What the Winners Used - 2023
photo by Lino JubiladoFLY TACKLE DIVISION
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
John Parmenter
| 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
Scott Yamamoto
| 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
John Hansen
| 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
Derek Smith
| 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
Regular Tackle Division
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