Despite warm waters our local inshore fly fishing has been pretty damn good for local species like calicos, juvenile white seabass, barracuda and bonita. Me and my buddy, John Whitaker ran out of Redondo Harbor, Saturday o’dark thirty to get in a little local action in before the start of our weekend. John had pre-fished the day before so we kind of knew we were in for some quality calico fishing and lucky for us, history repeated itself. We charted 72 degree water temps just outside the harbor and as soon as we swung around the corner towards PV the water dropped to 69 degrees. We got to our destination as we slowly tried to avoid all the lobster traps that littered the surface like land mines in the dark. Our first casts we immediately greeting with bent rods. The fishing was steady with all quality bass to 18 inches until the lights came on, then it slowed down, probably due to the slack high tide. You need current and moving water to keep the bass on the chew. Got a few small white sea bass mixed in on the fly before we quit and headed back home towards the whaling grounds. John said there were some humpbacks and finbacks working bait inshore and if we found them the bonita would be on em like white on rice and he was right. We doubled up when we got close to the whales, sea lions and dolphin working bait less than a mile off Torrance beach. It was like the Discovery Channel, I was trying to shoot photos while trying to land bonita, finally I had to put the rod down and shoot a few pics of these magnificent creatures… a great, memorable day fishing the fly in October. We were back at the dock having a cup of coffee at 10 am! Welcome to California in October…
An early morning calico. Photo by Al Q
Photo by John Whitaker
Photo by John Whitaker
photo by Al Q
Photo by Al Q
Photo by Al Q
Photo by Al Q
John going bonita bendo. Photo by Al Q
Minty Mac Clousers by Al Q
flies, sand & surf 