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By Sean Fenner, August 19, 2010

This week has been crazy thus far. Work is picking up; we’re getting all of our stuff packed to move; family issues are running rampant, and I needed to get out and fish. Fly Fishing is the one thing in my life that can take my mind off of anything. As soon as I pick up the rod I step into a different world, and nothing but catching fish and enjoying nature matters.

I arrived at the park and the water was flat. The temperature was starting to rise and I could see the shad hitting the surface, as Little Bass chased them around the lake. I’m not sure how the little Shad got there and how they sustain every year, but there they are! (I have netted a few and caught a couple on little dry flies).

I tied on a small white Flash-A-Bugger with a trailing White Mysis Shrimp Imitation. My imitations of the Shad seem to drive the Largemouth Bass wild every time. I throw a cast as far out into the middle of the lake as I can, and start an extremely fast twiching retrieve.

Now this tactic only seems to work for me in the late Summer through late Fall, the rest of the year I can cast until my arm falls off (usually without one hit). I usually will catch a small Bass on about every 5-10 casts and on good days I feel bites on every cast.

At first I thought, well it must be the flash fooling the fish. So I tried other colors, Black, Olive, Purple, Yellow, Rust, with only a few bites. Then I thought, well maybe it’s the color, and I tied on the same white Woolly Bugger and Mysis Shrimp without any flash tied in. Guess what? NO BITES! Okay so now I am thoroughly convinced it is the color and the flash imitating one of these little shad running for it’s life.

On this day the Bass were relatively small anywhere from 5-12 Inches, but I have caught big Bass on this rig.

I especially remember one morning being out just after the sun had come up. I tied up my rig, cast into the center of the lake , and started stripping vigorously. Just as I was about to pick up my fly and recast, a huge Bass came flying out of the water attacking my fly like a Great White Shark after a seal. He was hooked and the fight began. I chased the bass around the lake for about 10 minutes and when he finally was close enough to lip I bent down hands shaking, and with one more shake of his giant head my fly came loose and hit me square in the forehead. I pulled the fly of my skin to find that he had totally bent out the hook and by the looks of the Bass he was pushing 8-10 pounds (that is one big park lake Bass)!

Hopefully next time I get a monster like that there will be a photo to follow, and smiles for days!

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By Sean Fenner, July 31, 2010

In my opinion, one of the greatest forms of Fly Fishing is targeting Largemouth Bass. There is just something about when one of these fish, no matter how big or how small hits your fly. It gets my adrenaline going and my blood flowing. I have caught huge Bass on tiny flies and Tiny Bass on huge flies. As soon as you think your have them all figured out, they throw you a curve ball and your left searching the Internet for yet another tactic to get them to bite. I especially like to go after Park Lake Bass, as most of them have been caught at least once. They force to to throw a nice presentation and give them just the right fly. Remember, they have seen every lure you have (and then some). So the next time you pass that Park lake, River Bed, or Reservoir take the time to drop a line. You never know there might just be a Bass waiting to smack your fly as soon as it hits the water.

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By Sean Fenner, June 27, 2010

The other day my phone rang at 4:00p.m. and on the other line was a fellow “UrbanFlyVenturer” letting me know that his brother is in town from the south, and he wanted to fish with me at a local park lake for an hour or two. Work was slowing down and I figured I would make it out of the office by 5:30p.m., so I asked where they wanted to meet. Ralph Clark Regional Park Lake was close, so that’s where we headed.

I arrived not really knowing what to expect. I had not fished with either of them before, and was not really sure what they were hoping to gain from the trip. Did they just want to talk to me? Did they want some fishing advise? Or was there some other motive?

Always excited to meet someone new and gain some fishing insight. I pulled up and they were waiting for me anxiously. I said “hi”, and they quickly asked “you bring any Poppers”. “I advised as a matter of fact, I brought just about every fly I own,  I wasn’t sure what species or tactic you guys were after”. The brother advised that he wanted to show me some cool tactics he had learned for all flies in the popper category: poppers, chuggers, sliders, etc. All in exchange for a little info on a few tactics for Carp in streams.

A fair deal I thought and we got right down to it. We fished a total of about two and a half hours, and I was amazed at how many fish we caught in that time span. Usually when I’m getting a lesson catching fish isn’t really involved. But wow! Did I ever walk away with a new sense of confidence on how to fish these flies.

I was asked to keep the names anonymous for reasons I am really not sure, but a big “THANK YOU” to John Doe non the less!

So talk to people, get involved in a forum, and you never know what valuable information you might gain!

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By Sean Fenner, March 20, 2010

Just landed back in the Mainland last night from our trip to Hawaii. It was an amazing vacation filled with time for family, site seeing, and even some time out on the water with my fly rod.

The trip was mainly for my wife to visit her Grandparents and her Dad, and for me to visit my Grandparents. In between visit however we did manage to do some site seeing like visiting Iolani Palace and Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay.

Before I left on my trip to the islands, I got into contact with one of our site followers Chris who knows the island and the fish on it extremely well. The weather patterns have been a little strange there for the last few weeks and the Saltwater bit has been slow. So, we decided that it would be best to hit up th local  Nuuanu Stream in the morning and get out on the flats in the afternoon when the tide was coming in.

The morning started off interesting with me missing the cutoff sign for the stream, and getting lost. I found my way back to the road to find my host waiting for me on the side of the road to flag me over to my parking destination. We talked for a few minutes and he briefed me on the terrain and the equipment to use.

The fishing was amazing. We both managed a few Smallmouth Bass, I think I caught about 15 (since he gave me all the good holes to fish) within a hour or two. The hiking was a little strenuous in the rain with us (mainly me) slipping and falling all over the stream, but the results were well worth it.

I want to give a big Mahalo to Chris for showing me this little stretch of paradise!

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By Sean Fenner, February 13, 2010

A few of the Sunfish that I have been catching recently Bass, Bluegill, Green Sunfish, etc have had strange “Red Bumps” on them. It was starting to concern me, because these bumps were found on different species at a few different locations and I hadn’t seen it or noticed it on any of the fish that I had caught before. So, I called up Dan and asked him if he knew what it was. He quickly answered that it is the beginning of a bacterial infection that is found a lot in fish that are stressed for whatever reason, and that he had seen it in many fish. I read up on it and it looks like this is very common in Sunfish for many different reasons. The infection will start to cause ulcers in the fish and ultimately kill it if it does not go away. I was also told that this is quite common before fish start to spawn due to the pressure and competition from other fish. I also read that as the water temperature rises in spring, the bacterium’s life cycle is spead up quickly killing it and returning the fish’s health back to normal . Here is an example!

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By Sean Fenner, February 6, 2010

I can’t even begin to describe the excitement that runs through my head when I get a Lagemouth Bass on the fly. There is just something about seeing that fish come up in the water column and clobber a fly. My favorite time of year to fish for Bass is in the Late Spring and the Late Fall, and if I had to choose only one fly to use it would hands down be a Bead Head Bugger. I love sight fishing and I love aggressive fish that will chase after a fly when you strip it away for him. So all you Bass Fishermen out there put down your Baitcasters and Rapalas and pick up a 5Weight and a selection of Buggers, and who knows you might just get hooked worse than the Bass.

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By Dan Zambrano, November 16, 2009

It’s cross over time in urban SoCal.

The local weather conditions and temperatures are such that Fish & Game is stocking both catfish and trout at many of the local urban lakes. This influx of fish is stirring up all kinds of fishing activity. For most of us brownliners that’s about as close to winning the lottery as it gets.

A quick stop at or even a drive-by past many of the local waters will easily confirm this and will attest to the fact that while we may not be a lot of things, we urban anglers are apparently quite literate, at least as far as fishing news is concerned and we apparently follow the stocking schedules the way blue-haired heiresses consult astrological charts — that is, frequently and faithfully.

This past week, for example, Sean and I managed to connect for about an hour and a half between appointments to squeeze in some fly-fishin’. We expected to find a couple of guys soaking bait but instead the lake we choose to hit was packed with a horde of fellow anglers catching everything from Bass to Trout to Catfish to Crappie on just about every kind of rig imaginable.

It was, as is often said in fishing circles, “wide open” and the local angling community responded accordingly and enthusiastically.

We found some decent and promising looking shoreline and I began tossing Sean’s variation of a bead head wooly bugger that I call “Fenner’s Phat Fly”. It’s olive green and black, has a little bit of flash in it (appropriately “ghetto” enough for the urban fly fishing environment) and it has been catching me a whole boatload of fish for the last three weeks. Sure, it is getting a little ratty looking and I’ve had to re-bend and re-sharpen the hook after snagging it in a bush and what not but, I gotta say, I’m lovin’ this fly.

Anyway, it worked it’s magic again and I landed a couple of Bass in short order. While I was playing one Bass, Sean hooked up to a Trout and a bait fisherman a few yards away landed a catfish – all within the space of about five minutes. Like I said, wide open.

Perhaps because of the frequency and relative ease of actually catching fish or maybe due to the density of fisherfolk or possibly even because of the crisp freshness of the air but whatever the reason, there seemed to be an overall congeniality at this lake that went beyond the norm. Don’t get me wrong, SoCal anglers are almost always cordial even if we don’t speak the same native tongue, which is highly likely since, according to linguistics experts, there are something like 224 different languages spoken in SoCal, not counting variations in dialect. This just seemed to go beyond mere courtesy and I ended up in several conversations including one that led to an invite down to the casting pond at Recreation Park in Long Beach from a member of the Long Beach Casting Club.

The LB Casting Club has night sessions and informal casting clinics every Tuesday and Thursday in addition to a whole bunch of other activities throughout the year ranging from rod-building clinics to multi-day excursions. I’ll have to check my calendar and go check it out. We will be sure to post the outcome when we do.

Anyway, as I made my way around the lake, I got pointers on the best fly lines, the best flies, the best fly rods to use on urban lakes and so on and so on which was rather amusing since Sean and I were the only ones actually fly fishing. Still it was all good-natured and sincere and considering that I was consistently bringing in a few decent fish under an amazing sunset, it was a pretty good day.

With darkness settling in and a whole bunch more catfish anglers arriving on the scene, Sean and I decided to pack it in and head off to our next appointment. As long as we kept the duck muck off our shoes, no one at our next meeting would even have to know that we had been happily fly fishing just minutes earlier.

I love this addiction called urban fly fishin’