Fly Gear

Almost all the fishing we do here requires either intermediate or fast sinking lines. We do have occasion to use floating lines, but for the most part think sinking lines. When choosing your line, please do not confuse grain weights with sink rates. The grain weight of a line relates to the rod its to be used on. Sink rates are just that. A 425-grain line can be a floating line, an intermediate line or a Type III through Type VIII fast sinking line, but they are all used on a 10- or 11-weight rod. Rio makes a 700-grain floating billfish line. Please be mindful of this because mismatched lines are a leading cause of broken rods. Please remember that our water here runs cooler – its rare to see it above the mid-70s, so choose fly lines with multifilament cores or those for cooler water like Striper lines. Sinking lines don’t need long leaders either. In general bring an assortment of fly sizes, even for lighter gear -- sometimes the fish key in on large baits here. Also, we use 5-gallon buckets for stripping baskets. If you prefer something else, please feel free to bring it.

Inshore
Bring 5-, 6-, or 7-weight rods with intermediate or sinking lines. Leaders need be no more than 9 feet and tippets should vary from 8- to 10-pound. Flies should include Clouser Deep Minnows in various colors, especially chartreuse over white, green over white, blue over white and all white. Also, any small to medium baitfish patterns in similar colors as the Clouser will work as well, plus some in the “Mexican Flag” colors of green, yellow and orange (or red). You’ll want flies that measure from 2 inches to 4 inches with hooks from #4 to 1/0. Squid patterns work well during certain times of the year, too. Deceivers in the same colors as the other flies work well, too. Sometimes calicos will feed on the surface and you can take them with poppers using an intermediate fly line, so you might want a small assortment of poppers. Color is of no consequence.

Near Shore
Bring 5-, 6-, 7- and 8- or 9-weights rigged with intermediate or sinking lines. Similar flies to those used for inshore work in the near shore kelp beds. You may want to bring flies that go up to about 4 to 5 inches, some with heavy flash and some lightly dressed. Again, squid flies can work well and poppers might work if the calicos are up feeding. Weedless patterns are helpful around the kelp, but don’t always work as well on kelp as they do on grasses. It is entirely possible to encounter large yellowtail or white seabass in this area, so a stout 10-weight is not unreasonable. Again, leaders need not measure more than about 5 feet, but you may want tippets up to 16-pound, depending on your rod choice.

Offshore
Bring a 5- or 6-weight for mackerel, but think heavier by and large. Bonito can make some strong runs, but rarely require more than a 9-weight. Most of the offshore species will require at least a 10-weight, but a 12 is not out of the question for most tuna, though I prefer a 13 for fish over 50-pounds (this is deep water and you’ll need to lift). The 13 will work well for most of the sharks here as well. If the possibility of encountering marlin exists, then we suggest nothing less than a 13- but recommend a 14-weight. Marlin of any size are still marlin. Up to the 10-weight use 5- to 6-foot leaders with up to 20-pound tippet. You may want a bite or shock tippet of 40 or 60-pound fluorocarbon. Once you get up to fish big enough for a 12 or higher, bring a standard big game leader set up, again no more than about 6 feet in total length, up to 20-pound tippet. For the marlin you’ll want 100-pound shock material, for sharks any kind of wire works. For flies, bring a selection of baitfish patterns that measure from 3 to 6 inches in length in colors including green over white, blue over white, purple over white, Mexican Flag color, solid white or solid black. Bring flies with heavy flash and lightly dressed. For sharks, bring larger brightly colored flies like Deceivers. We have special flies tied up for us by Cam Sigler for the sharks and the marlin. If you’d like to bring your own billfish flies bring larger patterns both popper and subsurface style in a variety of mackerel colors (greens and blues). We try to match our teasers as best we can. Hooks offshore should be around 1/0 up to 8/0 for the billfish and large sharks. Make sure they are sturdy hooks; all of the pelagic species here pull hard and quickly bend cheap hooks. We strongly recommend Gamakatsu. Offshore for tuna and other big pelagics we strongly recommend Rio’s Leviathan line or something similar.

Conventional Gear

Inshore
We strongly recommend light spinning or bait casting gear with a variety of plastics and lures. Lines should be in the 8- to 12-pound range.

Near Shore
Again spinning and baitcasting outfits allow the most versatility around the near shore kelp paddies. Most of the time we free line live baits, but an assortment of deep diving jigs, lures and plastics work well. Light iron also works for bringing fish off the bottom. You may want some heavy weights to ensure you can reach bottom for halibut and white sea bass.

Offshore
Heavier baitcasting rigs or spinners with light and heavy iron as well as rigs set to fly line live baits are most common. Also lighter 20- to 30-pound trolling outfits work best while underway. A variety of feathers and Yo-Zuri/Rapala-type lures work well while trolling. Some form of pink always works best for tunas. Slightly larger Islander type lures work best for billfish, but we prefer to bait-and-switch whenever possible. Also trolling deep with baits works best for threshers. Heavy outfits in the 80-pound class with good stand-up harnesses are required for big threshers and swordfish, all of which we use bait for.