Surfcasting for Stripers is on Fire | September 9th Podcast

In today's podcast we speak with Ryan Collins of My Fishing Cape Cod who is fresh off the most epic morning of striper surfcasting he's experienced all year long. Ryan also updates us on "the week that was" around MFCC, including albie fishing from shore and the kayak, as well as an update about openings on group fishing trips for bluefin tuna.

Next up is Sam Mullen from the Goose Hummock Shop in Orleans. Sam reports that the backside beaches have been on fire from shore with stripers and some blues mixed in. According to Sam the albie bite is on, but the fish can be finicky as they are feeding on silversides and peanut bunker. Sam also provides us with a post-Labor Day canyons report, as well as updated store hours for the Goose Hummock.

We cap off today's podcast by having a conversation with Bruno Demir of Cape & Islands Mitsubishi. Bruno provides us with a bluefin tuna report for east of the Cape, plus a funny fish report for Nantucket Sound. Bruno has also encountered a ton of codfish south of the Cape, and he ends his segment with a Cape & Islands Anglers Cup update.

Podcast Transcription - the below transcription was automatically generated by a computer programs, so please excuse any typos and grammatical errors

(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.

(00:15):
Well hello and welcome to another edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod podcast from MyFishingCapeCod.com. I'm your host, Kevin Collins, back with you for our first September 2022 edition of the podcast. Yes we are past Labor Day and a lot of folks are mourning the end of the summer season which is coming to a close, but the weather is still pretty decent out there with temperatures well into the seventies - and I think pushing 80 into this weekend. So still plenty of good weather to enjoy and plenty of beach days for those that can get out of work. And obviously plenty of great fishing ahead in the months of September and October, and we hope well into the month of November. So we're going to keep these podcasts cranking for you, and this is going to be another one of our standard fishing report podcasts. We've got a great panel of guest experts lined up and ready to join the program.

(01:07):
Today we're going to be lead off with MFCC founder and creator Ryan Collins who's awaiting his turn on the phone. We're then going to be joined by Sam Mullen from down behind the counter at the beautiful Goose Hummock Shop in lovely Orleans, Massachusetts, and last but not least, we're going to be joined by proud MFCC member, Bruno Demir from Cape and Island's Mitsubishi. We have a great show in store for you today so let's dive right in. Well, as always first up on this edition of the My Fishing Cape Cod podcast is MFCC founder and creator Ryan Collins. Ryan, how are you on this sunny Thursday?

(01:45):
Doing pretty well Kevin, I'm actually down in Truro with my wife, Lauren. So life is good.

(01:51):
You guys just kinda out for a cruise today, or were you doing some fishing down there?

(01:55):
Been doing a lot of fishing recently, but today actually is my birthday, and Lauren is bringing me down Cape. We actually got an Airbnb at the tip of Cape Cod in Provincetown. So we're going to spend the night down here and then head back some time tomorrow.

(02:14):
Well, let me be the first on the podcast to wish you a very, very happy birthday. I think you're 25 again, right?

(02:20):
Yes! Uh, 21 actually, 21. No I'm 37 if you can believe it - halfway to 74.

(02:27):
Absolutely. Well, tell us a little bit about your week. I know you've been busy, bouncing around, had a chance to do some fishing, give us some highlights.

(02:35):
Yeah, we've got a lot of stuff going on right now on MFCC from fishing tournaments to my own personal fishing adventures. It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks since we last spoke. I guess the most exciting thing that happened to me recently Kevin was this past week. Gosh, I encountered definitely the best and most awesome morning of surfcasting I've probably had in the last couple of years. So I can talk about that if you're interested in learning more.

(03:06):
Yeah, absolutely. And you don't have to give away, you know, your spot. You don't have to burn it, but tell us a little bit about, you know, which region of the Cape you were fishing.

(03:14):
Well, the Outer Cape beaches have been just producing really well. And there's been a whole bunch of spots. The Outer Cape has been producing over the last, at least two weeks, probably longer than that. And it seems like most of the best bites have been happening during the day, which is a little different than the past couple years where it was typically a nighttime thing. But if anybody who's listening to this has not been following the surf casters' thread inside our forum, then I am living proof of why it's worth checking it out, because I got some great intel from some of the folks who have been posting to that thread. And it lead to me heading down Tuesday morning to a relatively popular, well known beach on the Outer Cape. And I was there right after, you know, the Labor Day rush.

(04:13):
And I was the only one on the beach, which was just spectacular. It was raining. It was an east wind. As you know, Kevin there's quite a Northeast wind blowing on Cape Cod and the same thing was going on Tuesday. Surf casting during the day when it's flat calm and sunny, that's good for going to the beach, but it's not really good for fishing, but when it's a little rough, cloudy, little rainy, that gets the stripers chewing, no doubt. And it was all pencil popper action. It was every single cast for three hours straight from bass there were 26 inches all the way up to 40 inches, on a variety of different lures, but primarily pencil poppers. And the cool thing was, well, actually, a lot of cool things happened that we can talk about, but the coolest thing that happened was this gentleman, Keith who's from Saratoga, New York, was walking the beach and he stopped. He was watching me catch fish. And he follows a little bit with My Fishing Cape Cod. So he was somewhat familiar with what we got going on. And I just gave him my rod and I said, you know what, have fun. And he was casting out there getting a few hits. He landed a 40 inch fish. And he said it was the best day of his vacation. So that really just made the whole experience for me. It was just an unforgettable day.

(05:45):
Well, that's an amazing story. And another, you know, example of MFCC bringing not just the Cape Cod fishing community, but the national fishing community together.

(05:55):
Absolutely. And I really have to thank Howie Dunnels Jr. and Matt Corcoran, who's a brand new member for giving me a little bit of intel and the inspiration I needed to get up at 3:45 in the morning and go down there. Without them sharing some reports and intel with me and giving me the inspiration, I probably wouldn't have done it. But that's the beautiful thing about the community we have. You might wait all season long, but then once you get that one little piece of intel that leads to having a trip like what I had this past week, it really makes your whole season worthwhile. It makes all those skunking and all those difficult trips worth it.

(06:42):
Another thing I wanted to just run by you real quick Ryan, is I know you've become a master in your 37 years now of fishing. You've been fishing pretty much since you came out of the womb, it's in your blood. But one of the things that I've always admired about you is your willingness to go fishing in suboptimal conditions. When for other people it might be too early or too cold or too wet and rainy, whatever - we all have our reasons why we're too lazy to get out of bed at times and go fish. But one thing I think I've always admired about you is your willingness to embrace the elements and go fish. And one of the elements we've dealt with this week that you highlighted are these very strong winds. In today's case, out of the Northeast, which makes it very difficult, unless you've got a large boat on Cape Cod. But you can always find a spot to hunker down out of the wind and fish. I just wanted you to give, you know, a couple of tips, I think on surf casting in very windy, rough conditions.

(07:45):
Well, first off lure selection, I was using three ounce pencil poppers from Guppy, but there's plenty of other good long casting pencil poppers that would get the job done. And I really like pencil poppers in rough conditions, because they throw a bunch of water and they cast well and they get a lot of attention because there's a lot of white water that you're competing with. But if you have a pencil popper that's splashing around, it's going to get the attention of any fish that cruising through the suds. I also caught a bunch using the three ounce Joe Baggs Peanut Resin. And those those things cast like crazy. So whether you're using, you know, a resin or a more traditional Kastmaster or some kind of metal, then you're going to be able to, you know, cut through that breeze.

(08:31):
Another one on my list today to check in with you on - we've flipped the page into September and I wanted to the temperature from you on the albies and how the albie fishery is doing and see if you've gone out to target them yet.

(08:45):
I have, I went out twice this past week, the first trip I went to Washburn Island and I actually took my kayak over to the island and fished Washburn from shore. And I saw albies, but they were out of casting range and I just never got a good chance. But boy, what a beautiful place to spend some time. And I'll definitely be going back to try to make it happen because that would just be a beautiful place to land an albie from shore. And then my second trip was with Howie Dunnels Jr. We went off the south side of Barnstable in our kayaks just a couple days ago and we saw plenty of albies busting around. It wasn't like acres and acres of them, but I probably got 10 good chances and I got one hit, but I failed to set the hook and Howie didn't get any fish either.

(09:43):
And I was also fishing with Carry from the Goose Hummock and he got two bites, but he didn't land them either. It was just one of those days where, you know, very finicky, very difficult to catch, but I think it'll get easier as we move into the fall, once the water temperatures start dropping a little more, I think it'll get easier. There were some Spanish mackerel around this week, off the south side of Barnstable. I know Howie caught a couple of those earlier this week. So that's cool knowing that they're around and we've gotten some really nice submissions to the Cape and Islands Mitsubishi Anglers' Cup, which is the tournament that we're doing for the first time this year for albies, bonito and bluefish. Right now we've got a few albies that are in the upper 20 inch range submitted. And again, if you want to join the tournament, we've got $1,500 up for grabs and you can find the tournament by downloading the Fish Donkey app to your phone and searching for Cape and Islands Mitsubishi Anglers' Cup. So there's, albies around and I think I've heard the better action is kind of happening to the east in Nantucket Sound. But of course there are fish to the west, like off Falmouth and down the coast of the Elizabeths, but I'm hearing more about people racking up bigger numbers, you know, further to the east of Bass River.

(11:07):
Last thing Ryan I wanted to ask you about is I've been following your new Instagram handle since your old one was commandeered - myfishingcapecod_Ryan on Instagram. Make sure to give that a follow like I have. And you've seen a couple of nice catches that you've been tagged in from captain Cullen who looks like he's still doing decent with tuna. I just wanted to check in on the status of, you know, the MFCC group trips. So are there any more coming up, you know, on the horizon with Cullen, for tuna,

(11:39):
We do have a couple openings in October. I think it's October 21st and October 29th. So if you're interested in joining one of those trips, then go to myfishingcapecod.com and send me a message using the little chat bubble on the bottom right. Or you can send me an email at [email protected] and I can give you more information about those trips. Those will be for schoolie tuna so you'll probably be casting lures. And again, that's October 21st and October 29th. I think we've got one or two openings, but aside from that, Kevin that's probably going to be it with regards to group trips, but you know, like you said, that picture of Cullen with that giant tuna, there's been a lot of giants caught. There's been a ton of small fish taken too. I think the yellowfin bite is still happening south of the Vineyard. There's just a lot going on this year in the offshore world off Cape Cod.

(12:38):
All right, Ryan, I'm gonna let you get back to enjoying your beautiful birthday down in Truro with your lovely wife, Lauren, but appreciate you carving out some time for us on today's podcast and look forward to our next chat.

(12:50):
Sounds good, Kevin. Thank you as always.

(12:52):
Well, next up on today's edition of the podcast is our good buddy Sam Mullen from down behind the counter at the beautiful Goose Hummock Shop in Orleans. Sam, how are you on this beautiful Thursday?

(13:03):
I'm great Kevin - ready for a nice, beautiful weekend of weather and ready to get fishing.

(13:08):
So I've been hearing Sam, the backside facing beaches, especially from shore have been absolutely lighting up. Can you give us some intel on that?

(13:17):
Yes, absolutely. The backside beach has been great. Uh, just kind of pick your poison when it comes to choosing a beach, just kind of get away from the weeds because of this Northeast wind, but anywhere from Nauset all the way up to Truro has been very, very good, especially last light into the night. Pencils at the end of the day and then SP minnows and Swarters and hydro minnows at night and maybe some soft plastics have been fantastic.

(13:42):
In addition to that, uh, you mentioned the weed. I just spoke with Ryan a little bit ago and we did some, you know, quick hitting tips for fishing in the wind. We didn't talk about the weed at all. And that was my fault. You have any tips for guys that you know, are trying to avoid this weed or maybe some lures that get snagged a little less?

(14:01):
Yeah, really the best thing with the weed is just keep walking cuz there are some spots of the beach that aren't with weeds. Like, you know if you take 10 cast or even five casts per spot and keep getting weeded up, you know, walk a hundred yards down the beach to the next good looking structure spot and then keep fish that. That's what I've done in the past. And you know, that'll bring some success cuz once you find clean water, you find fish.

(14:25):
And have these fish been pretty decent size.

(14:27):
Yeah, definitely. And definitely in the slots all the way up to 40 inches.

(14:30):
Wow. That's awesome. And have any blue fish been mixed in at all down there?

(14:34):
A little bit more towards the south. There's been some random blues taken though during the day, but nothing crazy. It's still fun though. Obviously getting a blue fish on top water. Fantastic.

(14:45):
Awesome. Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about funny fish. I want to hear if you've been hearing any reports of albies and bonito?

(14:53):
Yes, absolutely. There's been a good surge anywhere from Cotuit to Osterville. A lot of the kayak guys are doing well. And then if you can squeak a boat in there, you can get on 'em, you know, just be smart, don't run over the schools or anything like that. And then there's been some good mornings out in front of Bass River and then they've been doing really well around the rips and like the Monomoy Flats, excuse me off the boat has been solid. They've been gorging on peanut bunker and silversides and then there's actually been a few times where they've been really finicky and they've been on baby butterfish. So it is frustrating at times. Pink and white baits are the best.

(15:35):
Yeah. I was gonna ask when they're on the butterfish or the peanut bunker, I know I've had bad experiences with stripers on peanut bunker and they can be pretty tricky to fool. Are you finding that the fly guys are having more luck when they're on that small bait?

(15:49):
Yeah actually this morning, Joe from the shop got a nice one on the fly and I think he was using one of those little peanut bunker patterns that he ties for us in the shop. And he went tight on one that he got from shore actually, so that's pretty cool. From the shore on the fly on one of his custom peanut patterns. So that's pretty sweet.

(16:10):
Now for you guys down there, stock wise, are you guys all stocked up? I know we've had shipping difficulties with not only striper gear, but albie and bonito gear as well.

(16:19):
Absolutely. Yeah, we got a ton of that kind of stuff - all the epoxies, crippled herring, little Kastmasters, some small soft plastics. I like the little Bill Hurley white squids. Those are pretty sweet. And then for like trolling for the bonito the crystal minnows work really well. We have good stock of those. So it's been good.

(16:37):
And getting offshore, I know it's Phil's passion this time of year. He is out at the canyons quite frequently. What's been going on offshore that you've been hearing about?

(16:47):
Yeah, the canyons, there's been some colder days. It's been actually more like south of the Vineyard has been solid for white marlin and mahi has been very good. So if you just kind of poke around from, you know, Gordons to Tuna Ridge, it's pretty solid then. If you can make the run to the Dump, but I would just stay close. It's been pretty good, just trolling bars and doing some jigging for Yellowfin - it's been pretty sweet.

(17:17):
Awesome. And the last thing I wanted to check in on you with real quick is the store. Right now we're past Labor Day and are there updated store hours? And what's on the horizon for the fall?

(17:27):
Yes. We do have new updated fall hours. It is from 9 to 5:30 every day, except for Sundays when it's still 8-4, but every other day is 9 to 5:30. We're doing our regular stuff every day. We have a good stock and everything you need to get geared up. And we got plenty of stuff for bluefin on the spin, which everybody wants to get. Hopefully they'll be coming close into shore and leaving the Sword, especially with this giant offshore hurricane coming in. So maybe that will mix some stuff up.

(18:03):
Yeah. That's what I was gonna ask you. You think this storm system that's kind of moving to our southeast and going out to sea, you think that'll push 'em in a little tighter?

(18:12):
I hope so. Yeah. It's gonna be probably off shore. It'll probably be eight to 10 footers potentially on Sunday and then inside, you know, probably some four to sixes and maybe stir some stuff up, bring up some warmer water to get those bluefin a little closer to shore off P-town, Peaked Hill. Hopefully I'm hoping <laugh>, that'd be nice!

(18:32):
All right Sam, thanks so much for carving out some of your day to spend with us here on the podcast. Really appreciate catching up with you and I hope we get a chance to chat again before the season's over.

(18:41):
That sounds great Kevin. Tight lines.

(18:43):
Well next up on this week's edition to the podcast is our good buddy and proud MFCC member Bruno Demir from down at the beautiful Cape and Islands Mitsubishi. Bruno, how are you today?

(18:56):
I'm doing great, Kevin. Hello MFCC - another beautiful day here on beautiful Cape Cod.

(19:04):
I know it's been pretty breezy Bruno the last few days here with winds out of the Northeast, but have you had a chance to get out on the water the last week or so?

(19:13):
I have, I actually have, I uh, let's see, I went out Saturday, tuna fishing or tuna wishing, I guess you could say. And a lot of good friends and charter captains have been going out for albies off the south side of Cape Cod. So we could talk about that.

(19:37):
Yeah, absolutely. And I want to back up even a little bit further. You had a chance to get cousin Eddy out on your boat, tuna fishing, huh?

(19:43):
Yeah. We got cousin Eddy out there and cousin Eddy hooked up and landed his first tuna fish. It was probably the best fish I've gotten this year so far because it was very oily, a good healthy 55 inch blue fin tuna. And then my brother saw that cousin Eddy got one. So my brother said, geez, I'm coming out there from New York and I want to catch a blue fin tuna. So I took my brother out on Saturday. We went out to the Sword and left the docks around 4:30. We were at the Sword by 7:00 AM and we were trolling at first. We had a hit, I believe the fish might have been tail hooked. So unfortunately that one came off after only a five minute fight.  

(20:48):
Blue tuna are so smart that when they see a bait they're known to come up and tail slap it to actually see if it's a real fish. And a lot of times if they tail slap it, they can stun the fish, which makes it easier for them to catch and consume. So occasionally that will happen. You'll actually troll 'em with bars and you'll hook up and you think you're on and all of a sudden it comes off for no reason and nine times outta 10 that's because you tail hooked it.  

(21:50):
So we had to switch tactics and of course it was Labor Day Weekend so I was in my "secret" fishing spot with 150 of my closest friends in their boats. We decided to switch to jigging because it seemed as though the jig bite was really on and a soon as we switched to a jig, we had a white Ron Z, in that midwater column because it seemed like the big giant tunas were on the bottom. Weren't targeting a big giant, especially on spinning tackle, so we worked that middle column with jigs and Rons and within 20 minutes or so we hooked onto a nice 60 inch bluefin. Wow we fought that fish on spinning gear, it hit the white Ron-Z and we almost had it at the boat. At one point we thought we lost it cuz the hook popped out. But then it re-hooked itself, which told me right away that the fish had really swallowed the bait pretty bad.

(23:02):
And the problem with that is what happens is your leader is just chaffing away at his teeth. So you're on borrowed time trying to get that fish in. And when I felt the pop, well, I said "boys, we got this fish hooked pretty deep and we're gonna have to muscle him in or he is gonna chaffe us off." So we chased him down for a little while and 20 minutes in we had him boat side and he chaffed the line, gave us a wink, and swam back down. So that's tuna fishing for you. Look, I can't complain because that was my fifth trip to the Sword this year and that was the first time I came back with no tuna. So I can't complain because occasionally, you know, the fish have to catch a break too. You can't win 'em all the time.

(24:10):
So let's talk about baby tuna. How about the albies Bruno?

(24:13):
The albies are red hot right now. In my neck of the woods off Harwich they're biting aggressively and all over the place from Stage Harbor to in front of Saqautucket, all the way up to Monomoy, albies are showing themselves left and right. They are extremely picky. They're on very, very small peanut bunker. So the majority of the guys that are getting them have been getting them with the fly rod, which I would think is an awesome fight. I'd like to try that myself one of these days. Captain Tony, who was at Cod and Coffee if you recall, he has been doing really well with the small peanut bunker jigs, specifically the ones that cousin Eddy sells. But it seems like the guys hooking up more consistently are the fly fishermen and guys with really small jigs. It's just, you know, they bite hard one day and then they don't the next, but if you find a nice cloudy day where the water's not so calm, that's probably your best bet because they can't see exactly what you're throwing at.

(25:46):
So Bruno what's on the horizon for you this weekend?

(25:51):
Well, one thing, I should've mentioned before, on the way in from the Sword we stopped at a couple of numbers that I know for cod and within 20 minutes we had cod up to 30 inches and we kept a bunch of 'em for dinner. And the following day we had a fish fry. We had some beautiful cod filets for the fryer. So that's another option for going out to the Sword. If you decide you want to try something else on your way home, then that's one of the best parts of the Sword. Drop a jig down 150 feet in the shipping lanes and you are almost guaranteed great codfish.

(26:49):
So what's coming up this weekend for you Bruno?

(26:51):
Well I spent the day today cleaning the engine room on the Gaviota so she's clean and ready to go. Tomorrow my wife Ida will be coming out with me and we're gonna go out and try to see if we can catch some albies. My wife is a big catch and release person. She likes to see the fish swim away. So what's better than taking her out? I'll be fishing and it's something we do every year now that the kids are back in school. She'll drop 'em off at the bus, meet me at the marina, and we'll spend two, three hours together, quality time and catch some fish.

(27:39):
That's awesome and one other thing I wanted to check in with you on is the Cape and Islands Mitsubishi Anglers Cup. That's still ongoing, right? And folks can submit their catches?

(27:49):
Yeah. That's still ongoing until the end of October. Biggest blue fish, the biggest albie and the biggest bonito, which we have all three caught as of right now. So if you go onto the Fish Donkey app and register, you can see some of the catches so far. And the biggest fish for each category pays out $500 on top of some other things that Phil from the Goose is donating. So it's a really cool tournament. It's easy to do, sign up, catch a fish, take a picture of it on a measurement board and get a prize.

(28:31):
And last but not least Bruno what's going on down at the dealership? I know you've been spending time in the office lately. It seems like the dealership is doing really well. I was down to visit you earlier this week, plenty of business coming through the door,

(28:44):
We just got a whole new shipment of Mitsubishi Outlanders - our new SUV. It's a seven passenger and it won all kinds of awards for safety and it's about $8,000 less than a Toyota Honda. You owe it to yourself to check it out before you make a decision on a new SUV.

(29:02):
All right Bruno, I'll let you get back to enjoying your beautiful Thursday and I hope you have a great time out on the Gavi with your beautiful wife and the rest of your family this weekend.

(29:11):
Thanks Kevin and tight lines MFCC members. Hope to see you guys out there.