Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Any Given Day.

Last week was tough to say the least.  My wonderful grandmother passed away and there was miles of road that needed to be covered to take the wife, sister and I up to where the family was.  The week was filled with emotions but short on energy to get it all done.

We got home late Friday and I was beat.  That didn't stop me from wanting to get out and do any kind of fishing on Saturday however, so when a fishing buddy recommended El Dorado park in Long Beach I jumped at the chance...  I also jumped into the water.  I guess I actually slipped and slid into the water. 
Composing myself from my dip
Fly fishing El Dorado is tricky from any spot but some on the second and third lake (the paved areas).  However, there is nothing IN the second or third lake that is catchable from the areas its easy to fly fish at least in summer.

That means getting closer, hoping on reeds, standing on rocks and really trying to nail some clean side casts, roll casts and almost anything possible to get the line out.  Regardless of the complications the bluegill were eager and I completely forgot to take pictures!










My buddy did manage to get a shot of the winner of "Small fish for the day" though and assorted sneaker shots of me post El Dorado baptismal.
Massive beast fish




















Regardless of my wet shorts, soaked money, soggy chucks that sloshed as I walked it was still a hell of a fine day of fishing and remembering my grandmother.

Love you Nanny.

Notice the shorts

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Downey Fly Fishers

I discovered the Downey Fly Fishers website when doing a search for fly fishing shops and clubs in my local area.  I was initially interested in this club first due to its impressive website and local meeting area.  So on Tuesday the wife and I stopped in. Couldn't have been a friendlier group of anglers in the whole county!


The meetings are broken up into a fly tying demo, introductions for the new people, fish tales, raffle and a guest speaker.  The time seemed to fly by and after meeting many of the members it was clear I that I would be stopping by again.


Check out their site for meeting times and events.  From the sound of it, its a club that has been active for many years and they cover every aspect of fly fishing!

The demo of the night was salt water flys!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

South Coast regional DFG discontinues fish planting

Some of you may have noticed that the South Coast DFG stocking schedule is a week out of date, which for the DFG is not common. They have been very good at keeping it updated.  The reason sadly is budget issues.  At this time, the DFG has discontinued stocking of catfish on a twice monthly basis and trout stocking will lower or also be stopped.


The recomendation was made by the regional office to contact local legislators for DFG budget concerns.  Which I also recommend.

I'm going to have to get that Sierra trip setup soon before the fish are all gone!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

GCI Packseat

I love my packseat. Light (1.5 lbs) and portable it gets clipped to my fishing bag when I expect I may be without a seat on the banks of the water.




Just noticed Amazon sells this for 23.99, which is $4.00 dollars more than I posted in the video, still not a bad deal though.

Redington Crosswater Plus, my first rod review.

The Redington 9' 8wt. fly outfit was not only my first fly rod, but is also my first rod review.

Take a look!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

A Boost To My Arsenal

Its only natural that once you get hooked on a new hobby you look for ways to expand it.  By grabbing more gear, learning/reading and getting out and having fun.  As I mentioned, I got bit by the "fly" and it's totally taken over.  A couple of posts ago I added pictures of my new fly boxes and the rod I've been using. Well the number of rods has grown to two and the number of flies has shot well up over my starting amount (thanks to a fellow board member on FishingNetwork).

First the rod.  Lets be honest fly fishing can be VERY expensive.  With that said, there are some tried and true high-value gems that can be acquired and cherished, one such rod is the Eagle Claw Featherlight.  I first heard about this rod through the blogs I read, mainly UrbanFlyVentures and FiberglassManifesto.  The later, the Fiberglass Manifesto recently posted a nice review of the featherlight series that is worth a read.


The Featherlight series of rods are fiberglass, which is a style that has fallen out of the mainstream popularity when compared to graphite.  However that does not in anyway mean these rods lack in functionality, and the bugdet priced Featherlight is a prime example.  For the price (roughty $25.00- $30.00) I believe it is the best high-value rod on market.

I outfit my particular Featherlight, the 7' model with an Okuma Siera 4/5 Fly Reel with WF4F line.  While the 7' rod is stamped with a 5/6 wt. however it easily casts the lighter 4 wt. line for the shorter casts I need for the locations I fish.

After I recevied the rod and setup the line I took it down to the local lake and had a pretty nice afternoon.


The little Bluegill in the lake may not put a full bend on the rod, but you know they are there!  I had a bass on momentarily, but I didn't set that hook fast enough and he got away!

Bluegill are a great fish when practicing casting I have found.  Even though I may cast a bit sloppy, the Bluegill remain eager to please.  Lot of heart for such a little fish.

Here is the largest catch of the day, still dimiutive, but fun nonetheless :)









As for the ever breeding and multiplying fly collection, the MVP of the day was this wooly tied up by a new friend, CityDad over at the FishingNetwork forum.

Contact him if interested in any flies.  His nymphs in particular are high detail and quality. 

-Josh