I think this black marlin won this battle!
below: here’s another great pic but I have no information on it other than it is awesome!
I think this black marlin won this battle!
below: here’s another great pic but I have no information on it other than it is awesome!
This is all courtesy of You Tube:
During a recent expedition to The Bahamas, Dr. Andy Danylchuk (UMass Amherst), Dr. Aaron Adams (Bonefish & Tarpon Trust/Florida Institute of Technology), Dr. Jon Shenker (Florida Institute of Technology), and Zack Jud (Florida International University) reconfirmed that bonefish form massive spawning aggregations at very specific locations during specific lunar days. Using manual tracking and depth sensors, they also documented that bonefish use depths of greater than 160 feet (50 m) when spawning, after which they return quickly to shallow water. Collectively, this work will help identify sites throughout The Bahamas and elsewhere in Florida and the Caribbean where bonefish spawn and that need protection from habitat disturbance and overfishing. Stay tuned for more epic footage!

some fly plate post-it art i will submit to the giant robot show featuring over 300 artists and thousands of post-its. photo by al q
This coming Saturday night, our friends Esther Pearl Watson and husband Mark Todd are curating this fun art show at Giant Robot 2 on Sawtelle blvd, just north of Olympic. The post-it show celebrates it’s 9th year! It will open this coming Saturday night, December 7th and run through Sunday, December 15th. If anybody out in cyber land is around or in town, it would be worth checking out. I am just flattered to be invited, there should be some amazing art for sale. All post-its are for sale and $25 each. For more info click here!

A beautiful spotfin croaker landed by angler Tom Camp somewhere in Santa Monica Bay on a Bill Brady fly. Photo courtesy of Bill Brady
There has been talk of a few spotfin croakers landed in Santa Monica over the past few weeks by angler, Tom Camp! I recently ran into Tom on the beach and kindly asked him to email me a pic to share. Thanks buddy, great fish!
I fished yesterday morning with my friend Jim Solomon in Santa Monica, it was a glorious sunrise, perfect surf conditions, light wind and small surf, perfect match for the long rod and feathers. we walked and casted, walked and casted for a total of three perch between us. not a productive morning by fishing standards but a great morning never the less. got to see the sun come up and paint the sky. saw a seal doing the back stroke and lots of pelicans diving about a 1/2 mile off shore indicating there was fin bait, probably anchovies. beats sleeping! LOL
This video clip is courtesy of the Jimmy Kimmel Show is with Julia Louis-Dryfus (a closet fly fisher woman). I have been very fortunate to know Jimmy Kimmel over the years as a friend and an avid fly fisherman. Jimmy loves to fly fish! He’s crazy about fly fishing! I met Jimmy when he was just starting out on Jimmy Kimmel Show. I got the opportunity to design one of the Jimmy Kimmel logos back in the day. It was years later that Ken from the Fisherman’s Spot in Van Nuys asked me to take him out for a casting session. Ken knew that I knew Jimmy and felt comfortable asking me to help him out. This casting session came prior to his first invitation to Montana to fish with his friend, Huey Lewis. Needless to say, that trip changed Jimmy’s life forever! Fly fishing can do that to a person. I am very happy it did! 🙂 Click here for the video with Julia Louis-Dreyfus!
Well there seems to be a renaissance of new and interesting innovations happening in fly tying these days. check out these new pulse discs that you can attach to the front of any fly pattern to make your fly wiggle and dance. My buddy, Bob Popovics used to do this with his PopLips fly pattern using wool and silicone. He would pull the wool in front of the fly and coat it with silicone between his fingers, when it dried he would shape a soft lip that allowed the fly to swim like a fish. Pretty cool stuff. Poplip flies were designed by a real person and could be adapted, shaped, and required skill, therefore was in my opinion a crafted fly. They were snowflakes, everyone different, but that was what made them beautiful! Just like Joe Blados’s crease fly took a new material (craft foam) and artistically shaped it into a top water baitfish that pushed water and evokes serious strikes. They were innovative flies. Putting lips on flies is not a new concept, these pulse discs are a neat idea, but they are PERFECT! I don’t know if I am into them or not. I haven’t tried them but I will say they do look great in the water and at night will be a killer. They take the craftsman out of the fly and make everyone look good, even if your flies look like crap. Whether you are a purist or just sub come to the latest trend of making all flies look and behave like spin, jig and soft plastic baits, does it really matter? I don’t think so as long as you create it on a vise? As long as no one pokes an eye out, I am cool with all innovation. I think this borders the line of what we consider traditional fly fishing but it still works. Just like a buck tail jig on the end of a flyline, it WILL catch fish. I will stick with my bucktail, feathers, and synthetics and continue to keep it real and simple like fly fishing was intend to be. I signed up for the hardest way to fish when I picked up the long rod and I actually like it that way. It took many years for me to feel comfortable catching fish in saltwater with a fly but that’s why I like it, it wasn’t easy. I still love to fish with conventional and spinning gear. They can be weapons of mass destruction and they work effectively because you can throw all sorts of heavy stuff that swims, dives, floats and wiggles, live or dead. Just another way to do it. LOL Click here for more info! Watch video! I am open to yours thoughts… please chime in.
Well many of my fishing friends have touted Christmas Island over the years, sitting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean nearly 1200 miles from Hawaii not only for the great fishing opportunities but for the exotic beauty of this Polynesian atoll. Here is a little photo collage from some of my fly fishing buddies that all just returned a few weeks ago with big smiles. They had a great time and caught some fantastic species. Anytime you have shots at 80#+ GTs it doesn’t suck! I plan to go next November with a another group of fly fishing buddies and I can not wait. Hearing the stories of tackle busting GTs, wahoo, tuna and big bonefish on the edges of deep flats has gotten me crazy. Now it’s getting my game plan in order and preparing my tackle for next years big adventure. I feel like I need to read Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War!… LOL
My buddy, Bob Popovics just sent me a great photo that was taken in Seaside by Tom Lynch aka Angryfish. I LOVE THIS SHOT and I think Tom has captured Bob in perfect light and in perfect form. This picture is timeless and that is what makes a great photo, you can keep looking at it over and over. Most people only know Bob for his innovative fly patterns but let me tell ya first hand, Bobby can throw a big fly into wind as good as anyone I have ever seen. Nice backcast dude! 🙂