I had the pleasure of meeting fellow Long beach Casting Club member, David Dywer last night and he shared a wonderful story with me of his recent 22 pound halibut that he landed on one of his beautifully tied, Thunder Creek style flies. This was truly a trophy on the fly rod and I wanted to share this fantastic catch with all my saltwater friends. Even though our local surf hasn’t be productive the last few years doesn’t mean there aren’t trophies lurking in the troughs…if your not fishing, your not catching! way to go David!
-Q
photo courtesy of David Dwyer.
photo courtesy of David Dwyer.
photo courtesy of David Dwyer.
photo courtesy of David Dwyer.
photo courtesy of David Dwyer.
flies, sand & surf 
Hi Al,
I was at the LBCC meeting you spoke at and wanted to thank you for the casting demonstration, and clinic you gave on fly fishing the surf.
This post stimulated my desire to hook a halibut from the surf on the fly.
I went down to my local venue to give it a try, but my session leaves me with more questions then fish landed: 4 small “snagged” sting rays, and one (I suspect halibut) with a short fight but did not get to shore.
I was fishing my 8 WT set up that I normally use for inshore bass: Rio Outbound Short WF8I/S6 330 grain. On the working end I was throwing moderately weighted clousers.
This leads me to a question: When targeting inshore halibut in the surf zone, should I be using a different line system? It felt like my fly was dredging the bottom, and I have a feeling the halibut pounce on stuff that is working between the surface and just above the bottom. Another thing that lead me to this conclusion was the fact that a guy on the south end of the rip we were working hooked three shorts in a row bait casting an L.C.!
Do you have a line suggestion that may be a better choice for me in this situation? Maybe just a full intermediate WF8 instead of the full sink tip? Maybe the Airflo Beach or Surf lines?
Your recommendation would be greatly appreciated!
P.S.: Your casting method for off the beach is working really well for me! Safe and simple way to cast and minimize false casting.
Thanks!
Fred
Hey Fred, glad the set up and the tango is working for you. One method you might try is to either use a clear intermediate line with a clouser or deceiver to get that mid column swimming bait imitation or stay with the sinking line and use a small silver popper to keep the fly suspended. I used to slam croakers with the poppers, when you strip the fly it goes down, when you pause it floats up and usually gets their attention. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!