photo courtesy of Larry Acord

Our good friend and local angler, Larry Acord had a great day flyfishing off the beach this past Saturday, just north of Ventura by landing three corbina on fly in 59 degree water. The fish were apparently cruising in deep water, way off the beach. Two of the three fish were caught on a Qs Beach Bug which is a good early season attractor pattern. What is really cool, is that we have been practicing our casting almost every week. Most of the time we work on short accurate casts which really are the money cast, but lately we have been practicing long shots of 80 plus feet, well it paid off for Larry. WTG dude!

“Saturday: 7 wt NRX Loomis…..8/9 Nautilus reel…8wt Rio Beach/Surf….using the bigger set up because there were so many sharks……Had to use everything I had to get this fish.  Only had 5 or 6 wraps of flyline on the reel….YES!!  90+ foot cast at a 45 degree angle to the shore to get past the point.  2 strips and watched him take it…..10-12 minute fight… put him on the rock for a quick pic and got him back in the water to revive him.  Wanted to thank all you guys for the help and advice and especially Al Q and Jim Solomon for getting me in the Fly Zone and being able to make that cast.” – Larry Acord

Jimmy with a awesome blue trevally that feel for a cuban crab fly.

Jimmy Kimmel with a beautiful Tahitian bonefish, DIY style, caught on a gotcha.

These two photos were emailed to me over this past weekend by my fly fishing buddy and late night guru, Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy was recently fly fishing in a beautiful isolated Pacific atoll called Tetiaroa, once the home of Marlon Brando. He sight fished that beautiful bonefish using a gotcha fly, DIY style. The trevally was landed on a cuban crab fly. WTG bro! It doesn’t get better than that!

Tetiaroa is located 33 miles north of Tahiti. I was fortunate to sail from Tahiti to Tetiaroa for a day trip back in 1986 and it was one of the most beautiful places I ever set foot on. I remember we threw the anchor just outside the atoll in 150 feet of water and it was sitting on the bottom as clear as a bell. I jumped off the sail boat with my snorkel and i felt like I was suspended in space, the water was so clear, all the beautiful reef fish swaying in the current along side the outside atoll walls, it was absolutely surreal. The island is as tall as a palm tree with approximately 13 interior motus or small islands within it’s protected barrier ring. I remember one of the motus having many sea birds nesting on it, too bad for me, I didn’t have my fly rod packed with me back then…

the island of Tetiaroa

March 14th, 2018

Today, is a very sad day for thousands of people including myself. Today, I lost my friend and mentor, Lefty Bernard Kreh, one of he greatest flyfisherman to have ever graced the face of our planet. If you were fortunate to know him you were blessed. He was a kind southern gentleman, always had a great story or joke and made you feel you were the center of the universe. I met Lefty up on Hot Creek in the early nineties and we spent three days together, he taught me how to throw a long line, how to skip a fly across the surface of a stream and was just a great teacher, of all things in life. We remained friends since. There will be a million stories and articles written about Lefty, now that he is has passed, but I personally want to remember Lefty as the person with that sparkle in his eye, his contagious laugh and million dollar smile. He came from a lost generation, a generation that saw war, depression and experienced the American dream and her bountiful resources. He along with Joe Brooks opened our imaginations to a new world with fly rods blazing. They allowed us all to dream and explore far away places through their adventures in fishing. Lefty relentlessly gave us his knowledge through television shows, books, countless videos and fly show demos through the course of his life. He was the best! Dan Blanton has a great saying which I love and totally describes Lefty’s stature. Greatness whispers it never shouts! Lefty never had to prove anything, he just did it effortlessly and changed our worlds through fly fishing. God Bless ya Lefty! We will all miss ya pal.

Our good friend Trevor Tanner getting is done in Louisiana. Trevor was so excited about this recent trip and the opportunity to catch his first redfish and sheepshead on the fly. Trevor is one hell of a carp flyfisher and is responsible for the foam-tail trouser fly he developed using hole-punched craft foam threaded on mono for a tail. Deadly pattern! So happy he accomplished his goal, I knew he would!

The foam tail trouser fly created by Trevor Tanner!

photo courtesy of Alejandro Hernandez, Owner/guide of Campeche Tarpon

Date: August 11th through 18th, 2018
Let’s fish baby tarpon together! Me, Enrico Puglisi and Alejandro Hernandez of Campeche Tarpon are hosting a fun week of fly fishing the mangroves for baby tarpon in Campeche, Mexico.

From Left: Enrico Puglisi, Alejandro Hernandez, and Al Q

We encourage you to bring your vise and fly tying tools because, the master, Enrico Puglisi and myself will be demonstrating various, deadly tarpon patterns every night before dinner. Enrico will be furnishing fly tying materials for all of us to use.
I am trying to keep this week to a group of 8 anglers. Two anglers/one guide per boat.
We have some spots available. If you are interested, please email me directly @     alq@tornadocreative.com and i will provide a pdf with the details of the trip.  A fun trip for those starting out in saltwater fly fishing. Really looking forward to this one. Tight lines

-Al Q

photos courtesy of Alejandro Hernandez of Campeche Tarpon

Click on this photo to view the classic 1947 surf casting film from the IGFA’s archives!

When the lights are on, the wall fish tend to mostly be preschoolers with an occasional mid schooler fish thrown in! Photo by Al Quattrocchi

But when the lights go out, the high schoolers like to party. This is our friend Trevor, newly transplanted from Colorado with a beautiful calico landed on his first night outing with me and Capt. Nick Blixt this past weekend. Photo by Al Quattrocchi

I am not new to calico bass on the fly, in fact I was one of the few guys talking and flyfishing for night time calico bass fishing back in the day when they thought I was nuts. Well I am still nuts, only now, there are a lot of new fly guys to the game, banging night time calicos on many of our local inshore jetties. Good on them.

When I would do “Calico on the Fly” presentations to the fly clubs, I would say “nighttime is the right time”, a phrase coined from fishing for striped bass at night, back on the east coast. If you wanted a trophy striped bass you either fished the big surf just before a Noreaster, in sloppy weather or you fished in the dark off jetties, the surf or bridges at night. The first striped bass I ever landed was when I was around thirteen and it came at night, off a bridge under the lights in Jamaica Bay.  I have many fond memories catching bass after bass in Martha’s Vineyard on flies, off Dogfish bar and in the back bays of Menemsha Harbor all night long. Whether stripers or calicos these predators are both night time ambush feeders, their eyes and lateral lines able to distinguish shapes and sound in low light.

Night fishing is not for everyone. Things tend to be amplified and creepy, like tying knots, casting fly lines and landing fish in the dark. You have to slow everything down and practically pretend your blind, amplifying your other senses like touch and hearing. If you are going to try this, its always a good idea to fish as the sun begins to fall so you have a bearing on where you are, how long your casts need to be. Putting a speed nail knot on your line (coat with nail polish)  will help you measure where your shooting head has exiting your rod tip, prior to beginning your next cast. This can help a beginning, since you can not see well and rely mostly on feel.

You need to put your casts right on the doorstep of the jetty/rock wall. That means throwing your fly into the edge of the rocks. A cast that is two feet away from the wall may not get bit. Use weed guards on your flies. I like 60# hard mason. Always wear clear safety glasses, in case the wind shifts and a fly gets close to hitting you or a friend. I always carry a head lamp and a back up light. I usually color the glass on my head light with a red sharpie, to keep it dim and not blinding. Its always a good idea to turn away from the direction you are casting to change a fly so the flicker of light on the water doesn’t freak out your quarry. Think slow, strip your fly as slow as you can go, keep contact and do not trout set. Lifting the rod could get you wrecked in the rocks, a straight pull, till you stop the fish and get them away from the structure, then you can lift the rod maintaining constant pressure, no line slippage. The take can be violent or sometimes a little tick. Just remember to point the rod low, straight towards the fly and strip set, then hold on. Don’t let go, no drag, only hand stripping to get back line! Often times a big fish feels like you are stuck on a rock, only the rock begins to move, LOL.

It can be frustrating the first few times you try this style of fishing but believe me it is rewarding and you forget all the mishaps once you start landing a few fish. It gets a lot easier each time you go. Safety first, fish with friends, wear safety vests, and make sure your boat has a trolling motor to keep you a safe distance away from the boilers. DO NOT attempt this style fishing if there is a big swell, it just isn’t worth it. Look at the weather and tides to make sure it is safe to try. I personally like a high tide at night, either incoming or outgoing as long as you get good current. The best inside walls are ones that are detached from the mainland. Those types of jetties will get good running, side current and the fish will go on the chew… tight lines

-Al Q

All photos courtesy of Al Q’s iPhone

I decided to do a little recon at one of my favorite local perch spots on New Years Day morning. I decided to save my casting arm, lay down the fly rod and cast the spinning rod with a lucky craft to cover water. The first cast of 2018 was rewarded with a Corbina, say what, crazy, but true. Hope it is an omen! LOL The water was clean and 62 degrees, a little warm for this time of year. I walked and ran into some monster size smelt, all on landed on the lucky craft. I ended up with 8 smelt. Finally got a good grab at my feet and it turned out to be my target species the very rare these days,  barred surf perch.  The perch fishing seems to be in swing up north, I hope more of the large perch show up down here if the water gets a little cooler, they are a blast on the fly…  -Al Q