Clubs and cliques make up a significant part of the wonderful web of California anglers who bond over fly fishing. One such group of folks in SoCal has created its own tradition. The stars aligned, and this year I was finally able to join their annual New Year’s Eve beach outing.
So there I stood in the wee hours of December 31 on the sands of “Dogtown” (Santa Monica) in my surf booties, rod in hand, and stripping basket latched to my waist. As the dawn gave way to overcast skies, roughly 30 anglers from all over SoCal arrived and began casting into the surf to “see what bites.” No one fools themselves at this location, and hooking a few barred surf perch counts as a successful day. In the preceding days, I had asked the key organizer, Kevin Green, “May I invite some folks?” His answer was a welcoming “The more the merrier,” a phrase I never utter, given my preference for small, obscure trout streams in the local hills. I followed by sending out numerous texts and emails.
Mind you, these city beaches still have their moments. Although the usual suspects are generally barred surf perch, yellowfin croaker, corbina, and the occasional halibut, other fish have wound up on the end of a line, such as leopard sharks, spotfin croaker, or even striped bass. But again, this is urban angling, and the bar is set accordingly. Let me just say that Andy Alper once hooked a laptop. A year after the Palisades Fire, one still walks through random drifts of charred wood and debris. It can also be sobering and even feel post-apocalyptic at times.
So how did this all begin? Longtime participant Glenn Short summarizes the beginnings nicely.
“The annual New Year’s Eve outings began in 2009 with five of us in Santa Barbara. We missed a couple of years (COVID-19) and once delayed it until January 6. In recent years, we’ve had more participants, expanding beyond our small group of Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers. It began as a way to use our annual fishing licenses on the last day of the year. Until this year, I was the only one wet wading, so I could tease the others that “real men wet wade in the surf.” Occasionally, some of our women fly-fishing friends have joined us. We’ve fished as far north as Santa Barbara, but in recent years we’ve usually been in the Santa Monica Bay or near Carpinteria. It always begins early at a location and time designated by Kevin (our surf guru), and is followed by brunch near the fishing location.”
Despite the beauty of solitude, tranquility, and introspection that are such a great part of fly fishing, the way the sport can bring us together is equally important. Let’s all make 2026 a year where we bring positive energy to each other, while figuring out whether red is a better color than green for perch on a particular day just adds to the fun. According to Kevin’s fly box, the answer is rather evident.
