There are few fishing pastimes as artful and elegant as catch and release flyfishing for steelhead in our local streams. "Santa Cruz Flyfishermen" is a local club formed to promote, educate and enjoy this sport and whose formal roots began at Ernie's Casting Pond in Soquel. Their annual fund raising event supports wildlife and conservation projects throughout the state as well as locally. This year the event will be held at the Santa Cruz Elk's Club on January 26 at 5pm. Tickets are available at Ernie's Casting Pond or The Angler's Choice Tackle Shop in Capitola. The event will feature top of the line fly-fishing gear as raffle and auction items.

With the influx water into our system, the San Lorenzo and smaller streams are coming into shape, says Ernie Kinzli from Ernie's Casting Pond in Soquel. Kinzli reports on big steelhead hooked and lost by a local angler above Felton on Wednesday, and Mark Dingler reports a number of catches by anglers from the San Lorenzo and other local streams this week. Dingler himself caught and released two fish from Soquel Creek on Wednesday.