The Bad Fish Story
“Not a Stinky Bait Shop”
Bad Fish Outfitters in North Falmouth is An Offshore Anglers Equipment Dream....
By David Hobbs
It began on a fishing boat somewhere
offshore of Cape Cod. Two fishing buddies
chatting about dreams and aspirations
between fish bites. It ended up being an
offshore anglers dream.
After opening earlier this year, Bad Fish
Outfitters, located at 660 N. Falmouth
Highway (Rte 28A) in North Falmouth, has
established itself as a niche location. It sits
squarely between two other popular fishing
outfitters in Buzzards Bay and Falmouth.
Owners Tim Folan of Falmouth and
Kevin Malone of Cataumet often talked about
the idea of opening their own bait and tackle
shop, "but neither of us could do it alone, I couldn’t see myself sitting behind a
desk all day thinking software," adds Tim. "I needed to follow my passions. I had to do
something I liked. Kevin and I are old
fishing buddies, and we talked about this
for years. It seemed natural to follow our
interests."
Bad Fish Outfitters was the result of
those talks and has quickly become the go
to place for everything from fresh bait,
lures, rod/reel repair, line winding, rods,
reels and fishing charts to their own line of
clothing and even fishing charters. "It’s not a stinky bait shop," insists Tim.
Catering to the offshore and inshore
fishing enthusiasts, Bad Fish Outfitters does
a lot of custom rig work as well. "We do a lot of custom spreader bars and daisy chains for trophy tuna fishing," Tim explains.
A new aspect of Bad Fish Outfitters really isn’t all that new. "I’ve taken people out on my boat before," mentions Kevin. "Now its gotten to a point where we need to have a week or two advance notice to go out. They’ve become that popular." "Based out of Kingmen Yacht Center in Cataumet, and on my 28’ Carolina, we go out twice a week for either a half day or full day and fish inshore or offshore Buzzards Bay or the Vineyard," he continues. "We’re finding lots of prime spots for striped bass, blue fish, shark, marlin and Mahi Mahi," Kevin says. "We recently had a guy tell us that our squid lures helped him catch 50 striped bass off Wasque Shoal, Martha’s Vineyard," beams Tim. "He released all but two. He was very happy."
"Our main objective here at Bad Fish Outfitters is to be more than just a bait and tackle store," Tim vows. "We want to be different. We pride ourselves on our customer service. We can usually turn a repair job around between 2-3 days, thanks to our expert repair technicians. "Kevin laughs. "Yea, that’s me and Tim mostly."
This off season they plan on conducting some fishing seminars utilizing local fishing experts, charter captains, and other local authorities. "We’ve already sponsored one fishing tournament and were looking to put another one on soon," Tim adds. "We’re evolving to our customer needs…we even give ourselves some time to do what we did originally…go out and fish and remind ourselves what brought us here in the first place.”
Originally published in Along 28A in August of 2007
