Hooked up with Markus here on
Welcome to Beyond The Breakwater! to do a flyfishing trip. Markus offered to cover fuel and to reciprocate with a guided flyfishing outing in Idaho for big trout, we cover his fuel up there. Perfect, as the wife and I are planning to go flyfishing in Idaho/Montanna this August anyway.
Though I have the gear for saltwater, I really haven’t put in the effort. My intention was to get my wife out on the salt, but aside from a trip two years ago to get my wife some of the big bonito (none on the fly) we just really have not done it. So, I had never caught a fish on the fly in the salt and Markus’ offer presented the opportunity. He said he rarely fishes conventional anymore, so I figured this would force the issue with me.
Markus wanted inshore fishing. Being the guide, I decided that Catalina offered the best prospects. I was nervous as hell about producing as I really do not fish Catalina often and nearshore is not really my focus. I’ve never really fished spots at Catalina on the hook. I grabbed Mark Wisch’s “In The Grey” for spots and decided we would fish the front side for calicos. Launched at 6 AM from Davey’s in Alamitos Bay and got a scoop of chovies, plus a pass of sardines at Long Beach Bait. They asked where we were going and then informed me that yellows had been biting at Italian Gardens and Empire Landing. Italian Garden was the first spot I had picked anyway, so this reinforced my decision. Flat calm ride over and we set up on the “Green Slide” in 100’ of water. Put the chum bucket out and a single conventional rod with a sardine, then went to set up the flyrods.
Markus opted for the Crease Fly on a 9wt with intermediate line. I opted for a Deep Candy on a 9wt with 300 grain Rio Outbound sink line. Markus’s set-up was a TFO TICR with a Tibor Freestone; my set-up was a TFO TICR with a Tibor Riptide. I guess I at least bought the right equipment.
In short order the sardine got picked up and then we had boils around the boat on every piece of live chum thrown. Soon it was non-stop bonito to about 4 lbs (most were 2 to 3 lbs), small calicos and I even got a barracuda. Well since these were my first saltwater fish on the fly, it was nice to get the bonito, bass & barracuda troika on my first try. The fish bit both the Crease Fly and the Deep Candy with the calicos being deeper on the Deep Candy. It was fun sight fishing the bonito on the Crease Fly. Throw a chovey and cast to the boil, twitch and wham. Eventually we grew tired and longed for some yellowtail and moved to check other spots. None of the other spots produced as well as Italian Gardens, which we returned to late in the day for a rebite on the calicos.
It was a nice ride back across the channel and truly a fun day. Markus was great company. I loved his comment to his wife as I picked him up in the morning: “I made it in time and he doesn’t look like an axe murderer.” Markus can fish and I’m looking forward to fishing with him up in Idaho, hopefully this year.
Markus bent on a calico:
Markus bent on a bonito:
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