Me and my buddy Jim Solomon will be talking shop about the opportunities to sight fish and land the sometimes finicky corbina that inhabit our laid down California surf this time of year. Corbina are perhaps one of the greatest local sight fly fishing challenges California has to offer and when sight fished, one of the most rewarding. photo by Al Q
as a teenager growing up near sheepshead bay in new york, i spent endless days and nights surfcasting home-made plugs along the beaches and bays of the rockaways but the boys from montauk were always my real heroes. here’s a sweet video from animalny.com which gives those not familiar with montauk a taste of the salt. click here to view!
photo by alfred eisenstaedt, 1952
as a kid I was always enamored by the fishing stories of Ernest Hemingway. he was a crusty old man with a sharp pen and a unconditional love for the outdoors. the old man in the sea was actually written about his first mate, Gregorio who was with Hemingway from the early 30’s. the stories of cuba and fishing on the Pilar during the hey day of marlin and big game fishing must have been insane. Lefty Kreh’s first fly caught bonefish was caught in Cuba and he always said the fishery there was fantastic. Lefty also said that Castro liked to fish and was actually quite an angler. He won Hemingway’s marlin tournaments from time to time. I can imagine how primitive and adventurous is was back then when the ocean was filled with large pelagics. it is always fun to look back to the past and be reminded of the contributions these pioneers made in our sport the old school way sans fish finders, gps and braided lines…
story about the “old man” cuban fisherman, Gregorio Fuentes who died at the age of 104.
© 2012 self – portrait in the eye of a baby tarpon
I submitted this pic a few weeks ago on facebook and it got me an honorable mention in the Yeti Cooler, “Get Bent” photo contest!
check out the other winning pics here on facebook! i think they are sending me a tee shirt. i am stoked!
2012 © photo by jorge salas & kristina kaufman
every year we do a little thing called the one surf fly, this past saturday we all got together and supported casting for recovery. we raised $2800! i am very proud of everyone that was part of this awesome day regardless if you were physically present or just donated to the amazing raffle. more info on www.onesurflfy.com
here’s yet another innovative idea from the folks at aquapac. a cool way to attach your water-proof aquapac for your iphone to anything you can think of. the spiderpodium retails for $20.
here's another logo I recently created for the carp throw down to be held on lake henshaw on june 23rd. it is a sight fishing only tournament. this should be a fun day!
visit www.carpthrowdown.com for more information!
click on picture for Miami Herald story!
i know this is a late post, i received the terrible news via text on Friday afternoon from many good fishing friends. I spent the afternoon drivin to San Diego to be with my family for Easter. I just wanted to put this up in remembrance of one of the true ambassadors of saltwater fly fishing in the last fifteen years or so, Jose Wejebe. My two favorite shows were the Walkers Cay Chronicles with Flip Pallot and Jose’s Spanish Fly. These shows connected me to my passion by transforming my living room into a flat with permit, tarpon and bonefish. I got to meet Jose in person in the mid-ninties in montauk while sight fishing striped bass with many other notable writers and fly fisherman at the time. We tied up boats one afternoon and talked over some fried chicken, he was a very cool guy and of course barefoot. There’s a hole in the fly fishing and guiding community for sure…I believe there will be a memorial on this Sunday, April 15th, 2012 at 1:30 pm at the IGFA museum for all his fans, friends and family.
Here’s another nice article about Jose by Jerry McKinnis. Click Here!
check out this really cool article from co.design about our ocean currents from nasa’s scientific visualization studio! make sure you watch the video animation…enjoy!
Zack Solomon just passed away a few hours ago at the tender age of twenty seven from cancer. His dad, Jim Solomon is a very good friend and fishing companion of mine. My prayers and love go out the Solomon family in this extremely difficult time. I am so happy I took this picture last August cause this is the way I will always remember Zack, with his wetsuit, fly rod in hand and a great big smile. PLEASE NOTE CHANGE: Services will be on Monday, April 9th at First United Methodist. Church, 1008 11th Street, Santa Monica, California at 7:00pm. There will be a paddle out memorial off Manhattan Beach pier this Saturday at 10am.
a beautiful surfers circle tribute to Zack last Saturday at Manhattan Beach pier which will now be known as "zack's alley" photo by Al Q
flies, sand & surf 