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what the winners used

photo by Lino Jubilado

Region Fished:	Northern Los Angeles
Rod:	TFO LK Legacy, Mangrove Coast, 9', 7wt
Reel:	TFO NTR
Line:	Integrated Shooting head, type 6
Leader:	-
Fly:	Red Beach Buster
Tactics:	Focused on working troughs and small channels, or visible bait schools

Lino Jubilado's Largest Perch

Region Fished:	Ventura County
Rod:	Orvis Helios 2, 10’, 8 wt.
Reel:	Orvis Hydros
Line:	Rio Sink Tip 300gr/19.4gm
Leader:	About 6’ overall, 25 lb. Test Fluorocarbon Butt section, the remainder of 6 lb. Test Fluorocarbon for the tippet
Fly:	Mrs. Bates https://flypatterns.org/mrs-bates/
Tactics:	Cast this fly well out into the surf and fish it like any perch/surf fly, stripping it along the bottom and keeping the line between the rod tip and the fly tight. I set on any grabs by the perch or hesitations in the retrieve

A perch from John Parmenter's 2nd Place HDS catch

Region Fished:	Ventura, Oxnard
Rod:	10 foot Scott STS 6 wt, 9 ft Allen Compass 5 wt,
Reel:	Redington Behemoth, Lamson liquid Reel
Line:	Rio Outbound short int/6, SA 5/7 Sonar Stillwater
Leader:	7-9 foot tapered fluorocarbon Leader 20lb butt down to 10lb. I also add a barrel swivel, because I feel like it helps minimize leader twist.
Fly:	Size 8 sand crab pattern with an orange tag. I caught over 100 perch on this fly during the contest. It also caught 2 decent corbina that didn't top Laura's and subsequently John's. Usually ran this as a dropper fly
Tactics:	Short slow strips, just fast enough to keep the line tight . Fan casting structure and moving until I find fish. I fished a two fly rig 90% of the time.

Scott Yamamoto's Sand Crab fly

Region Fished:	Carpinteria
Rod:	Thomas & Thomas Zone, 9.5ft 6wt
Reel:	Redington Grande
Line:	Rio Fathom WF7S6
Leader:	8lb fluorocarbon
Fly:	Size 8 Surfin' Merkin-inspired fly
Tactics:	Narrow sightfishing windows, calculated casts and sloooow strips.

John Hansen's Fly Tackle Largest Corbina

Region Fished:	Santa Monica area
Rod:	Thomas and Thomas Zone 9” 8wt
Reel:	Nautilus CCF-X2
Line:	Scientific Angler Sonar Custom Sink
Leader:	6' #12
Fly:	Couser (olive/white) size 1
Tactics:	Working areas with baitfish present. Long casts with variable strips. Some took on an intentional longer pause between strips, others with steady faster strips

Derek Smith's Fly Tackle Largest Halibut

This a compilation of the contestants, more details will be forthcoming:

Region Fished:	San Diego
Rod:	Spinning
Reel:	Spinning
Line:	20lb spectra braid
Leader:	Short leader of 8 - 12 lb test fluorocarbon
Lures:	Honey Badger Baits Ozzie Slayer paddletail grubs accounted for the most perch, croaker and ray. Luckcraft CIF Flash Minnow 110 jerkbaits in blue/pink took the largest regular tackle halibut and many of the larger perch
Tactics:	Working areas with baitfish present. Long casts with variable speed retrieve and pauses.

Sheldon Belhumeur's 21" Halibut

What the Winners Used - 2023