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…
Congratulations to our friend, Mitch Orquiola who landed his first striped bass off the surf on a lucky craft lure. Photo by Mitch Orquiola
when casting off the back of a boat, if you ever hit the engine with a back cast or forward cast, always check you fly. if you don’t you will be fishing completely weedless and basically a teaser! LOL photo by Al Q!
photo courtesy of waterline media
check out this beautifully shot, video short from waterline media which won “best fishing” & best cinematography” categories at the drake fly fishing awards in new orleans documenting sight fishing tarpon in florida. today’s hi def digital cameras and hand held go-pros are glorifying the natural migrations of tarpon that have been around for millions of years, allowing new eyes to witness some of the most amazing fly fishing opportunities we have in some of our country’s backyards. if you have never sight fished for tarpon this will get your blood boiling for sure… i could only imagine if steve huff, george hommell, stu apt or any of the great saltwater pioneers in the keys 50 years ago had this digital technology what we could have witnessed through their eyes, especially when these fisheries were wild and untapped? we are only left with great stories from the good old days. thankfully seasons on the fly gives us that glimpse of what the glory days of tarpon in the keys were really like… click here!
ever wonder where those fresh striped bass or white sea bass you see in our local markets, like santa monica seafood come from? well there’s this little island called todos santos which is seven miles off of encenada, mexico. it is here that an operation called pacifico aquaculture is changing the way we harvest fish. they are feeding their fingerling stock with plant-based feed, mainly soy based food, which has changed the game and is leading the way we farm fish. check out this very informative video.
a fallen bean landed this morning by Santa Monica’s own, Bernard Yin on a clouser tied by yours truly…photo by Bernard Yin
The corbina are where they should be, in small pieces of structure (troughs) littered along our south bay flat beaches. best times to fish them is the early morning light when this fish are staging or getting ready to move onto the flats in search of crabs those high sand crab beds…it won’t be long before they begin to crawl around in shallow water and we can sight fish them…water needs to be a touch warmer and our swell need to flatten out… one quick note, keep those hooks razor sharp, Bernard made a point, (no pun intended) sharpening his hook this morning after losing a few fish the last few days, I also suggested he up his tippet to 12 pound. I like to fish 12# and have more confidence pulling on the bigger fish and landing them. They are not leader shy in the surf zone. The proof is in the picture, way to go Bernard!
I remember back in the early nineties meeting Rod Harrison and Dean Butler at the San Mateo show in the bay area. They were real characters and very knowledgeable fisherman. Lefty had just been down to Australia to do something for the tourism board of Australia and got to go to New Guinea to fish for the Black Bass in the rivers with Rod and Dean. I believe I still have an old VHS tape Lefty gave me from part of that trip, it is crazy how hard those fish pull…enjoy the story, it is a classic…
photo by john whitaker
flies, sand & surf 