Here’s the thing: Where else are you going to have the chance to watch a lineup of fly casters that includes the likes of Tim Rajeff, Simon Gawesworth, Cheech Pierce, and Brian O’Keefe, to name just a few? Small chance you’ll ever have the opportunity to see so many exquisite loops sailing straight and true, like throws from the outfield, across the water.
O’Keefe cast
The caveat, of course, is that fly casters of this caliber can make any rod work. I remember, as a youngster, watching David Nuuhiwa ride sloppy waves near the Huntington Beach pier and thinking I had to get a board like his. He made you want to paddle out even when the onshore wind was blowing.
The point is, he could have been riding my bedroom door and made the surf look good.
Still, isn’t one rod better than the others?
I’d hate to be a spoiler. For my Gray’s Best awards, check back around the first of the year in Gray’s 2024 Expeditions & Guides Annual.
Gray’s angling editor Scott Sadil has never quite been able to convince himself that fly casting isn’t a beauty contest.
