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.
new book by high-wire artist Philippe Petit. courtesy of fastcodesign.com
Here a new beautifully illustrated book that just came out by author and high-wire artist Philippe Petit. This is a guy that puts his life on the strength of a knot. As fly fisherman we are always trying to stay connected if you know what I mean. I love knots and can never get enough of them. I love when I go to some new location and a guide turns me onto a new knot that has been field tested and is easy to tie. The author takes the liberty to rename some of our standard fishing knots like the uni-knot is called the triple grapevine knot but taking that in stride it still is a great connection, especially from braid to mono. More here!
image courtesy of fly fishing in saltwaters
Here is the recent article I wrote about Gary Meriman’s infamous Toad, which has become one of the most deadliest tarpon flies that has ever swam the turquoise waters of the Florida keys. Hope you enjoy…
Toad Article to download pdf.
meet and greet friday night hoedown, little max and the carp imperials. photo by michelle woo bowman
Group Shot at Lake Henshaw. Photo by Michelle Woo Bowman
Al Q & Conway Bowman surrounded by Yetis! photo by michelle woo bowman
The second annual carp throwdown this past weekend, hosted by Conway and yours truly was really a special one. We had a great meet and greet friday night, with live music, beer, barbecue and great friends. Everyone was on a high from the previous year when we timed the hopper catch perfectly. Most of the carp last year were caught sight fishing on the surface with hoppers. Saturday morning at early light, just before check-in, the entire lake was dimpling with carp, thousands of them. The fishing at the lake can be technical and the sharpies put some big numbers on the board. John Hendrickson and Dustin Sergent landed 27 in the boat division and scored a total of 102 points winning them two yeti coolers and first place trophies for their second year in a row. The ever so humble, Dave Wratchford won the wade division for the second year, landing 14 fish and scoring a total of 97 points, winning him a Orvis Helios 2 – 6weight and a trophy. Big fish was a tie between Orvis’s rod designer, Shawn Combs who flew in from Virginia to fish and Dylan Moore. Each had a 24 inch carp. We had a shoot out, by taking a stuffed kids shark toy, placing it 60 feet away and using the same rod and fly setup, each angler had three false casts and one lay down to come closest to the nose to the shark toy. Shawn was slightly closer but in good sportsmanship gave up the prize, a Abel custom 6n to Dylan. Great sportsmanship and very refreshing to see, way to go Shawn! Trash fish went to Wratchford with a 18 inch catfish, he got a Galvin reel. Everyone seemed to have a big smile on their faces after the event. Hope to see some new ones next year. Special thanks goes out to Bernard, Michelle, Max and all our great sponsors: Orvis, Abel, Howler, Yeti, Mustad, & Umpqua for making this event even better than last year… visit www.carpthrowdown.com for more updates on the tournament!
School of barracuda. Photo courtesy of trekearth.com
Photo Image by artist Angelo Musco
l love it when three of my passions, photography, art and fishing collide. The photo (above) of Angelo Musco’s image, illustrates this perfectly. I just stumbled upon this amazing artist. He is a visionary, using technology to stitch these modern conceptual photographic masterpieces. Please click here for the short video about this artist, Angelo Musco
John Whitaker attached to a fine yellowfin croaker (left) that falls for his USC trojan clouser (right). Photo by Jim Solomon
with the water temps lingering around 68 degrees we still seem to have some yellowfin croaker roaming around our local surf. The early marine layer kept them biting for a little longer than usual, they like low light so early am or just before dark can get these croaker schooled up and ready to eat. Pound for pound they provide great action on the fly and never disappoint anglers when they decide to show up…rumor has it my pops put hurt on them this morning, LOL…
flies, sand & surf 