Downey Fly Fishers April 2016

Club Meeting: Tuesday 4/12/16 from 6pm – 9pm

Zino and Peter will tie flies beginning at 6pm. Don’t Miss It!

Hawaiian Fly Fishing Opportunities Presented by Zino Nakasuji and Peter Koga

Ahhhhh….the Hawaiian Islands, the playground for beach goers, surfers,

and plain ol’ relaxation on a lounge chair with a Mai Tai. What does a

program about Hawaii have to do with our April 12th program? Plenty, if you

know about the fly fishing available for rainbow trout, largemouth bass,

smallmouth bass, peacock bass and world class bonefish! Peter Koga and Zino

Nakasuji will cover the four islands in the Hawaiian Island chain that offer

up fresh water and near shore flats fly fishing. Fly anglers in the know come

from all over the world to experience what these islands have to offer. They

will give an overview of how to experience this fantastic opportunity the next

time you visit our 50th state.

Peter and Zino will give a bonefish fly tying demonstration from 6:00pm to

7:00pm.

Get to know our April Guest Speakers:

Zino Nakasuji

A Southern California native, Zino Nakasuji was born in Los Angeles in 1954, and moved with his family to Long Beach when he was only one years old. His father, the son of a Terminal Island commercial fishing captain aboard the Cipango and Western Enterprise, introduced him to fishing the local piers and jetties at a young age. The fishing progressed to sport fishing boats out of Long Beach with his father, younger brother, Fritz, and his Uncle Masuo Hora. His uncle also introduced Zino to trout fishing in the Eastern Sierras. While attending the University of Southern California, Zino’s grade school friend, Ken Udo, introduced him to fly fishing during a backpacking trip in the Eastern Sierras where he caught his first fly rod trout, a golden trout hybrid, on an Adams. Zino still remembers the thrill of getting that first fish on a dry fly. However, it wasn’t until 1992 when Zino was on a Colorado vacation with his wife, Marcia, that he was “bitten” by the fly fishing bug. With a rented fly rod and advice from Jeff Solis, who at the time was working at the Frying Pan Anglers, Zino hooked a brown trout on a dry that changed his perception of fly fishing forever. He joined the Downey Fly Fishers that same year through their fly tying classes and later joined the Long Beach Casting Club in 2002. Zino has fished trout from the Eastern Sierras to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, and as far across the Pacific Ocean as New Zealand. He has enjoyed several steelhead trips to British Columbia. It

was during his first steelhead trip to B.C. with Ray Sugiyama that he met Peter Koga, and on another trip up to B.C. that he met two Scottish anglers from Aberdeen and was invited to fish with them in Scotland. Zino took them up on their offer while on vacation to the U.K. in 2007, and was very fortunate to actually spey fish on the River Spey and catch an Atlantic salmon on the North Esk. In 2008, Zino received a call from his cousin, Chiaki Harami, and got an eye-opening introduction to fly fishing for carp on the L.A. River. Local carp fishing led to a memorable trip with Mike Ward to Beaver Island, MI, for fish up to 35lbs. When it comes to sight fishing for big game fish on the fly rod, you can’t get any more extreme than fishing for mako shark with Captain Conway Bowman. Zino and Peter have enjoyed the adrenaline rush of fishing with Conway for many seasons, which led to his creation of the Z-Man Mako Toad that was included in Pat Ford’s article in Fly Fishing in Saltwater Magazine. Zino’s passion for Oahu bonefishing started during a visit with Peter at his tying station at the 2004 Fly Fishing Show in Ontario. Peter showed pictures of some thick Oahu bonefish that he had just caught and gave him the low down. While on a family vacation that same year, Zino caught his first Oahu bonefish (Albula Glossodonta). Bonefishing trips also include Andros Island, Belize, Yucatan, and Christmas Island. Zino and his wife have been married for almost 29 years and live in Los Alamitos with their Golden Retriever, Kona. He currently runs E.D. Luce Packaging with his brother.

Peter Koga

Peter was born on Maui and being surrounded by water, learning to fish was given. His dad started him fishing at the age of 4 with a cane pole along the rocky shorelines of Maui. As he got older, he learned to cast a Penn Jig Master and there were overnight trips to barely accessible parts of Maui where they had find a path through lava beds to get to the water. It was on one of those trips that he caught his first bonefish at the age of 14. The family moved to Los Angeles in the late 50's for better opportunities. Although the type of fishing and places available to fish were markedly different from Maui, the Koga family kept at it. Peter got to experience fishing in the surf, piers, jetties, and even from a rental row boats from the Santa Monica pier to fish the short breakwater during his teens. It was here that he caught his first bonito. He graduated from Dorsey High school and went to UCLA to get his degree. He also enjoyed tennis, volleyball, surfing and also sneaking onto to the supports under the Santa Monica pier to fish for perch after a night of studying at UCLA. He enjoyed watching the American Sportsman; especially those segments of Lee Wulff fly fishing. But the episode when Big Crosby and Phil Harris were fly fishing in Jackson Hole with a young kid named Jack Dennis that changed his fishing life forever. He soon went out and bought a fly rod, reel and line and over the next several years, learned how to fly fish with the help of the Long Beach Casting Club. He learned to tie flies through books and taking some classes with Jack Dennis. He enjoyed hiking and backpacking to lakes in the Eastern Sierras to fly fish and it was on one of those trips that he met a young Randall Kaufmann. Randall knew the back country very well and for the next week, would take Peter to various lakes after work to fish the evening hatch at those lakes. The fishing was terrific just before dark

and they would often get back into town in the wee early hours of the morning. After graduating from UCLA, Peter went to pharmacy school and completed a Pharmacy Residency program at USC. He spent the rest of his working career at Kaiser Permanente as a pharmacist, then manager and for the last 10 years, working on national projects for Kaiser before retiring in 2013. While working at Kaiser, Peter took several float trips on the Deschutes River in Oregon through Randall Kaufmann’s shop. During one of the SoCal FFF Fly Fishing Conclaves, as it was known back then, he met Bob Nauheim, Founder of Fishing International, and began a long friendship. Bob was a mentor who taught Peter a lot about fly fishing for steelhead and was always available to answer questions about locations and techniques. Steelhead fishing consumed Peter's fishing time for the next decade and he chased them with Dan Iwata from the Northern California coastal streams, to summer runs in the Deschutes (with John Hazel and Dec Hogan), to Idaho, Washington and to the magnificent British Columbia Rivers like the Bulkly, Babine, Dean, Sustut, Copper and to a special "Secret River" in such a remote area that only allowed 2 anglers a week. It was during a trip to the Babine that he met and fished with Jim Klug, who was a sales rep for Scientific Angler at the time. Peter still uses the knots that Jim taught him during that Babine trip and gets to visit with Jim at several of the The Fly Fishing Show events throughout the country. Peter had always wanted to tie flies at ALL of The Fly Fishing Show events plus the International Fly Tying Symposium once in his life and he completed that goal in 2015. Fly fishing has always taken a back seat to family but was almost always factored in during family vacations to Mammoth, Oregon, Wyoming, Colorado and Hawaii. Peggy, Peter's wife of 44 years, does not fly fish,

but enjoys going to the beautiful destinations that also happen to be great places to fly fish. As work at Kaiser got hectic, taking a lot of time off to go fishing became a challenge, but the fishing never stopped. Peter began to fly fish the surf zone in Huntington Beach, 5 minutes from this house. One summer he fished the surf every day from July through Labor Day usually early morning before work. Sometimes even going back out after dinner for a 2nd session when the summer beach crowds went home. In 2001, Dan Iwata invited Peter to fish for tuna with him in San Diego and Peter became "hooked" on conventional salt water fishing too. 5 years later he started to take a fly rod on those trips and has caught yellowtail, tuna, dorado and calico bass on a fly almost every year since that time. One day John Whittaker was talking about his Hawaii vacation and the many bonefish he saw and one he hooked while vacationing on Oahu. You know what happened next, Peter went to Oahu and caught his first bonefish on the Jumping Jack, a fly he designed to imitate the gobies that inhabit the tide pools in Hawaii and the locals use for bait. That fly was used by Zino the following year to get his first Hawaiian bone in Oahu. Since then, Peter and Zino have gone on trips to the Yucatan, Bahamas, other Hawaiian Islands and Christmas Island to chase bonefish and other tropical species. Their program will introduce you to the many fly fishing opportunities that exist on four of the Hawaiian Islands and what you need to consider if you decide to dedicate a special trip to fly fish Hawaii or just taking a fly rod along to fish a few hours while on a family vacation.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Event Location Date

Fishermen’s Spot Van Nuys April 2 & 3, 2016

FOLAR Cleanup Upper River April 16, 2016

One Surf Fly Dockweiler State Beach April 23, 2016

FOLAR Cleanup Mid River April 23, 2016

FOLAR Cleanup Lower River April 30, 2016

Casting for Recovery Lake Arrowhead 3rd Annual Retreat May 20-22, 2016

DFF Auction/Fundraiser Barbara J Riley Community Center May 21, 2016

Carp Throw Down Lake Henshaw May 28, 2016

Rush Creek Cleanup Silver Lake (June Lake Loop) June 11, 2016

SWCIFFF Fly Fishing Faire Bishop CA Oct. 14-16, 2016

http://onesurffly.com/upcoming-osf-event/save-the-date/osf9_web/

RUSH CREEK CLEANUP

The 10th annual Rush Creek clean-up will take place on Saturday, June 11, 2016 and will focus efforts on an eight mile stretch of Rush Creek from the Southern California Edison power plant upstream of Silver lake down the canyon to US 395. Volunteers should meet at the Silver lake boat ramp at 8:00am and bring gloves, a hat, sunscreen, repellent, boots and waders if you have them. Trash bags will be provided by Silver Lake resort. This section of Rush Creek is especially popular with anglers and each year up to 50 bags of material are collected. Particular importance is collecting stray fishing line caught in the bushes and trees as this is a huge threat to birds and other wildlife. After the clean-up, Silver lake Resort will treat the volunteers to a free barbeque lunch. If you are interested in keeping this pristine stretch of water clean, come up and meet members of the Streamborn Fly Fishing Club who are the primary organizers of the event. Any questions on the clean-up you can contact Joe Lemire to confirm your attendance at (jflx8@dslextreme.com) or (909) 609-1101.

CASTING FOR RECOVERY 3rd Annual Retreat May 20-22, 2016

Casting for Recovery was founded in 1996 to enhance the quality of life of women with breast cancer by providing retreats designed to promote and support mental and physical healing. Our program uses counseling, medical education, and instruction in fly fishing to provide an opportunity for women at any age, or stage of treatment, to address survivorship issues. We are committed to socioeconomic and cultural diversity, and our retreats are provided at no cost to the participants. Be part of an amazing weekend! Water helpers are needed for Sunday, May 22, 2016 at Lake Arrowhead, CA. Contact: Teresa Adams Email: tadams4@bak.rr.com Cell: (661) 330-1649