Author Archives: ondafly

my light photos by al quattrocchi

My wife just came across this product in Target and bought them for bedtime book reading lights and the LIGHT went off in my head, no pun intended, “what a great travel light for fly tying”  I do a little fly tying and I am always looking for a good, small adaptable travel light, especially for when I am on the road or demonstrating at Fly Fishing clubs. I shall look no more. My Light comes in a two pack, a grey and black version for around $25 on Amazon, I think my wife paid $15 at Target. Look around they are pretty reasonable. They each take 3 AAA batteries and are the answer to my fly tying needs at a fraction of the coast of what other lights run. This is the QTip of the week! Hope it brightens your week. LOL

Nicolas Blixt playing with a wolf… photo by Al Q

Gary Bulla, Al Q, Carl Crawford, and Jim Solomon

View form the bluff of Rincon. Photo by Al Q

Jim Solomon, Al Q and Nicolas Blix demonstrate how to cast shooting heads in the surf. Photo by Al Q

The fishing was very slow at the Riptide Rendezvous this past Saturday, an event that seems to have been modeled after my “One Surf Fly”, only newly organized by John Loo and the Southwest Council of the FFF.  It was a tough morning for fly fishing due to the large onshore swell and incoming high tide. Safety was an issue, I saw two anglers get baptized. Only one surf perch was fair caught, taking the largest, most and first fish categories for around fifty anglers in a two hour session. Lots of familiar faces out there. Me, Jim Solomon, and Nicolas Blixt organized an early casting session for those unfamiliar with using shooting heads which lasted around a half hour. I was the MC of the RR raffle which seemed a little light but there were some nice prizes. The barbecue was pretty good, they served fish, vegetable and chicken skewers, with potato salad and rice. Coffee was plentiful. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and let’s face it, these events are really about comradery which was one of the main reasons I organized the One Surf Fly in the first place. With time and experience this event will get better and better…

John Loo asked me to help out and be the master of ceremonies for this years first, Riptide Rendezvous raffle, which I gladly replied, “Yes ” to. This is a BRAND NEW, South West Council FFF event, it is not my original “One Surf Fly” started nine years ago. It should be fun. Lets all try to support this new salty venture and get it off to a great start. Hope to see some new faces on the beach…cheers – Al Q

Jim Solomon and myself will demonstrate the Surf Tango, a simple 5 Step casting technique for most beginners on how-to properly cast a shooting head in the surf. It will take place at 6am on the beach before the event starts if anyone is interested and its FREE!  We will also hand out cheat sheets for those that attend.

We still have a few fishing willing to play locally if you put the time in to torture yourselves…LOL Here’s a few fine examples from this past weekend.

Par Avion’s lead guitarist, Bernard Yin on a tear this year with another quality fish to hand.

A nice fish landed by “Bonefish” Bobby Izuda visiting our local beaches from Hawaii. WTG dude…