courtesy of Flymen Fishing Company
More toys to play with from Flymen Flyfishing Co.
photos by John Dietch
Here’s a few that were landed this morning by friend, John Dietch in the Southland. Looks like John’s fish ate a grey merkin. John had been having a tough time the past few outings but closed the deal this morning with a nice fish that was fair caught on the fly. His buddy from back east, I hear has been putting a hurt on the fish the past few days like there’s nothing to it…
image courtesy of the bbd news.
This goes out to all fly fishers, men and women, keep a youthful spirit.
my buddy james dwyer is quite a photographer and corbina patrol angler, here are some of his pics from the other morning. thanks james!
uno! photo by Al Q
dos! photo by Al Q
this summed it up for me! photo by Al Q
nice field and stream shot by Jim Solomon!
redemption. photo by Jim Solomon
is the voodoo off? stay tuned…photo by Jim Solomon
well we decided to move around a little since the reports have been from all over the south bay. the corbina are literally on everywhere. we went to location x this morning, a place we haven’t fished in a long time. when we arrived in grey light, the beans had their backs completely out of the water and were bombing the beach like a WWII raid in Normandy. it was not hard to spot them, the early low tide had them sliding up and down, in groups of threes and tens. all big fish with stout shoulders. my buddy jim was first to hook up and landed a nice one to my right. He ended the day with two. my other friend rick got one. I had the corbina voodoo this morning. I could not close the deal. I hooked 7 fish and had six stick, on the reel, but they all unbuttoned. it was comical! the cool part was that I was seeing and hooking fish, watching their rhythms, sliding and later cruising inside waves, the bad part was they were all unbuttoning. Finally the last one stuck and we slide her up on the beach. as I was fighting this fish I mutter something like, come to poppa! at that point it didn’t really matter if she unbuttoned, I was fishing with my buds, with fish all around us, on a secluded beach, sight casting! too cool for words… 🙂
nice chunky fish. photo by John Whitaker
Matt’s first fair-caught bean landed this morning. Congratulations buddy! photo by Matt Abrams
More good reports from the southland. Two corbina patrol buds, Tim and Jon landed 8 corbina before 7am this morning, all fair-hooked, now that is insane…it is turning out to be a banner season. I plan to fish tomorrow, bad arm and all..
flies doing the damage…photo by Tim Postel
Yvon Chouinard fly fishing
Yvon is one of the most successful business entrepreneurs on our planet and you would never know it if you met him on a stream. He lives the Patagonia brand and is one of the smartest people I know. I have heard him speak at universities and read his books. He just makes sense in everything he does and tries to tell it like it is without pretension. Read this small article and you will get a better picture for what is really important in life, that is why Yvon continues to inspire me to challenge myself and be a better steward for our environment…
nice fatty on a pink merkin courtesy of Mike Centofani.
Rick Olson gets his hands on a nice bean. photo by Al Q
Tim Postel with a fine morning corbina, Photo courtesy of Carl Laski
Jim with the hot hand this morning landing three fair caught beans and fouling one. Photo by Al Q
number two! Photo by Al Q
beanzilla, Jim’s third, photo by Tim Postel
This weekend we saw more fish than we have in the last few years, why, who knows, different cycle of fish, less rain, tastier crab beds, hungry fish? Will we ever figure it out, don’t think so…I was down at the beach in the early am for the last three straight mornings and each morning we were greeted with hundreds of corbina, some in groups of twenty fish. I tried to concentrate on taking pics and some video while my buddies didn’t disappoint me landing many fish, many not posted…this minus low tide cycle was epic, despite no sun, i hope the next one is just as good…stay tight, tomorrow and wednesday are still good tides, with a little sun it could get crazy. get out there…
a bean football landed by southbay angler, john whitaker on a grey merkin. photo by john whitaker.
I am seeing a lot of great reports from our southland beaches this past week. many of the corbina patrol boys are tearing it up. our friend jon got four one morning (all sighted) and timmy got 2 per day on two outings last week. all of our fish are on the merkins, pink or grey in sizes 4s and 6s. yesterday we all went out for fathers day, there were six of us, the tide wasn’t the best, it was was a outgoing to the low, but after nine o clock, when she turned around, it started to heat up, our buddy james got one to eat, and paul (merkin-man) cronin had three on the reel landing one. I had one eat at my feet but had no angle to stick him so he unbuttoned, but it was still a really cool deal watching him track the fly almost to the waters edge before opening his mouth to kill the bug. the sight fishing was really good. even though I didn’t get one I had a lot of fun throwing many shots to fish, only to watch them turn towards the fly and refuse my offerings. it was the most fun you could have NOT catching one. LOL we saw lots of doubles, triples, even larger groups. All these fish were cruising the edges of a well defined trough, often retreating to a deep edge when spooked by waders or surfers. The month of June typically is a really good time to get fish on flies, they tend to be more grabby early in the season, and more finicky as we head towards summer…can’t wait for the next minus low tide cycle…
an assortment of Al Q baitfish flies tied with sf blend. fourth down from the top is the yellowtail slayer! photo by Al Q
the magic patty. photo by randy norris
nice yellow falls to a Q baitfish fly. photo by randy norris
big boy with a Q fly souvenir. photo by randy norris
this report comes directly from my old fishing buddy randy norris who lives in riverside, california. i am so happy that he beat up on some quality yellowtail with these new baitfish flies I have been messing around with, I assure you, he will be receiving a new supply soon…thanks randy!
Magic Paddy- Al I lost all of your flies!!!
Awhile back Al Q sent me some prototype bait fish patterns to try out. I was looking forward to trying them when I had a chance on a paddy with decent YT. Today was the day. I ran solo out of Mission bay through the 101 and tracked the Canyon ridge headed toward the finger bank. Lot’s of life, dolphin, gray whales and even a killer whale were out there. About 8 miles into the route below the 101 and about 40 lies from Mission bay. I come across what we always dream of a beautiful paddy just sitting there in calm water. As I get closer I see that there are boils around the paddy. I figure this is the time to throw Al’s fly. I was expecting small YT but got a surprise. Fist cast got hit immediately and head shakes then right into the kelp couldn’t stop it. Next two casts same results. So I motor off the kelp and re-rig with straight 30 lb Fluorocarbon> I’m afraid I might have out them down. I cast and once again I’m hit head shakes and this time I throw my engine in gear and button down on the reel and pull the fish off the kelp. Now I am able to fight it and it comes to the gaff about a twenty plus pounder. I try again but they won’t take the fly. So I use sardines and get two more this time with my conventional rod loaded with spectra it is no problem when the run into the kelp it just saws it off. One fish well over twenty and a toad YT that weighed just under thirty-five pounds had one of Al’s flies in it. Great start to the season. This should be epic. I hope I can talk Al into sporting me some of his new bait fish flies. I tie but I am not in Al’s league.
flies, sand & surf 