Author Archives: ondafly

I think my tying class is sold out this weekend? I plan to have fun teaching some techniques, telling fish stories and tying a few of my favorite surf patterns with those that attend! See ya’ll at 8am this Saturday at Bob Marriotts in Fullerton.

photos by Jim Solomon

photo by Al Quattrocchi

photo by Jim Solomon

photo by Jim Solomon

photo by Al Quattrocchi

photo by Jim Solomon

photo by Jim Solomon

Spring has sprung and so has our surf fly fishing season. April if you didn’t know, is halibut time. I have to admit our surf fishing has been extremely slow to date until yesterday. It was like the beach was a different place. We had a mixed bag of perch, yellowfin croaker and halibut. We saw a few corbina cruising too. All good signs. We had pelicans diving on bait balls and a bull seal cruising the waves, it was alive. Me and my surf fishing buddy, Jim Solomon worked a long stretch of beach picking away until we finally found them. The halibut were stacked up on the falling tide and we both ended up landing two a piece before the morning was over. I dumped two, one was a nice fat head shaker that came free by not staying tight. (user error, LOL) Well, Jimmy went back in this morning and took care of business by landing four more halibut with one really nice fat legal fish that he promptly got back in the water to live another day. Wish I could have joined in the fun? These fish should stay around so its a good time to dust off the fly gear, tie on a flash tail clouser minnow, get on good structure and chuck away. Remember to stay tight, no slack! LOL

tight lines

-Al Q

Al Q’s method of making realistic crab claws by using EP fibers saturated with silicone on wax paper.

This is a simple method I developed while creating my Pinche Crab series of crabs. It has worked very well and is very easy to do. Silicone on wax paper, tie an over hand knot in the fibers, then flare out one end with silicone and your bodkin, let dry, then come back peel off, and cut your shape. You can use marker to color the claw tips prior to using the silicone. The best part of this system is the claws will float up (silicone is buoyant) and make the crab look like its in a defensive position when its stripped along. I have had many anglers report great success with this pattern on permit. Calicos love them too. Try it out and have fun.

-Al Q