Author Archives: ondafly
frijoles y moscas…
A sight fishing intro to corbina presentation by Al Q and Jon Nakano this Sunday morning at 9:30 am at The Fisherman’s Spot in Van Nuys.
I asked my long time fly fishing buddy, Jon Nakano to join me on Sunday morning at The Fisherman’s Spot, in Van Nuys to give his insights on our favorite summer sight fishing, surf species, the Corbina. I have had the good fortune to fish alongside Jon for many seasons, he’s like the corbina whisperer. LOL The presentation is only 45 minutes so we will try to jam in as much local knowledge as we can, we hope to see some new faces out there on Sunday morning…there will be a short ten minute video at the end. cheers – Al Q
it’s starting early, notes from a beanaholic…
ok, last year I had to pleasure of meeting Glenn Ueda and posting many of his corbina adventures with you. I met Glenn fishing one morning on one of my local beaches, we became Corbina pals and I got him to come visit some of my home water. Glenn was on a tear last season, and ended up having the dream corbina season landing 25 sight caught fish off the beach in one season, pretty cool stuff.
Glenn’s epic 25 fish season 2014, photos by glenn ueda
So it’s the end of March and as many of you know, California is experiencing another El Nino year. Our water temps have been in the low and mid sixties throughout the winter. Yellowtail are literally beaching themselves, grin! We don’t have much bait in our surf other than grunion, the sand crab beds haven’t begun to take shape yet. We have sighted some fish recently in the Southbay, but they didn’t seem to be aggressively feeding. Well, Glenn got out last week on his bike and scouted the lay of the land, somewhere in Orange County and found some fish walking the shoreline and and got them to eat the fly. I hope we get some of those feeders up our way soon. He landed three beans on two separate days. We will be following his fish counts closely this year, with this great start Glenn could break his previous mark. I hope he does, he really works hard at it…no free lunches…good luck buddy LOL
“Wanted to update your blog readers on the first 3 corbina of the season! They were caught in a two day timespan, and is typical, the structure was eliminated under a crushing swell. Being March, not many fish sighted yet, and though water temps are hovering in the 65 degree range, sand crab beds are still absent. Perhaps, the memory of what should be there has them feeding in tight to the beach and thus tempted by the small #8 grey merkins I’ve been tossing. Regardless, I am encouraged by what I am seeing and remain hopeful that this will be another special year for a species that I have to come to admire, respect, and pursue endlessly.”
Take care,
Glenn
photo by Glenn Ueda
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: #corbina #corbinaonthefly, #corbinapatrol, corbina, corbina on the fly, flyfishingforcorbina
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a river runs through it…
It is great to see lots of young anglers excited about fishing the la river these days. I recently went back to the LAR these past two weekends with a couple of good buddies, and had the first hand experience of enjoying them hook and land their first carp on the fly. I was fortunate to get introduced to this place around ten years ago by another good fishing buddy Jon Nakano, me and James Dwyer met him at the concrete river and fished what we called dough flies back then. They were just some wool over a small hook with maybe one wrap of lead around the shank to let them sink very slowly in the current. We would drift them right to the holding carp and they ate them like popcorn. We all connected back then but it was to be quite frank, a little sketchy down there, populated with some crazy local homeless characters.
Al Q back in 2007 with a concrete carp and a vulcan sleep hold. Photo by James Dwyer.
Now with Friends of the LA River (FOLAR) making people more aware of this really cool place, it is getting a little cleaner, family friendly and more people are starting to experience the little jewel that runs right through the heart of downtown LA. If you can eliminate some of the trash, wires over head and graffiti, there are some stretches of the river that can make you forget you are in a populated urban environment. Anyhow, here a a few pics from the last couple of weekends, the smiles in my friends faces will paint the pictures and as you will see the carp are still eating flies…
photo by Al Q
photo by Al Q
couple of canadian geese enjoying the early morning photo by Al Q
my good buddy Jim Solomon with his first LA river goldfish. Photo by Al Q
Nick Blixt changing flies. Photo by Al Q
Here’s one I got drifting a fly through a run. Photo by Al Q
any fly that rides hook up and has some weight to get it down depending on the flow of water will work. If the water is deeper that two feet add a small split shot. red and black, white and chartreuse work good. Photo by Al Q
Glenn Ueda is all smiles after masterfully landing this trophy LA river carp. His first carp on flyand it ate a #10, red and black fly I tied. Photo by Al Q
clean and green. Photo by AL Q
This guy ate one of Glenn’s pink bonefish puffs and jumped on it on the first cast. Photo by Al Q
old pink lips sliding up the bank.Photo by Al Q
Pink bonefish puff, breakfast of champions. Photo by Al Q
the mighty shad…
Various mighty shad flies tied by Al Q using ep fibers, ostrich and sf blend. I usually weight them with a few turns of lead in the front part of the shank. I like to tie these on a strong gamma or mustad #2 tarpon hook
Local angler, John Whitaker with a nice Mexican largemouth bass landed on a Q Mighty Shad Fly last week. He was fishing Agua Milpas south of Puerto Vallarta.
the one surf fly is coming…
Beach Banner
the official One Surf Fly poster
Check OneSurfFly for updates. We should have a really nice raffle for Shane this year. There will also be a few silent auction items including one of Shane’s personal Winston 8 foot, two piece bamboo fly rods valued at $1500. Hope to see some new faces out there this year. This may very well be my last One Surf Fly so please come out and show some love…
dhb recap…
Another fine event at the Long Beach Casting Club for those who braved the SoCal ninety degree temps. The Double Haul Ball is a free all day event to help promote saltwater flyfishng techniques to those willing to learn. Special thanks to all those who volunteer each year and continue to help us educate our local want to be saltwater fly fishers and helps folks like myself become better casters. Hell, Bob Middo coined the phrase, “The Classic Al” for my forward cast which basically collapses at the very end because I tend to shock the rod on the forward cast. The boys made a few adjustments on me and before long the Qman was back to throwing darts by the end of the day. This is why the DHB is awesome, there is no place to hide, they will find your faults and correct them. I am always learning and grateful.
I want to thank all the excellent fly casting instructors like Bob Middo, John Van Derhoof, Jim Solomon, Michael Maloney, Bill Heard, Ray Bianco and Doug Spieske for making it look easy. I want to thank all our fly tiers: Alex Cady, Mike Centofani, Matt Abrams, Steve Holowell and Kevin Green for sharing their effective fly patterns with us. Thanks to Gary Bulla for joining me on our Surf presentation at the pond and Bob Middo for joining up on the Tackle Talk. Special thanks go out to Alex Ramirez and his lovely assistant Kesley Gallagher. Alex is the regional rep for Smith Sunglasses, Sage and Redington rods. Alex brought his rod racks full of fun flyfishing rods for everyone to cast. The Sage Salt was a crowd favorite this year. Thanks to the Wilderness Fly Fishing Club, Larry & Cecilia Carrol for hosting lunch and Southwest Council FFF president, Michael Schweit for keeping everyone in line, grin. We can’t forget Chris Murphy and his student ensemble, The Black Tree Band who lighten the day each year with beautiful bluegrass music during lunchtime, they are amazing! Check out Chris’s website for touring dates! Hope to see some new faces out there next year.
The One Surf Fly is coming soon! photo by Al Q.
The Black Tree Band. photo by Al Q
from left: Michael Schweit, Kesley Gallagher and Alex Ramirez. photo by Al Q
Lunch time! photo by Al Q
Bob Middo demonstrating the dynamics of a shooting head. Photo by Al Q
The might Quinn showing Jim Solomon and her dad, Al Q how to cast! photo by Janet Chang Quattrocchi
Mike Centofani working the fly tying table. photo by Michael Schweit
Rich Kanner grabbing a casting stick as Alex Ramirez watches on. Photo by Michael Schweit
Bob Middo casting! photo by Michael Schweit
Kevin “Krabby Paddy” Green having fun. photo by Michael Schweit
nice article on lefty…
Lefty has had quite a life, here’s a great Q&A about some of his wonderful memories at 90 years young…
Categories: Uncategorized
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flies, sand & surf 