of podcasts with a wide variety of members covering a wide variety of fishing topics here this summer and fall.

Kevin (02:12):
So with all that in mind, let's get to our interview subject for today's episode. Without further ado, we want to welcome in today's guest to the My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles podcast, and it's none other than MFCC member Nick Caparell. Nick, welcome to the show.

Nick (02:27):
Really appreciate it, Kevin, it's nice to finally meet you.

Kevin (02:30):
Yeah, it's a pleasure to meet you and hopefully we're going to be able to fish together soon because it seems like you and I potentially could be neighbors, but we'll dive back into that later in the show. Nick, I want to start off today's podcast with just getting to know you a little bit and introduce you to the members that may not have crossed paths with you so far during your time involved with MFCC. Nick, where did you grow up?

Nick (02:53):
I am from North Attleborough, Massachusetts. So just about 50, 55 minutes from where I live now in South Plymouth and grew up in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, my whole life on the Rhode Island border and landlocked, so I did a lot of freshwater fishing throughout my life there.

Kevin (03:15):
So you started off big into freshwater out there in North Attleborough. Can you explain a little bit about your passion for freshwater fishing and what you like to fish for the most?

Nick (03:25):
Yeah. Really starting all the way back in elementary school, my parents weren't fishermen. Luckily I had some friends that did have fathers that liked to go fishing, and I got introduced through two of my closer friends growing up in elementary school to the fishing side of the fence, and I just fell in love with it. I fished for everything growing up, but obviously for me, my love for the most part was with large mouth bass, basically. But outside of that, small mouth bass pickerel obviously that you'll run into, crappy, but just any freshwater fish, I was interested to get a tight line on.

Kevin (04:12):
And were you focused mainly on I'll say ponds and lakes or did you fish rivers at all? Did you dabble in fly fishing?

Nick (04:21):
No fly fishing for me all the way up to right now. I feel like I don't have the patience for it, but I've done it a couple of times, and I might dabble a little more, but yeah, no rivers really when I grew up. It was primarily lakes and ponds. I did have a couple of different lakes and ponds in my immediate area growing up that luckily I could have access to even at a younger age by myself or with friends riding our bikes or whatever the case may be, and that was our main focus.

Kevin (04:53):
You and I are aligned on that front. I haven't had the patience to try my hand at the fly. It's on my list of things to do, but we're both spin guys, so we've got that established. So moving forward in your life, you move to Plymouth, Massachusetts, a little bit closer to the water. Explain a little bit about that chapter of your life and what caused that transition and it allowed you to get a little bit closer to the ocean.

Nick (05:17):
It's a mix of a couple of different things. I mean, even peddling back a little more in time, like I said, growing up, I loved fishing. Sports kind of took over, especially from a middle school into high school standpoint, and I really focused on that, especially baseball, and I ended up playing college baseball at Worcester State University out in Worcester, Mass. So that was my main focus for a while.

Nick (05:43):
I wasn't fishing as much as I always loved to growing up, but post-graduation, right around that 22, 23 years old timeframe back in 2010, I just dove right back into freshwater fishing. I had a void of not having my athletics anymore, really. I wasn't really someone that just did side recreational softball or whatever, so I just needed to fill that void, and I just jumped right back into freshwater fishing for years because I was still living in the Attleborough area as well as Bellingham for a little while and I was working up in Westford, so I actually started fishing very hardcore at the Sudbury Reservoir and just really fueled that fire and got that flame going again for fishing.

Nick (06:41):
And then after that, really my best friend growing up, his father was a really big saltwater fishermen, as well as freshwater, but he was big into saltwater. He introduced saltwater obviously to my best friend growing up as well as after college. We're both the same age. Luckily, he dragged me out one day to go after stripers down in Matunuck, Rhode Island, actually. We used to do a lot of Southern Rhode Island fishing, and I finally got into some stripers and just got hooked from there. And that was around 2015 in 2016, and it just spiraled from there as well.

Kevin (07:26):
Yeah, once you get into salt, it seems people just can't get enough, but I want to go back really quick for one second. Worcester State baseball player. Are they the Lancers? And if I get that right, I have no life, I don't think.

Nick (07:41):
It is the Worcester State Lancers. Yeah.

Kevin (07:41):
Don't ask me how I knew that. So going back to your baseball career just a little bit because that's something interesting we don't often get into here on the podcast. You were a collegiate athlete; that's nothing to scoff at. Talk a little bit about your passion for baseball. After you graduated from Worcester State, did you ever think about trying to go to a minor league camp or further your career in baseball?

Nick (08:06):
I mean, that was the main goal throughout my whole life was a big focus into baseball and potentially having that shot. I was a decent player, and after graduation, I'd be lying if I didn't say that I did have a couple of different minor league workouts that just ultimately didn't work out, but I did have a couple of different workouts from a minor league scouting standpoint.

Kevin (08:42):
I think it's safe to say that you're probably the most accomplished athlete we've had in podcast history, so how do you feel about that?

Nick (08:49):
Well, I'm sure there's someone else more accomplished somewhere in MFCC, but if it is that case, then I appreciate it.

Kevin (08:59):
So you're a proud MFCC member, Nick, and you're very active within our community. How did you find My Fishing Cape Cod and get involved?

Nick (09:08):
I have a lot of pride in My Fishing Cape Cod because aside from my best friend luckily dragging me out, like I said, to fish down in Southern Rhode Island and getting me hooked from that standpoint. That's what got me hooked, and then just searching online. I was just Googling just Cape Cod fishing really, and that's what came across my desk was My Fishing Cape Cod. Looked into it, looked into the free month or whatever that case was and just realized that there was just a plethora of information that was accessible through that membership and dove right into the membership and never turned back, really.

Kevin (09:58):
Yeah, and you were able through My Fishing Cape Cod as well to network and become friends with several members who you do some fishing with. I know you were out with Alex Ridgway, who's a very active member, and you guys had some success the other day fishing for stripers. So it's great to see you, and I look at your Instagram account and it's great to see all these photos of yourself and fellow members catching all these fish.

Nick (10:22):
I routinely say in the forum or whoever I'm talking to about My Fishing Cape Cod that it's not just a fishing membership or it's not just a gag to make someone money that has a company. It's a true community that I keep emphasizing. It's a true community of people that truly want to learn to fish or already know how to fish very well but they're willing to be vulnerable and still want to educate themselves through other people. It's just a great group of individuals that really love to do what I love to do, so that's something that I want to be a part of, for sure.

Kevin (11:10):
The topic of this podcast is we're trying to talk about your transition from freshwater into saltwater. We're just scratching the surface here, and we want to give advice to people that may be a little bit intimidated by saltwater or that have only fished freshwater their whole life but are thinking about giving salt a try. Can you talk a little bit about the relationship with MFCC, what you've got in the blog, what you've got in the forum, advice from other members, talk a little bit about how that may have been helpful to you as you made that transition and as you still grow and evolve as a fisherman today?

Nick (11:47):
Yeah, 100%. I mean, my first topic of discussion on this particular interview and podcast was just plain and simple to be a member and to continue being a member of My Fishing Cape Cod, and that's not a marketing ploy or anything like that. There's just so much education within not just saltwater fishing, but just fishing as a whole from a Cape Cod, Plymouth and just general area around here standpoint. There's just so much you can get out of My Fishing Cape Cod through the members, through Ryan and obviously all the guests that he brings on.

Nick (12:32):
One member I saw on the forum actually hit it right on the head in one of his comments recently. They literally said to someone that was a new member that just plain and simple, you can get two years worth of education on saltwater fishing in a three to six month timeframe, just putting in the time to read a lot of the categories on the forum, do some searches. It's just amazing the amount of information that I was able to gather when I first started back in like 2016, just in a short period of time to really, really get up to speed on the saltwater game. It's just a different animal than freshwater fishing. It just is. So to be able to have access to many people that know what they're doing on MFCC and to be able to gather that information and to put it to work in the field, it just catapulted me tenfold way quicker than I would've ever done by myself.

Kevin (13:36):
What's tip number two?

Nick (13:39):
My tip number two is just educating yourself, and what I mean by that is like I just said before, saltwater fishing is just a different animal than freshwater fishing. It just is. There's just more to it and just more angles that you really have to be aware of, and from an education standpoint, one of the biggest things that I learned early on that you just really have to educate yourself on and really hone in on is just having the right type of gear that will make sense for the type of saltwater fishing that you're doing, whether it's from the surf or from the canal or obviously potentially from a boat if you have one. There's just a couple of different things that you have to think about, whether it's the type of rod, obviously the type of reel, the size of those reels and rods, depending on where you are fishing.

Nick (14:38):
And I'm not saying you've got to go out and buy the most expensive rod and reel setup known to man. There's plenty of cost effective setups that make sense through Penn, Shimano, companies and manufacturers that definitely have great products that are accessible from a monetary standpoint. But you've got to have something in your hand that is not going to just completely fall apart or corrode very easily with the saltwater. So that's my second tip is definitely educating yourself as much as you can from a gear perspective so that you can put yourself in the best chance to be successful.

Kevin (15:28):
And from that education from a gear perspective, other than MFCC and maybe some of the members in the forum or Ryan himself, were there any other resources that were extremely helpful to you, Nick, when selecting a setup?

Nick (15:44):
I hate to beat a dead horse. I got a lot of my direction on gear, on just everything, tactics, through My Fishing Cape Cod. Once I honed in on My Fishing Cape Cod and had the membership, I kind of just went nuts in terms of research and reading all the articles and just all the direction that was given by Ryan and other people that know what they're doing. That was definitely my main source.

Kevin (16:18):
All right. Let's move on to tip number three that you would give. What would that be?

Nick (16:22):
Yeah. Another pretty generic tip that most people probably hear, but I do want to just keep emphasizing it. You got to learn the tides. Not every place is going to be the same. Sometimes you get those weird situations where slack might be great for the bite or whatever the case may be, but for people just transitioning to salt or just starting fishing as a whole and they're trying to get into saltwater fishing, for me, one of the biggest differentiators that really propelled me to put me in the right spots to be successful with a bite is just learning the tides.

Nick (17:11):
Ryan always hones in on it; two to three hours prior to high tide into two to three hours post high tide. You want the water moving. If you set yourself up in any various areas on Cape Cod within that window of the tides, there's a really good shot that you're going to be somewhat successful. So again, from just a generalized beginner's standpoint, learn the tides, trust the tides. I use the app WillyWeather, and I use the FishWeather app, literally called FishWeather, for wind direction and things of that nature.

Nick (17:56):
I've gotten more intricate with it over the years versus when I first started, but the faster that you can learn the ebbs and flows of the tides and why that's important, I just think it's a huge thing for someone that's trying to really begin their saltwater fishing career.

Kevin (18:12):
Yeah, that's tremendous advice. Let's move on to tip number four.

Nick (18:17):
Tip number four for me is literally just having patience. Once you get the tide down, you have your gear in place, just have patience. You might fish a whole stretch of a tide, from high tide into outgoing, for three to four hours or more, and it might just be that one 20 to 30 minute window of a prime time bite that's within that tide that if you left a little early you may not have gotten to.

Nick (18:54):
That's something that I always struggle with even to this day is just being patient. I like to hook up to fish like anyone else, but sometimes some of my best sessions out there have been when I've just said, "Hey, I have aligned my tides. I know there's potentially going to be fish here," and then it turns into being one of the best sessions I've ever had because I did wait it out. So just have patience. Trust it. You may not always catch a fish, but at least you know you're lining yourself well from a tide standpoint, and more so than not, I think you're going to hook up.

Kevin (19:29):
Yeah, and especially during these times, Nick, I think patience is a great piece of advice, and just along with patience, you may not always catch a fish, but just embrace and enjoy the journey of being outside, being on the water. Sometimes you don't always need to catch a fish in order to be successful and have a fun trip.

Nick (19:50):
Absolutely.

Kevin (19:51):
All right, that brings us to the final tip, tip number five, that you would give someone who's just starting their saltwater journey or contemplating switching from fresh to saltwater.

Nick (20:03):
I fished with friends. I fished with people. I've always been one of those lone wolf type people. I love to go out by myself, figure it out. I like fishing alone just to relieve the stress of a day or whatever the case may be. But what I really learned, especially through My Fishing Cape Cod and through people that I can now definitely call friends because of meeting up and fishing together and just staying in touch through MFCC and things of that nature, you got to fish with as many different people as you can.

Nick (20:46):
Everyone's different. Everyone has a different approach. Everyone is successful in different ways. I have learned so much from so many people that I fished with through My Fishing Cape Cod and elsewhere as well that I just continually educate myself on. There's nothing that 100% when it comes to saltwater fishing, so all it takes is even if you are a very successful saltwater fisherman, all it takes is fishing with someone that you don't normally fish with, just to see a random little tactic that they're doing that is just a little different than something that you've done that ends up catching fish that day and you realize that might be something you want to put into your repertoire moving forward.

Nick (21:34):
And that's just something I've been doing the past pretty much three to four years with My Fishing Cape Cod is just adding to my arsenal of attack, and that's pretty much through learning through other people and asking questions. And that's in person as well as just through the MFCC forum because everyone's very willing to respond on that forum, and that's my best piece of advice right there is just fish with other people that love to do what you do because you'll definitely learn from them.

Kevin (22:04):
Well that's very sound advice, Nick, and I want to give you a chance here as we're approaching the end of our time together, but I know you fish with a lot of members. I know you fish with Alex Ridgway, who we talked about earlier. Do you want to give a shout out to any other members that you fished with fairly recently that may be listening to the podcast?

Nick (22:23):
A lot of them. You got Tim Mugherini, you got Kevin Conway, you got Sean Lawrence, [inaudible 00:22:33], man, you got Travis [Ricorelli 00:00:22:38], just a bunch of guys. I mean, I'm in a side chat of about 30 guys from MFCC and we fish regularly, and it's a great little side community. We make sure that we stay on top of the MFCC membership and the forum as well and just make sure we're an advocate for what that membership's really done, which is brought us all together, and we love fishing together and learning from each other and just trying to be successful.

Nick (23:10):
I missed a bunch of names, and there's a bunch of guys and they know who they are, but that's how awesome this community is, is you can really branch out and have some long lasting friends. And Anthony Besaw. I forgot to mention Anthony. I fish with him all the time. He was on one of Ryan's shows on TV last season, and he's a Navy vet, awesome guy, and I fish with him regularly as well.

Kevin (23:37):
So Nick, you mentioned you're very active in the forum. That's one way to get ahold of you. I know Ryan sent me your Instagram account, which is N, last name, Caparell, C-A-P-A-R-E-L-L, so it's NCaparell. That's another way to follow you and interact with you. Any other ways I'm missing for folks that may want to reach out and go fishing with you?

Nick (24:01):
Honestly, I'm very receptive and responsive to messaging. I know how hard it is to get up to speed on saltwater. I try to direct individuals the best that I can as soon as I can. I do have a boat now. I bought one last year. I love to take people out as well. Really getting a hold of that as well in terms of starting to land fish now that I've got the operation of the boat down. So I'm an open book. I love to fish with MFCC members, so if you just reach out, I'm sure I'll connect and help you out the best I can.

Kevin (24:36):
And Nick, just before I let you go, I know that the boat is a big piece of your life now over the last year. Talk just very briefly about the boat. What type of boat is it and what have you enjoyed doing with it so far?

Nick (24:47):
Yeah, it's been awesome. I've just been blessed. I work from home. I live in South Plymouth now. I moved down here in February, 2018. I just really wanted to be near the water, and all the waters that I love to fish, which is down Cape and Plymouth, and I've just been blessed to be able to afford a decent boat. I found one up in Maine, actually in Portland. It's a 2007, 23 and a half foot Trophy Walkaround with a little Cuddy cabin, and it's been awesome. It's got a 225 horsepower Mercury Optimax motor on it, and it's been awesome. I love getting out there on the boat, and like I said, I bring out guys all the time so don't hesitate to reach out, including yourself, Kevin.

Kevin (25:40):
Absolutely, and now that I know we're basically neighbors with me down here in Manomet, I'm sure we're going to be cruising on your boat and having a few cold ones on my deck before too long.

Nick (25:51):
Absolutely, sir.

Kevin (25:52):
Well, thank you for all your time, Nick, today. You were very gracious to give us all this intelligence and all this information and take time to speak to some of our membership base that may not have given saltwater a try quite yet. I hope they find that information extremely useful, and I'm sure you'll be hearing from a few folks about your podcast appearance as well as perhaps wanting to fish with you moving forward.

Nick (26:16):
Yeah, I appreciate it, Kevin, and thank you to Ryan for orchestrating and coming up with this company. It's been great for me. My life would be a lot different potentially without this, so really appreciate it all around, and thanks again for the time, Kevin.

Kevin (26:34):
A big thank you to Nick Caparell for joining us on today's edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles podcast. Nick is obviously a very proud My fishing Cape Cod member. He's extremely active in the MFCC community, particularly in the forum, and he has arranged countless fishing trips with so many of you listening to the sound of my voice.

Kevin (26:56):
It was great to hear directly from Nick how My Fishing Cape Cod has positively impacted the trajectory of not only his fishing life but his life overall. Nick was also able to share with us those five important tips, those five pieces of advice that he is offering to anybody out there who's looking to get started saltwater fishing, whether that's somebody who's never picked up a rod and reel before or maybe somebody who's just been a freshwater fishermen or perhaps a freshwater fly fishermen that's never taken a shot at the Brewster Flats or fishing the canal or fishing by boat out in the ocean. Hopefully Nick's advice will inspire some folks to get out there and get a line wet in the waters off Cape Cod this summer.

Kevin (27:40):
That's going to put the ramps on episode number eight of the My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles. Sure hope you enjoyed it. I know I had a blast hosting it. We're going to look to keep doing these podcasts every week to every other week here throughout the summer and fall season, and as I mentioned, we're looking to get the MFCC community, in particular the My Fishing Cape Cod members, involved heavily here in terms of being guests on the podcast. So if you have any interest, by all means, we please encourage you to reach out to Ryan or myself, and we will set up a time to chat.

Kevin (28:13):
As for me, I'm out of here. Going to go enjoy my weekend, and we'll talk to you on the next edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles. Until then, tight lines and take care.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Thanks for listening to the My Fishing Cape Cod Chronicles podcast. From all of us here at My Fishing Cape Cod, tight lines and take care.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
For the latest information on how to fish the Cape, be sure to check out MyFishingCapeCod.com. Become a member today and receive your first month for just $1. Join us as a My Fishing Cape Cod member.