Local SoCal angler John Whitaker is all smiles after landing a northern wahoo on a black/purple maurader this past weekend. His team went two for four on wahoo, fishing out of San Diego. They also hooked and dropped a few marlin and yellowtail…The epic El Nino bite continues…stay tuned
In my opinion, the belly basket is one of my favorite stripping baskets once these two additional steps are taken.
The Belly Bucket by Sea Level Flyfishing is one of my favorite stripping baskets because it is light and deeper than most which keeps my line in the basket on a windy day. With a few minor alterations it is nearly perfect. Photo by Al Q.
The first alteration is to round out the corners of the rod holder foam. The original pointed edges will grab the line coming out of your basket. Rounding these corners allow for less friction and catching point, experiment with the amount of diameter in the curve. Photo by Al Q.
I like to add fingers of heavy trimming line to hold my line like a hand holding a loose coil of string. I am not a fan of those rounded foam cones, they don’t work well when you have to walk and your line moves around in the basket. Adding these fingers will make a big difference in eliminating tangles coming out of your basket. I use around seven trimmer lines, but add more if you feel necessary. Photo by Al Q.
Drill your holes with a bit that is slightly smaller in diameter. Photo by Al Q
Melt on end of your trimmer Lines and flatten the end before it cools. Photo by Al Q
The flattened end will be on the bottom of the basket after you feed the top part through the hole. Photo by Al Q
Add glue to bottom of basket prior to pulling the trimmer line all the way through from the basket side and let set. Photo by Al Q
photo by Al Q
The bottom should look like this after your flu all the spaced out trimmer lines. Photo by Al Q
The inside trimmer lines can be trimmed if too long, once the glue sets overnight. Photo by Al Q
THE L16 PROMISES GREAT OPTICAL ZOOM, HIGH RESOLUTION, TERRIFIC LOW-LIGHT CAPABILITIES, AND SUBSTANTIAL DEPTH-OF-FIELD CONTROLS.
The new Light pocket camera, about the size of a iPhone will sport 16 lens and make carrying a DSLR bucky camera almost obsolete. I see this as a game changer for flyfishing trips having such a small pocket camera with great functionality and resolution to 52 megapixels, holy crap! Product info!
Click Here to Read full story!
Can’t wait to get my copy at Somerset this January!
A 10.4 boga weighed Hawaiian bonefish by Glenn Ueda. Photo courtesy of Glenn Ueda
This is our buddy, Glenn’s explanation as only he can tell the story: A fish of a lifetime!
Nice casual start this morning, long way around the island, picture taking, cloudy and windy though, oh-oh, find the beach access, waist deep to start but slated to fall, wind-drizzle-wind-sun-wind, clean bottom except for weedy clumps, so no fish to be seen, got to find conditions, knees go dry, find the shallows and the hunt begins, almost step on big one, huge sand cloud, the search goes on, it’s 1:25 pm, low tide in two hours, eyes burning, scanning in glare, grey-tan mud plume, thirty feet away, barely discernible, silver baseball glove-sized tail, roll cast to load rod, lead fish by eight feet, let medium bead chain eyes do their thing, mud cloud drifts aft, but huge green submarine creeps ahead, closing in on where I think fly is, 5 feet, 4 feet, 3 feet-slow strip, line goes extremely tight, fish rockets away pulling line through strip set, in a few seconds, 50 yards-100 yards- 150 yards-200 yards, fortunately no hazards to be concerned with, deep backing seeing water for first time ever, fish turns, heavy tail beats, second run only a half as far, third run, fourth run, seemingly no quit, fish finally circling but tail still thumping side to side, get first good look, pulse quickens, hands start shaking, dilemma… how to land this beast solo, NRX bent into cork, no pressure left to apply, five minutes pass by, decide to not apply rod pressure down back of fish for fear of popping hook, decide do or die time is here, gently hold leader with left hand while simultaneously placing cork grip under right pit, begin scary slow hand over hand, pulling fish ever closer, alert to release if it bolts, finally within arms reach, left hand stab at fish, hand barely fits around tail, shaking in disbelief, shaking with gratitude, shaking because I’m staring at a bonefish of a lifetime, boga says ten pounds and four ounces, goal achieved, still can’ t believe it, so grateful…..
The Fly Zone is a custom program design for individuals or groups to better their all around skills as anglers. It includes casting, tackle, outfitting and techniques for any environment or circumstance. Contact Al or Jim for more info: al@tornadodesign.la /jim@iticorp.net
This past Saturday, Jim Solomon and myself had the opportunity to complete a two day “fly fishing the beach” Fly Zone course with some of the fine folks at the Pasadena Fly Club.
We started at the casting pond and went over the casting stroke and learning to cast and manage a sinking shooting head, knots, tackle, flies and techniques which included a slide presentation. This past Saturday, we all met down at the beach to practice some of the skills we covered which included casting and reading water. Learning the proper skills and techniques necessary to be a successful angler on the beach is something that will make every angler better when they return back to a creek, lake or river.
Jim showing the proper hand position for casting. Photo by Al Q
photo by Al Q
photo by Al Q
Photo by Al Q
Getting first hand experience. Photo by Al Q
A great group of anglers. Photo by Al Q
This El Nino continues to amaze me. This monster yellowtail was landed by Jarred Davidson off the Mission Bay jetty in San Diego last Monday, September 14th. Way to go dude! Read the full report!
A beautiful Hawaiian bonefish landed by Denny Kaneoka in Oahu. This fish was weighed on a boga grip at 10.5 pounds. This was Denny’s fourth fish, 10 pounds or better in less than a week. Photo courtesy of Peter Koga.
I had a great birthday yesterday spent buddy boating with a great group of fly boys offshore. I was out with Roy Fukushima, Ken Oda, Steve Hanano, Jon Nakano and Greg Madrigal. We launched out of Dana Point, picked up a big scoop of anchovies and headed south east towards the 302. We jumped patties as soon as the sun broke through the horizon and there was enough light to see them. Roy and Ken had great eyes and spotted many patties far off on the horizon. The first stop yielded a firecracker yellowtail and small ahi for my buddy Roy, the ahi his first on the fly. We all got firecrackers on numerous paddies, small yellowtail were abundant. We were looking for dorado and tuna. The fun is this was pure opportunity fishing, each paddy discovered is different, some held fish and some were completely void of life. Having a second boat working on the horizon made scanning the ocean a lot easier. Six pairs of eyes are always better than three. Once one of us found something we investigated it and if there were fish there we radioed the other boat to join the party. Good old fashioned fly fishing fun. On the way back Steve called in as said they found a small patty that may have some tuna on it so we headed their way. When we pulled up both Jon and Steve were bent. We threw a few baits and the ocean exploded like someone drop canon balls around our boat. I immediately hooked up but dropped my fish, user error on my part, but Ken hooked a nice one on his 8 weight and all I hear is, “oh Shit”. Ken to his credit landed this fish like a seasoned pro, his old commercial fishing days kicked in and he had that tuna on the deck in ten minutes. It was his first ahi on fly and on an eight weight to boot, just awesome. Seeing a few flying fish and skating across the flat blue ocean with a great group of guys was a blast. The water temps were near 78, which is why we had so many patties to work off of. The patties were pushing up the temp break from Mexico where most of the pelagics are coming from…
leaving the harbor and looking to the east was a glorious sunrise. Photo by Al Quattrocchi
Jon, Steve and Greg working a small patty. Photo by Al Quattrocchi
Roy with a nice firecracker yellowtail. Photo by Al Quattrocchi
Roy with his first Ahi on fly. Photo by Al Quattrocchi
Ken and Q double up. Photo by Roy Fukushima
Ken get bit on his 8 weight.Photo by Roy Fukushima
Ken gets his first Ahi on fly. Landed on an eight weight, quite a battle. Photo by Al Quattrocchi
Some of Jon’s beautiful tuna. Photo by Al Quattrocchi
The master, Bob Popovics wearing the first original “Beast” tee. Artwork by Al Q
original sketch by Bob Popovics.
original sketch by Bob Popovics
original drawing by Al Q All rights reserved.
final color scheme and design by Al Q All rights reserved.
I was recently asked by my friend, Bob Popovics to sketch up a few of his most inovative fly patterns for some tee shirts he will use to help promote his new book soon to be released entitled, “Fleye Designs” I can’t wait to get me hands on this new book, it should be out the beginning of next year. His last book is now a classic entitled, Popfleyes, and I consider it to be the bible for saltwater fly tying. If you tie flies and haven’t seen that book you are living in a cave. Bob is my mentor as a fly tier and ever since I met this man over twenty years ago, he has been one of the most generous people I know, always willing to help me better my game as a person and fly fisherman. I felt honored to be able to represent these patterns with my drawing style mainly because I know them so well personally tying them and watching Bob tie them over the years. I though I would share some of the thinking and sketching process here. I should be receiving my first two samples soon, the rear floating squid and the beast. The ultra shrimp and schoolie should be on deck… I think these shirts will be available for sale at the Tuffleye booth during the Somerset Fly Show in New Jersey the end of January…
Orignial sketh by Bob Popovics for the “Schoolie” fleye
original Schoolie Fleye drawing and color design by Al Q (all rights reserved)
original sketch for the Rear Floating Squid by Al Q (All rights reserved.)
Original sketch for the utlra shrimp fleye by Bob Popovics
The Ultra Shrimp fleye, original drawing and color design by Al Q (All rights reserved.)
Rear Floating Squid fleye, original drawing and color design by Al Q (All rights reserved.)
flies, sand & surf 