It’s really nice to see some beans coming to hand. This is a great week of early minus low tides to give it your best shot. Our good friend and Sage, Smith and Rio rep, Alex Ramirez with one of two corbina landed this morning (somewhere in San Diego? LOL) on a olive sculpin pattern. Alex was fishing the new Sage Salt series fly rod. Way to go brother! I casted these Salt rods and they are awesome casting and fighting tools, perfect for inshore and beach fishing. I personally fish the older Sage 7wt ZAxis with a custom t-8 (approx 27 feet) attached to an Airflo intermediate running line. This morning I went zero for two, I had one really good take, which peeled drag as the fish raced across the shallow flat like it was water skiing then unbuttoned, the second take happened just as I was going to lift my rod to make another cast, the fish stopped the line in an inch of water then popped off. oh yeah, that is corbina fishing, not corbina catching. You must embrace the pain and move forward, tomorrow is another day. 🙂
Uncategorized
overcast bean…
After willing myself to an early rise I found a small group of finicky feeding Corbina this morning. The overcast, poor lighting conditions made positioning the fly a little more challenging since it was hard to see fish until they were literally on the doorstep. This is when you need to be way back on the beach to make a good cast. The corbina were right where I thought they would be, feeding right at the end of the wave foam, sliding over a small crab bed in inches of water. After three solid bumps and a few choice words I finally got one to stick. Glad I sharpened the hooks last night. At first I thought this fish was fouled by the way it fought, I couldn’t turn him. He fought especially hard in shallow water and never ran long, dogging me every time I got him in close. After around ten minutes I surfed him onto the sand and saw my fly under his lip. He was revived and released to fight another battle on another beach. This is the best time to try for corbina with a fly. It is my favorite time of the year…
photo love…
Taking the time to save that great shot is well worth the effort when you have the right tools of the trade. I like to straight horizon lines and bring back as much information in a digital shot as I can get away with, without sacrificing the original intent of the photographer. In other words try not to push it too much or it looks fake. For me saving these memories are just as cool as landing these great fish. This before and after is just an example of what I like to achieve. I like to do this for all my fishing friends whenever I get photos like the one above… My program of preference for post production is adobe lightroom, it is pretty easy to use, there are lots of tutorials on you tube as well… enjoy!
hello summer…
blue devils…
Click Here! It that time of the year when the massive bluefish schools are herding helpless bunker in shallow water and beating the crap out of them. Its gang warfare. The stripers will always be the glamor fish on the east coast but the bluefish in my opinion are still the bad boys that will always have attitude and never disappoint you when hooked. They pull hard and will bite off a finger if they have the opportunity. I have had days using poppers when me and my buddy Lance caught and released 100+ on bangers. Here’s some cool footage recently taken by Chris Fabiano off New Jersey shore on June 15th. There’s some really sweet slo-mo footage of hookless poppers getting hammered. enjoy!
fishing from the sky…
Click here to view this spectacular drone footage of surfcasters fishing for stripers off Gloucester, MA.
its a bird, its a plane, no…..
This was just sent to me from my friend James and it needed to be shared…thanks James!
couldn’t have said it better…
how sweet it was…
Last weekend in San Diego was bitter sweet for me personally. On a positive note I feel very blessed and proud of all my fly fishing buddies that rallied and made this crazy event possible to do and sadly because we lost one of our original One Surf Fly cheerleaders, in Shane Chung. Shane loved the One Surf Fly and his infectious laughter bellowed across each beach we landed on. I will no longer be coordinating the One Surf Fly, (The Qman is done!) it has become larger that I can personally handle. This may have been the last curtain call. It was a blast looking back and realizing how far we came in such a short time. When I first came up with this idea, there was nothing happening in Southern California fly fishing scene, it was stagnant. We needed to shake the tree. I wanted to create a fun event that enlisted all my passionate surf fly fishing friends. A non-competitive event that was all about fun, comradery, mentoring and celebration. A surf flyfishing one day of the year holiday, where you could see your old buddies and make new ones! I wanted to support good causes and in turn support our local fly fishing stores by coordinating these events up and down our coast. We were the spark that many in the industry took note of . Its been fun seeing other events popping up in our wake. We did it and I am proud of everyone that came out onto the sand to experience that magic we ALL created together. Thank you so much for allowing me to take part in this. There will be many more fun things in our future including the Double Haul Ball, the CarpThrowDown, etc. and now that I will be free to fish more I may see some of you on your local beaches. Remember the tug may be the drug, but the peel off the reel is the deal…. always remember change can take place, one person at a time…take a kid fishing, and pay what you know forward… visit onesurfly.com for the Mission Beach recap!
peace & love
-Al Q













