Fished locally out of Redondo Beach this past Saturday and got our buddy, Gary Scott on a few calicos, sargo, mackeral, bonita and sand bass. The brook trout never lies, my good friend, Capt John Whitaker had a sore thumb clicking away and holding the boat over great structure. A great morning with a slight swell with blue bird skies. Blessed to be amongst friends on the sea with fly rod in hand.
Click here to reserve copies of the book and receive a special Love2FlyFish vinyl decal with each pre-sale book as a thank you.
Don’t miss the opportunity to catch a special limited edition set that includes (1) signed book, (1) 8″ x 10″ color signed corbina photograph, (1) corbina patrol vinyl decal, (1) hand-tied Holy Moley fly by Al Q and a color step by step Holy Moley fly recipe. Supplies will be limited and will not be sold at retail. You can only get this Special Edition here.
The books should be here the middle of next month and will ship as soon as they arrive. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing, designing, illustrating, photographing and fishing over twenty years for these crazy fish up and down our California beaches. – Al Q
The conscious choice to fly fish, as opposed to other, often more productive methods, is generally made by way of entering a fraternity of fishers who choose to find places and ways to more closely approach the natural world…to challenge themselves and to employ methods more artful, than “catchfull.” Add sight fishing for a super elusive species, like corbina, to the mix, and you enter a realm known only to a few stalwarts…Al Quattrocchi has stepped up to the task of walking you through that world. You should join him; I certainly shall. – Flip Pallot
Little do beachgoers know the elusive corbina swims at their ankles, all the while keeping a sharp eye out for Al Q. This is the definitive book on saltwater sight fishing in Southern California. – Jimmy Kimmel
Fishing in saltwater poses many challenges as we all know, but when it comes to fishing in the surf for corbina the challenges are far greater. If there is an angler that could simplify these challenges, Al Q is the one. He has been fishing for corbina for many years with excellent results. – Enrico Puglisi
We all should feel fortunate that Al Q has shared his years of knowledge targeting these great West Coast game fish. Al Q is one of fly fishing giants! From his innovative fly designs to his straight forward narrative, this book is a must read for all fly anglers. Thanks Al Q, for making all of us better fly fishermen. – Capt. Conway Bowman
I had five awesome students this past Saturday at Bob Marriotts Fly Fishing store that were ready to conquer six classics flats patterns and we all did it! We got into a few fun techniques like making my original “Pinche Claws”, dubbing fly bodies with synthetics, and making mono eyes, DIY style with Tuffleye Core. I also demoed the classic hand whip finish and connecting your fly to your tippet with a non-slip mono loop! All in all, an info packed, four-hour intermediate class that was lots of fun for me to share. It was my first fly tying series class and there will be more. I hope some of you can get in on the next one. It will be more of an advanced master class with a limit of six fly tiers, we will announce some dates next year. I would like to do one on Popovic’s Big Bucktail streamers (Beast, Bucktail Deceiver, and Bulkhead Deceiver) and maybe one on Crustaceans (red crab, pinche crab and crayfish). I will try my best to up your game and show you many inside tying tricks, so don’t get shut out…happy holidays!
-Al Q
Last weekend, my friend Zino and I decided to hit it early on a Friday morning from sunny Los Angeles and drive north to Bethal Island (aprox. 5.5 hour drive) to the CA Delta. The Sugar Barge on Bethal Island is home of the annual Simms Pro Delta Day hosted by our old friend, John Sherman of Simms. The main event was Saturday from noon to late in the evening and sponsors of this event were Simms, Costa , Hatch Outdoors and Yeti. It was a record turnout with I believe 150 participants. Some of my favorite seminars were Cast Hope, Costa’s Kick Plastic, hearing Bobby Barrack rant on bass fishing (worth the price of admission!) and a panel talk with Delta pioneer Dan Blanton, and guides Maury Hatch and Noel de Guzman on various fishing techniques they have implemented for landing fish in the Delta. This event is like a homecoming for me, I get to see many of the old faces that are still in the industry and mingle with many of the newcomers too, it is a really cool, social event and I am proud of John Sherman for building it up each year, the first one was held in his backyard, around six years ago.
So we got to fish half a day after our long drive, (friday afternoon) with Dan Blanton, an old friend and mentor of mine. No-one knows the Delta fishery better than Dan. I remember back when he first fished it with Nick Curcione and started to write about it’s diversity and fishability. Conditions were not optimal but we still scratched out about a dozen or so fish in a few hours. The fishing was a little off probably due to the super moon phase. I have caught many stripers in my lifetime and I know first hand, full moon tides fish great at night, stripers are low light, nocturnal predators. The fish although small and plentiful on the meter were probably full to their stomach and were laying low during the day, but we managed to force feed a few. Highlight for me was getting a few blowups and one small fish to eat a popper.
The second day conditions were similar, when we fished the early am tides with Capt. Bryce Tedford. Bryce was enthusiastic about trying some big fish water with less anglers and we we all for that plan. We fished hard for Bryce and we scratched out about a dozen small fish in around four hours, all fun! The CA Delta is facing many challenging issues and with our new republican administration may be under siege once again. It is a beautiful place with many big fish for those willing to put in the time, I hope the water stays in the Delta for generations to come, it a remarkable place. I always look forward to next year!
flies, sand & surf 