This time we went on boat fishing from Newport Beach with our new employee Miku!! She has absolutely no fishing experience, but starting today I want her to learn the joy of fishing and bring up this Daily Flash Minnow blog site together. She will become our new “Lucky Fishing Girl” and will also begin writing articles about her experiences, so please stay tuned! Today I will be helping her out with the basics including knot tying and casting.

The boat took off to Huntington Beach offshore and we will be aiming for some Rockfish, Sanddab, and Scorpion. Since it was Miku’s first boat fishing experience, she was having a difficult time getting the lure to the bottom and couldn’t get any bites. I completely understand how she feels because just a year ago I was in the same shoes. If only she was able to get to the bottom, the fishes would most likely come for it, but it seemed pretty hard for her to understand the feeling of it hitting the bottom… While then, I got a bite!! I could feel it swimming around so I was guessing it might be a Mackerel. I wanted Miku to feel how the rod felt when a fish is caught so we traded rods and had her retrieve. It was my very first Mackerel! (Miku’s rod on the other hand had a starfish caught on it!)

When it became about time to go back, we hear a yell, “Ah~~~!! Fish!!” Miku caught a large size Scorpion!

Miku you did it!! It was her very first fish! (I’m starting to have this feeling she just might catch big ones… The Mackerel was 17in!)

Please continue to see how Miku develops her fishing skills!!

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow

I am continuing my mission from last week: to catch a fish with the “Pointer 78SR”! Today’s fishing location is Long Beach, CA! I left right when the sun came up and started fishing with much motivation. I found some seabirds gathering near the beach preying for some baits, so I used the matching the bait method and started casting the “Pointer 78SR”. The seabirds started disappearing over time and high tide approached, so I decided to change my lure to the FM110. I thought from the beach side would be a good area for a chance to grab a bite, so from there I would make some actions while retrieving, but got no bites… I then decided to go to the jetty. I tried to find an area where there were less kelps and started fishing with theFM120DD. After making a long cast, I would slowly retrieve while feeling the geographical changes on the bottom surface. Then I felt a pull!! I got a bite!! It’s been awhile since I caught my last Halibut! It was a small size Halibut, but it’s really been awhile so I was very happy! Afterwards, I changed my lure to the upcoming new lure: the CIF Series PT100DD. I got a bite with that as well.

I then wanted to try out something different! I wanted to downsize my lure to the SS90V2 where unlike the FM120DD or PT100DD, the diving range is shallower and won’t hit the bottom. But unfortunately got no bites and had absolutely no reaction with that… My assumption was that today’s Halibut are all inhabited in the bottom area of the ocean and have no conscious of the surface. So I again change my lure to theFM120DD and my assumption was right! I got another bite! I caught about 4-5 Halibuts one after another and got to fish exactly how I imagined. Unfortunately I didn’t get to catch any with the Pointer 78SR, but I think I established a new fishing method.

The newly in stock Flash Minnow Series are at the “Big Fish Tackle” Shop in Seal Beach. I heard it is selling pretty well. To all the Southern California residence, please come check this place out!

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow

On this week’s Daily Flash Minnow Weekly Report, I will like to talk about my trip to Redondo Beach, CA. It’s been awhile since my last fishing trip here. In Redondo Beach, I mostly fish along the jetty, but this time I started fishing in the rocky area to the left side of my very first Redondo Beach Sport Fishing. I heard from a staff that at this fishing spot last week, 5 large 7 pounder Halibuts were caught! That definitely got my hopes up! And this time I have a fishing mission to complete: to catch some with the “Pointer 78 SR” in Metallic Sardine & NC Shell White. Unlike the Flash Minnow I usually use, the Pointer doesn’t leap as much when casting, but it still does jump quite a bit!! The SR is called the “Shallow Liner”, so when retrieving, let it swims on the surface in replication to a small fish. The technique I used this time was the combination of the general “slow retrieve” and “stop and go” actions. With that, I kept aiming around the legs of the bridge, but got nothing. The people who were using squids were catching a lot…. But unfortunately I got no fish today!! (I also tried using the FM110…)

I will carry it over for next time.

To all the Flash Minnow fans out there, this is the Lucky Craft new item news! Other than the “Big Fish Bait & Tackle” store in Seal Beach, you can also get a hold of some rare Flash Minnows here in Redondo Beach Sport Fishing store also. If you are interested, please come check this place out!!! (Depending on the size the colors may vary) Coming this fall, they are scheduled to have the new CIF PT100DD/FM120DD in stock also!! They are selling quite a few!

Redondo Sport fishing
http://www.redondosportfishing.com/　　

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow

It’s been 3 months since I last went fishing at Newport Beach! The last time I was here it was in late May and there were no kelps and it was a great time for lure fishermen. However, during this time in the summer there are a lot of kelps which makes it much harder – you need to be extra careful when retrieving. This means a much less number of times in casting, which also means less chance of catching fishes! The reason for this is when you retrieve your lure all the way near your feet; it gets caught up in the kelp. And if it gets caught in a hectic manner, you need to stop retrieving and wait for the lure to float up on its own. Then you should be able to pull it up, but this creates loss in time. Last year, I remember getting my lures caught in the kelps a lot!! LOL

Anyhow, on this day the breeze transitioned to strong winds, so I stopped fishing along the jetty and changed location to a spot I’ve never been before! At this spot, there is usually a lot of people bait fishing and it’s also known to be a popular area. Winds don’t come by this area and it is a really good fishing spot, but it may be a bit of a small environment for lure fishing but I might as well give it a try. I didn’t have to worry about getting caught in the kelps here, but I had to worry about getting my line caught up with others next to me. People there were very interested in the lures I was using, so I introduced the FM to them and then decided to end my fishing after. I obviously didn’t get to catch any that day, but I did get to do a little bit of advertising. I will definitely like to continue to market the Lucky Craft soft lures!

To all the Flash Minnow fans out there, this is the Lucky Craft new item news!
A tackle shop called “Big Fish Bait & Tackle” located in Seal Beach, CA has some Flash Minnow that are normally not sold in the west coast region!! They have all 15 colors in stock and are ready to be sold! They also have the ISG Series, KJ/PT100, CIF FM130MR/ OSGFM190SR. Anyone interested, please come check out this tackle store!!! (Depending on the sizes the colors may vary) Coming this fall, they are scheduled to have the new CIF PT100DD/FM120DD in stock as well!!

Shop Information: Big Fish Bait & Tackle
http://www.bigfishtackle.com/

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow

It’s been awhile since my last surf fishing in Long Beach, CA. This time I went with my friend “K” and we started to get ready before day light and started fishing right at sunrise. On this day, I decided to go fishing ambitiously from high tide to low tide until noon. The water is cloudy, but there are no winds and I felt like I just might catch some.

I handed my friend the FM110 (Metallic Sardine) and from observing the turbidity level of the water I decided to use a gold color lure. From predicting the recent trends, instead of fishing from the beach side, I started off fishing along the jetty. (During low tide, the Halibuts that are in the bank migrates offshore so it is most likely that there won’t be any Halibuts. In the other hand, during high tide there are a lot of Halibuts in the bank so there’s a better chance fishing from the beach… But this is just my theory) There are a lot of kelps by my feet when fishing from the jetty, and if you use a DD (Deep Diver) it will easily get caught up, so everybody please be carful with that! After 2 hours of fishing and right around when more fishermen started to arrive, my friend gets a bite!! By the bent of the rod, it looked like a big one!! He carefully succeeded in landing and caught a big size halibut! It was his very first Halibut!! Hoping it would be a legal size we measured it, but he barely made it… it was 22inches. My friend left early because he had work, but I didn’t want to give up!
I then started fishing at the beach side!! On this day, I was casting with a bait reel so my lure couldn’t reach the bank… I continued to fish right before noon and ended it there.

Afterwards I went to a tackle shop in Long Beach and did some business and traded fishing information. Also, this tackle shop will be creating their original surf rod for me so please stay tuned for that! They have the FM 110 in stock here as well so please come check it out!

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow

P.S. My new rod… Still thinking on how I want it to be.

The world’s greatest fishing show, the ICAST 2011 has ended and now back to my usual fishing report. This week, I went fishing with our new Lucky Craft employee “M” and it was her very first fishing experience. We went to El Dorado East Regional Park near our office to challenge on her very first Bass fishing.

Since it was M’s first time, I had her practice on making knots prior to our fishing day, and now we are ready to start!! The field is big so it was a perfect place to practice casting. Although there are many accidents in casting so you really need to check behind you before you throw! I mentioned this to M in the beginning and had her work on over casting for the day since it is the easiest for beginners. Since she practices OO, the casting technique is very similar to OO and just the position of the rod before throwing needs to be modified a little… M surprised me with her skills. After practicing couple casts, within an hour she quickly learned the technique and moved on to actual fishing. I had M use her favorite lure (Skeet Reese – Redemption Spinnerbait) and go around the entire pond. Unfortunately there were no catches today. As for me, I used lures that I normally don’t use such as the Sammy and Fat Smasher Mini. I continued to practice using topwater baits, but caught nothing also. From now on there will be more reports on fishing with M and I would like to patiently brush up my skills also.

El Dorado East Regional Park
http://www.longbeach.gov
This park has a lot of areas that perennial plants, bushes, and Bass favors and it is very similar to Okappari (shore fishing) in Japan. Of course there are no other obstacles and it seems like just a vast park pond, but it is a nice location for family fun.

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow

P.S. Next time I am planning on going boat fishing with M.

This is part2 report on the world’s greatest ICAST Fishing Show 2011.
And the Fishing Show is all about introducing upcoming new products with pro staffs and filming. On this 2nd day, Skeet Reese was with us in the morning at the Lucky Craft booth so we filmed him introducing the new Fat Smasher, Smasher 125S, and new colors. Skeet was amazing!! He must be so use to doing this from all the experience he’s had. He introduced every product in one take! Not only that, he included all the features of the lures and didn’t forget to add a little bit of humor for the world to see. The filming went very smoothly! He also gave us a message to his fans in Japan & we will be uploading it on Youtube very shortly, so please stay tuned.
We also filmed our other pro staffs (Kelly Jordan, Gerald Swindle, Brent Ehrler, Casey Ashley, and Cary Bever) introducing new products and this will be up on Youtube as well.

The first day of the Fishing Show ended and in the afternoon they announced the 2011 Best of Show awards. It is divided into categories and Lucky Craft was nominated in the Hard Lure division. The winners for each category were already chosen by the judges who have already observed the actual products. The winner is then chosen simply by the most votes it gets. In result, unfortunately Lucky Craft did not win, but we will hope for next year.

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow

P.S. Next year’s Fishing Show is planned to be held in Florida.

This week, I’m going to divide my report into 2 parts and talk about the world greatest fishing show, the 2011 ICAST Show held in Las Vegas. We loaded up our Lucky Craft booth in the truck and headed out on a 4 and a half hour drive to Vegas! Immediately after we arrived, we started on our preparation and construction of the booth!! I’m excited to see how great our booth will turn out to be this year! The booth looked like the following picture in the beginning.

The Lucky Craft booth construction was finally completed!! What do you think!? Isn’t it great!? This year’s new products are: for Bass, the Smasher 125, Fat Smasher, LC Crank, and 5 new colors also. And for Saltwater, the FM 120DD and PT 100DD. To help introduce these new products, some of our pro anglers had gathered here with us. I was able to introduce our new products to each vendor pretty well and I have a feeling the Saltwater lure sales will be highly listed. Especially to the Southern America vendors, the Flash Minnow & Pointer Series were pretty popular. Supposedly in Southern America, these products are still pretty unfamiliar and they were showing a lot of interest in them. I showed them some pictures of the fishes I caught for my blog reports and explained to them some features of the FM & PT. I think I captured the vendor’s interest!!

I went around looking at other company booths for future reference and for new ideas. It was impossible to look at all the booths there in one day!! I was excited for the announcement of tonight’s awards for each division (Hard lure division, soft lure, rod, real, and etc.). From Lucky Craft, developed by Skeet Reese, the Fat Smasher is nominated in the hard lure division. I’m really excited for the opening night ceremony.

On my next report, I want to talk about the 2011 ICAST Show #1 product presentation ceremony as well as how the 2nd day went. Please stay tuned!

Sandy

This time, I had gone to Alamitos Bay to catch some Halibut. It was at low tide in the early morning so I decided to use some surface lures such as the FM110 & PT100. I continued to cast going from the jetty to beachside, but got nothing. I then changed my lure to a gold color and kept casting again along the beachside, but didn’t get anything. The tide started to rise and thought my chance finally came!! I changed my lure to a DD to aim at a deeper range!! Unfortunately the wind started blowing pretty strong and created raging waves. The casting lure couldn’t go further than the aiming point so I had to end it there. I started heading back and on the way I stopped by an Anglers center tackle shop and coincidentally ran into some friends of mine, H & T! They were planning on going Bass fishing in the afternoon so I decided to join them. It was going to be at a man-made pond located at a park. This will be my very first experience Bass fishing at a man-made pond! And we are using a bicycle to travel along the pond!! This is definitely “Survival fishing”!!!

Once we arrived there, there were several people already having a good time Bass fishing. And they were using Topwater baits!! Also!! I found someone using our Lucky Craft Sammy! That made me pretty happy!

I started off using our new product, the Fat Smasher 55 to test it out as well… I was convinced that this product will no doubt be popular this year.

While we were moving with our bikes, T gets a bite!! He caught a 47cm Bass with a Spinnerbait!! And even after that, he caught another nice size Bass!! Later on, I finally got a bite… when I slowly retrieve the Spinnerbait (Redemption 3/8 in Chartreuse) parallel to the bottom part of the bushes surrounding the pond, I would get a slight bite… Trying to remain calm, I would go along with the bite and succeeded in catching a small size Bass!! I retrieved before it’d go into the bushes and at that moment!! The Bass jumped!!! It totally took me off guard… the Bass got away… Because I got so use to Saltwater fishing, I completely forgot most of the important basic techniques in fishing. What an unfortunate result.

We would talk over the phone telling each other our situation and which lures other people used to catch some fishes. I really felt like I got to experience a very valuable time Bass fishing and learned a lot. H got couple bites and caught 2 Bass that day. I think this pond has some high potential and I’m very excited to come back again.

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow

The 2011 ICAST Show is just 2 more weeks away! I would like to introduce this year’s new products! Our preparation is moving forward to completion. I hope everyone is looking forward to the show.

This week I went to San Pedro to catch some Barracuda with my fishing buddies “K” & “S”. The weather was nice and sunny with no winds. Hoping the Barracudas are up in the surface, we started fishing. After arriving to our fishing spot, I immediately cast a PT100DD!! Then surprisingly after a couple casts, I got the very first bite out of all the passengers!! I pulled up the Barracuda and it was definitely a good start for me. I then changed lures to this year’s new product, the FM120DD and caught another one. On this early morning, I continued to catch some in a deeper area. I did get some short bites, but it felt nice to get some catches.

After the sun came up, I changed lures to surface lures (FM110 & FM130), but couldn’t get any bites. We then moved to a different location… At this point, the people who were using live baits seemed to be getting no bites. After changing locations, I started off using the FM130, but got nothing! Again, I decided to change lures to aim at a deeper range and decreased the size to a BIGUP. I then caught a keeper size Calico Bass! Then, after couple more castings, I kept catching more Calico Bass!! Once that slowed down, I decided to go on the other side of the boat and change lures to the Staysee 90!! From here, I came across a Barracuda boil for the first time and started catching them like crazy. Within an hour, I caught over 20 (including small size fishes) Barracuda. And every time I pulled one up, I continued changing lures and colors as well.

Since there were other fishermen on the boat, we alternated throwing in lures and jigs at boils and I got to share an area with 2 other people. I sometimes moved to the other side of the boat, but didn’t get anything and that made me realize how important those fish boils are.

In this fishing trip, unlike my last Barracuda fishing experience (at Santa Monica Bay – large size Barracuda was caught), the fishes weren’t as big. The main technique for Barracuda fishing in the west coast is to use jigs in the surface area while fast retrieving and you wait for a bite. However, instead of using a jig, I used a lure. And in result, with my very own lure tactics by slightly going at a deeper range from the surface while slow retrieving, it seemed to work better for me!! The “Metallic Sardine” color was a must, but green and white color lures seemed to work pretty good also!

On this fishing trip, I caught 15 legal size Barracuda and 2 legal size Calico Bass.

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow