What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Murphy's Law.

 November 10, 2023

Murphy's Law, What can go wrong will go wrong. Executive Summary: Smoking motor. Broken flyline. Missing every fish on the wall. Broken rod. Dry heaving. Puking. Trailer issues.

 

On the drive down it took me three seasickness patches before I could get one to stick on my neck. That one ended up falling off on the boat later in the day and I had to reapply another. When we arrived at the launch ramp, I was backing the boat into the water, Roy fires up the engine and smoke starts coming out of the motor. After taking the covers off and inspecting it he could not find the source. Fire it up again without the cover and it appeared fine. 

 

Launch the boat and we are off. Hit the wall first. Roy is on first, second and third...I on the other hand can not get one to stick. Every hit I missed. I was testing some new fly patterns all got a reaction but I simply missed everyone. Roy snags and as he pulls his flyline breaks. I get skunked on the wall which is the first time ever. Move on to PV kelp forest.

Since we are now in unprotected water I ask Roy if my patch is still on. He tells me no. I reapply another. By this time no tidal movement and we putz around from one area to the next with little to no reaction. I start to feel slightly queasy. Roy tells me to drive the boat I feel a bit better. Continue fishing. After a couple hours we start to head back. I tell Roy take the wheel and start puking off the side. 

 

On the way back the tide starts to pick up and Roy is catching fish. While after puking three times I feel somewhat better, I'm still in the back seat trying to get me head together. After watching Roy smacking a few fish I decide fuck feeling bad I'm not coming home skunked and start fishing. After all I have a new rod that still hasn't broken it's cherry. First fish a jack smelt. At least I'm not skunked. Continue on get a calico. Small. After a while I finally on a decent bass. Bent my 8wt down to the cork. He bulldogs me into the kelp I finally drag him out. The I turn my head after I hear something from Roy. He just broke his rod. My fish as i turn my attention back at him now pops off once out of the kelp forest. I see it all happen before my eyes. 

 

Now Roy is now without a flyrod. I ask him if he wants to use my spare. He doesn't and asks me if I want to keep fishing. At this point I've had enough of the ocean. Let's head back. Once in protected water I'm starting feel better. We trailer the boat and start washing it. Roy notices the boat is off center. Put it back in the water. Boat simply wouldn't center. After nearly two hours of repositioning and rewashing the boat we were finally heading back home. Got home sleep for the rest of the day. Woke up at 10pm and in the middle of making dinner, neighborhood experiences a blackout the rest of the night.

Hit the Wall

October 11, 2023

Roy needed to do a trial run on his boat before he heads out next week so he calls me up to see if I wanted do a quick run to The Wall. But before we go out though we needed to wire his new fish finder. What he schedule for 30 minutes ended up taking couple hours. Got on the water late and we fished only about an hour before we headed back so Roy could make his Doctor's appointment. Caught a few Calicos nothing spectacular, the last one being the best of the bunch. Caught first fish on a squid pattern that I tied ages ago but never fished. I don't think there are squid at the wall but I knew Calicos wouldn't care. Next fish were on tan and white clousers. Started with Steve's 12 wt then fished roy's xi2 8wt after he told me to fish it.

Another Place, Another Slow Day

Back in the early to mid 2000s, the heyday of SoCal surf fly fishing, I must have fished Alamitos Bay hundreds of times from the shore catching every species imaginable.  I used to wake up early in the morning before work, meet up with the gang and we'd fish until it was time to go to work.  I'd shower at the gym and put my suit on there and head to the office.  Over the years the scene died with only a few stragglers left behind.  In the time I became very familiar with that area at least from the beaches.  I know a very popular spot has a huge drop off where fish would congregate.  If you were not able to throw your entire flyline in addition to the 20-30 foot leader you'd likely go home skunked. 

Now that Chul has Ed's old pram I wanted to return to this water and try it from a different angle.  Instead of the usual Long Beach system (floating lines, 20-30 foot leader and a heavily weighted fly), I am able to use a normal sinking line set up from a boat.  As my usual M.O. I chose to fish my 5 weight with 150 grain shooting head.  My plan was to drift that drop-off along that beach and slay all those hard to reach fish that eluded me years ago.  Like most plans though, it went to shit.  The afternoon coastal winds push us away from the beach too fast for out lines to even get to our intended depths.  I gave up on that plan and we went looking for some areas that sheltered us from the winds.

Tides were fairly good, at least on paper, so I expected us to get on some fish.  We found an area less exposed to the elements and Chul managed his first saltwater fish on a fly.  It was a small trout sized yellowfin croaker.  The skunk was off boat and not a bad start to the afternoon.  Since croaker tend to school up I told him to work that area some more but no more were willing to take our offerings. 

We moved to an area along the docks hoping to get on some Bay Bass action.  The winds drifted us rather quickly and the only fishing option was to cast into the wind with our backs against the direction of the drift.  We'd have to slow our strips considerably as we were stripping in the direction of the drift and tide and if you'd strip too fast the fly would be going warp speed.  Along this drift, I felt the bump and I set the hook.  The fish ran toward the boat so I raced to make sure the line was under tension.  Because of this, initially the fight weak but once the fish was under the boat I could finally feel the fish fighting.  I knew it wasn't a bass but wasn't quite sure what it was.  All I knew it had no quit.  Finally I exposed it on the surface and it was a mackerel.  These pelagic fish have no quit and are quite fun an a light rod.  I finally got it to hand.  It was not at all big but fun on light line nonetheless.

We found an area behind the yacht club that sheltered us somewhat from the wind.  We drifted in between a row of docked boats and I felt a bump.  I set the hook, felt it get heavier and starting stripping line.  While the rod went heavy there was little to no fight.  With little effort I managed to get the fish to the boat.  I have no clue what it was.  Perhaps some sort of goby but I was not sure.  It had teeth and flared its gills like that dinosaur in Jurassic Park that spit in that fat ass's face.  *Edit* Fish is a Lizardfish.

We fished hard for three hours or so with little to show for it.  I think Chul only had one fish even take an interest in his fly, I missed at least two that I can remember.  At least both Chul and I added some species to our list that we never caught before.  So that was a plus even though I'm not sure what the hell I caught.  Hopefully Chul and I can get back to the "Pudd" tomorrow so I can enact some revenge on those bass that eluded me the last time.  Hopefully this hernia I got from dragging that damn pram to the water goes away too.

Double Hall Ball At LBCC On March 23rd

For those of you interesting surf fishing, the Long Beach Casting Club is hosting another Double Hall Ball this year, Saturday, March 23rd.  It's a free event and lasts about all day with guest speakers and local fly tiers. Personally I no longer care for fly fishing the surf as there are better ways to fish in my opinion but I did go to last year's event and enjoyed talking with some old faces I've not done so in ages.  SoCal surf fishing definitely has lost steam since its heyday in the early to mid 2000s when you used to see our beaches loaded with fly fishermen struggling to find a free hole.  Back then when Calhoun (and then Webb) taught the Marriott's surf classes, it would sell out.  People would fish the surf in the early morning before heading to work.  It was sometimes hard to find a spot at the river jetty or at Los Alamitos.  New flies were being developed constantly.  Surf reports posted on local forums would seem to updated daily.  Magazines were writing about corbina.  People were actually traveling here as a destination fishery.  All that seems to have died.  All those, with the exception of Doug, that I used to fish the surf with now no longer do, choosing instead to fish elsewhere.  If I have nothing to do on that Saturday I might go but I'm not counting the days.

Injured Bait Fish Fly

For the last few weeks I've been tying various trout flies for an upcoming trip and since I'm finish with my "Skwala" box.  I needed a change of pace and wanted to tie some bigger flies.  I like the idea of creating a baitfish pattern that swims on its side mimicking easy prey.  The idea for this pattern is not mine and since I can not find the website where I found it so I can not give credit where credit is do, I did modify it for my personal tying tastes.  It should do quite well in our local bass lakes and in salt.  Can't wait to try it out.  Personally I wish I had a longer shank hook for this fly.

Casting 900 Grains On a 10 Weight Line!?!

Last summer I asked Capt. Bill Calhoun if he wanted to hit Barrett Lake with me and although he wanted to he told me he couldn't as he was busy working on something all summer long.  I asked what it was but he told me he couldn't tell he was up to but would let me know when he was finished.

I spoke with Bill this morning after talking about our duck hunts, he let me know about his new project with his buddies, The Calico Syndicate.  These guys are casting lines up to 1000 grains on their 10 weights going after monster Calicos in the deep!  Now 1000 grains lines are nothing new, in fact I have one from my Costa Rica trip years ago.  The difference is back then we never actually casted the line, we simply hucked it over the boat and jigged the line until a tarpon hit it.  Also we were using rods 12-14 weights.  Now with modern graphite and flylines what was thought of as impossible is now reality.


While this set up was designed for Calico bass, I would love to try this set up on largemouth bass, particularly at Barrett and Stripers at our various Striper lakes.  This concept is new so Bill and company haven't yet tried this set up for those species but are planning to do so soon.

More videos are available here on their youtube channel.  There you can learn how they design their lines, knots that they recommend using for and such.  I need to try this set, the only question am I going to kill myself by nailing myself in the back on the forward cast?  I hope to God not.

Long Beach Lonely Nights

Someone was out float tubing in pure darkness

Yesterday I had planned to fish Los Alamitos Bay at night but a last minute call from The Major changed that idea.  Since it was his last few days in California before he gets reassigned to the War College, I met all the boys at the local brewery instead of getting my line wet.  So today I decided I would make up for that.

Its been forever since I've fished the surf especially at night.  The last time was years ago when Kyung and I slammed the corbina around midnight.  I believe that was one of the first corbina I ever caught on a fly.  With the tide charts predicting a strong tide, I was confident I'd get on some fish.  Casting the Long Beach Leader system took some getting used to,  I hadn't used that system in such a long time, it was hard to get the timing down.  Trying to cast your entire floating line with 20 or more feet of straight mono is a pain in the ass.  No wonder I stopped fishing here years ago.

No luck tonight.  Perhaps another night.

Fishing tonight was slow.  I arrived just after the sun set and fished to about 10pm.  Not one strike.  I did see a very small bait fish swimming everywhere .  With the headlamp I could see they were greyish with blue eyes.  Not sure what they were though.  I tried a hoonie, hoonie 2 and a small clouser after I noticed all the small fish.  None proved effective.  Decided to call it quits as I need to wake up early for trout tomorrow.  I did see another flyfisherman out there in a tube.  What a nutcase.  Speaking with him briefly on the way out, he let me know that he managed a few dink sand bass.