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Calhoun's Coastal Fly Fishing Report 03/07/10

2010-03-09T22:42:00Z

Calhoun's Coastal Fly Fishing Report

03/07/10

This Sunday I took out Raphael Heldman, a fourteen year old gentleman who started fly fishing a year ago. He's been taking casting lessons from Lee Baermann from Fly Fish the Surf guide service. As soon as Raphael began casting the 250 grain shooting head it became obvious that Lee is an accomplished casting instructor and Raphael is a great student. On his first cast Raphael hooked, fought and landed his first calico bass.

I was a little apprehensive to take Raphael on this day because the conditions on paper didn't look promising. There was a neap tide which didn't produce much current, there wasn't much of a forecasted swell to push water and it was just after a storm which cooled the water down a couple degrees. If I hadn't been out on a good bight just a few days before, I may have canceled the trip.

Nevertheless, Raphael continued catching bass during the morning hours. Although nothing huge was caught it was an aggressive morning bite with some legal sized fish mixed in. As the bite slowed we went looking for signs of bait in the shallows along the coast and found none, so we didn't try for halibut. With the wind picking up we decided to fish Los Alamitos Harbor where Raphael lost a good size spotted bay bass on a clouser that he tied. I was impressed with the quality of his hand tied flies and surprisingly, he is self taught. I have no doubt that Raphael will be catching many spotted bay bass in the future as well as anything else that will eat a fly.

Next time someone asks me how long it will take them to learn how to fly fish, I will be using Raphael as a good example.

" First Cast - First Calico"

Fly fishing for calico bass in Long Beach 03/01/10.

2010-03-04T03:13:00Z

           Calhoun's Coastal Fly Fishing Report
                                                  03/01/10

Took out clients on Monday, a father and son team Steve and Randy. This was their second time out with me. We hit some spots along the Long Beach coast. Our first stop was met with aggressive small to medium size calico's eager to eat the fly. After moving around to find better fish marks we stopped again. This time the fish were bigger. Randy yelled out Oh $%*! and his 9wt. showed why. After a nice fight he boated this quality calico (above photo).
Soon after I heard a grunt from dad and watched his fish bulldog it's way deep into the rocks, breaking him off. Steve had a lot of pressure against the fish but the fish still won. Big fish! This happened to the both of them more than once. We continued with a good bite for the morning. Once the current died so did the fishing. I wanted to try for some shallow water halibut but the surf was too big. We took a quick trip inside Los Alomitos to try for spotted bay bass and Randy caught one. As soon as he did we watched the current picking back up and headed back outside. They worked hard and picked fish for the rest of the time.
Steve and Randy did a fine job and we all had a great time. Although it hurts when the big ones are lost, it's still a thrill to see clients with their hands full and line slipping through tightly gripped fingers. Both fish and clients scored points on this trip.
Usually this time of year we have water temperatures in the low 50's. This year it's in the upper 50's to low 60's thanks to El Nino. We may be looking at a stellar year.

Other than a few weekdays, the month of March is booked. Please contact me soon if you want to get fish in April or May.

All the best

Calhoun's Coastal Fly Fishing Report 07/15/09

2009-07-15T21:28:00Z

I've been really busy lately so I haven't sent out a fishing report for awhile. The water has warmed up all along the coast as well as the Islands. The customers I've been taking out have been interested in the coastal and Island fly fishing only, so I don't have a report for the harbors.
The temperature on the coast has been 65' degrees and the fishing has been very good. The temperature at the Island has been around 67' degrees and the fishing here has been excellent. Incredible numbers of calico are on the chew, most are small but there are a few quality fish in the mix. The numbers of fish is almost rediculous. Big barracuda have been taking flies on occasion and there are quite a few yellowtail breezing the Island. Quality bonito are also taking streamers. Periodicaly there have been some stellar bites on the white sea bass for bait fishermen. It's only a matter of time before a big one is caught on a fly.

Bryan Webb from Pacific Coast Fly Fishing fishes conventional as well and had a customer catch a 30lbs. yellowtail on a live squid at Catalina. He also had fly fishermen on the Huntington Beach flats yesterday catch lots of big barracuda.

Vaughn Podmore from Salty Fly Guide Service reported catching good numbers of quality sand bass on the Huntington Beach flats two days ago.

Bill Matthews on the Fly Time boat reports catching a 7.5 lbs. sand bass and a 5.5 lbs. calico in the same morning in Santa Monica Bay last Sunday along with other quality bass.

Starting Monday July 27 we will be in a new moon phase. I like this time because we get the good current as well as the low light conditions at night making it harder for predatory fish to find prey.
Once morning comes around the fish seem to be really hungry.

If anyone has any questions feel free to contact me.
All the best
Bill Calhoun

Catalina Fly Fishing Report 06/06/09 & 06/07/09

2009-06-09T03:54:00Z

Had clients on Saturday and Sunday over to Catalina Island. Both days were good for calico's and big bonito. I was surprised at how well the bonito were taking the fly on a slower calico strip. Water temperature is running around 63 degrees depending on where you're fishing. The first bonito caught on Sundays trip was on a 6wt. Sage Z-axis 691-4 by Keith Munemitsu. The fish really tested this outfit, but still lost. Also on the boat was a Montana fly fishing guide Mike Mansfield and his friend Jason. Everyone caught big bonito and lots of calico's. Double's on the calico bass was not uncommon.

Keith Munemitsu with bonito caught on 6wt.

Keith and Jason with a calico double.

Montana guide Mike Mansfield with a nice bonito.

Jason's largest bonito

Today Bryan Webb from Pacific Coast Fly Fishing Charters reported great fishing as well. They also hooked some good barracuda which were all eaten by giant black sea bass. Bryan said it was one of the most impressive things he's seen on the water. Needless to say Catalina is fishing well!

Hope to see you on the water.

Mammoth and local fly fishing report 05/30/09

2009-05-30T23:27:00Z

My wife Karen and I just got back from Mammoth. We fished the East Walker first. Flows at the Walker are great. It's also pretty clear with a tea color but good visibility, not silty. It fished very well. Lots of small fish in the 8 to 10" range with the some 14 to 16" fish. Also in the mix are the 18" fish. Karen caught most of her fish on a bead head zebra midge in olive. The majority of my fish were caught on a sparkle caddis pupa

in tan. I was using a three weight Sage which worked extremely well.

                                   .



We also stayed and fished at Hot Creek Ranch. This is my third time at the Ranch and I'll definitely be going back. I used a one weight sage with 6x fluorocarbon. There were quite a few small fish eager to take the size 22 dry flies. However, there was also a lot of 14 to 16" fish as well. I hooked one 22" brown that fought through two runs. I had the fish at net twice before he got off during the third attempt. My net was a bit small for his shoulders. A fish that size rising to such small flies was impressive.

If you haven't fished a zero or one weight fly rod you're definitely missing some really fun opportunities. Years ago when these rods first came out I thought they were merely toys used to get people to spend more money. I've come to realize they are the perfect tools for catching more fish. I noticed when big fish jump they don't pop the line from too much rod resistance. I'm also surprised at how much pressure I can put on fish without the tippet or rod breaking. Let's face it, these California waters get hit hard and the bi- product is very intelligent fish that demand light tippet. I've broke off many big fish while using three or four weight rods and 6X leader but these lighter rods just soak up the shock allowing more time to react to large fish. I'm ordering two more for my uh...daughters!

Our local fishing is in full swing with barracuda showing up, bonito on the bite, calico's being caught in good numbers,
bigger white sea bass around the Island and the yellow tail are beginning to breeze in. This is all from the 65 degree water that has recently pushed into the coast all the way to Catalina.

All the best

Bill Calhoun

Calhoun's Coastal Fly Fishing Report 05/04/09

2009-05-05T04:41:00Z

Today I fished Catalina Island with Keith Munemitsu. The trip over was pretty slow due to the swell and chop. Our first stop was Church Rock just around the backside. The water temperature was 57 degrees. We began fishing in what looked like great conditions but only picked at the fish for about 45min. We ended up with eight calico's, but nothing over 1.5 lbs. We then headed around to the front side to find the 61 degree water I had heard about the day before. The warmest we metered was 58.7. It took some time before we spotting good conditions, but it was worth the search. We managed to pick up some fish on our first few stops. Then the quality of the fish suddenly got better. We were catching calicos in the 2 to 3 pound range when I heard Keith say he just got another hit. He made a big strip set with no resistance then let out a grunt as the big calico came back for another pass. I could tell it was a big fish by the way his 9wt. was bent, big time! After some boat manuvering he was able to pull the fish from the kelp it was wrapped in. A little while later I caught a 6.28 pound fish just shy of 23". I wish we could have stayed longer but I had to pick up my girls from school. Both these fish buried us in the kelp and took along time to boat. I was probably on mine for fifteen to twenty minutes.

These are pre spawning females that are fattening up for the season. I'll be surprised if these big fish are as aggressive once they begin the spawning cycle. We'll see?

All the best

Bill Calhoun

The local fly fishing is good

2009-04-28T19:37:00Z

Hello fly fishers

Last week I guided Keith Munimitsu and his friend Will. Keith is a veteran saltwater fly fisherman. Will is experienced in freshwater however, this was his first time fly fishing in the salt. We first hit the coast south of Newport where they caught calico bass off the boilers for a couple hours. Once the bite slowed we headed in for some harbor fishing. They had a pick of spotted bay bass, yellowfin croaker and sand bass to round out the day. Great job guys!








I walked the harbor for a couple hours today. I was using a six weight floating fly line with a size four clouser. I caught one nice halibut and some good size spotted bay bass. Now is a great time to get out there.



Best of luck
Bill Calhoun

Welcome

2009-04-13T03:43:34Z

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.