Popfleye Beach Van owned by Bob Popovics, circa early nineties. Photo by Al Q
I took this photo on a fall morning in the early nineties. I remember this fall morning well, there wasn’t much happening on the beach that morning. Me and Bob took a nice drive up the beach at Island Beach State Park looking for birds. Bob had one of his newly designed Bigfly Fiber Fleyes in blue and white sitting on the dash, it had to be 15 or 16 inches long. It was to represent a big mullet. It looked like an astro pop on steroids. I asked him, “how the hell do you cast that thing”. He stopped the van, tied it onto a 10 weight rod and threw that thing a country mile, (about eighty feet) into the wind, it floated and dropped softly into foam. The flies bulk shed water beautifully, when he lifted off on the next cast and false casted it, before launching it again. We all know how great and legendary Bob is as a innovative saltwater fly tier, but this was a “holy shit” moment that opened my eyes to how skilled of a fly caster Bob really was. It also made me realize how fly fishing could compete in some instances with conventional gear and especially big plugs in the surf…
flies, sand & surf 
That’s a great van and a great memory. I’d like to have a month or so to bum around on some beaches with a setup like that. Maybe in a few years.