Corbina fly fishing in southern California

[jkim]

About 2 months ago, I attended a saltwater fly fishing seminar, mainly focused on Corbina fishing, presented by Glenn Ueda at a local fly fishing shop. It was very educational and I thought I actually learned a lot about the subject.
So I brought my new 7wt fly rod (with fast sinking fly line and merkin flies) to Huntington beach almost every weekend and walked miles up and down the beach for hours to catch one... did it 3 times in the month of June. Sadly I didn't even find one fish yet. Mr. Ueda emphasized blind-casting would be nothing but a waste of time and energy. So I must find fish first for sight-casting.
Has anyone done it? I'm looking to ask some questions... from fly fishermen with experience.

 

[karstopo]

https://www.theflyfishingforum.com/...17-finally-corbina-fly.html?highlight=Corbina

Old thread on Corbina.

 

[jkim]

Amazing. Thanks for the link.

 

[swimiowa]

@jkim you can catch them blind-casting, i fish for Corbina in San Diego. Look for structures along the beach, never know what you'll catch casting into a hole. You should walk along the beach to scout for structures during low tide.

 

[Editor]

@jkim you can catch them blind-casting, i fish for Corbina in San Diego. Look for structures along the beach, never know what you'll catch casting into a hole. You should walk along the beach to scout for structures during low tide.

That was probably my favourite fishing during my 8 years in San Diego, regularly fishing Torrey Pines State Beach in particular in the early mornings. You nailed it with the start on the incoming tide to spot the gullies and holes and as soon as they are covered by the waves you can start casting into them. The edges of rips and the huge holes scoured by them sometimes are other great holding areas but spotting a fish or sometimes a pair working their way along the beach towards you is exciting. On the fly I found a good technique in super skinny water was to cast on the beach and let the receding wave carry my sand crab fly naturally down into the water - takes some practice but it worked well on several occasions. Watch out for spot tail croaker in certain areas too - another fantastic fish to target and they tail in the surf!

 

[jkim]

I didn't expect any responses since there was an old thread on corbina fly fishing. Thank you. I'll certainly do some blind casting instead of walking up and down the beach for hours to spot fish. Could you be more specific about looking for structures? Are you simply talking about artificial structures like break walls? Probably not but I'm quite sure what you're referring to.

 

[jkim]

That was probably my favourite fishing during my 8 years in San Diego, regularly fishing Torrey Pines State Beach in particular in the early mornings. You nailed it with the start on the incoming tide to spot the gullies and holes and as soon as they are covered by the waves you can start casting into them. The edges of rips and the huge holes scoured by them sometimes are other great holding areas but spotting a fish or sometimes a pair working their way along the beach towards you is exciting. On the fly I found a good technique in super skinny water was to cast on the beach and let the receding wave carry my sand crab fly naturally down into the water - takes some practice but it worked well on several occasions. Watch out for spot tail croaker in certain areas too - another fantastic fish to target and they tail in the surf!

Thanks for your great tips. I will definitely try to improve my techniques hope to catch some nice corbina/bone fish (not uncommon in so. cal)/croaker.

 

[Editor]

I didn't expect any responses since there was an old thread on corbina fly fishing. Thank you. I'll certainly do some blind casting instead of walking up and down the beach for hours to spot fish. Could you be more specific about looking for structures? Are you simply talking about artificial structures like break walls? Probably not but I'm quite sure what you're referring to.

I'm sure swimiowa will add to this too, but no we do not mean hard structures, actually what you are looking for are holes and channels carved out of the sand by the waves. Any depression where food items will naturally wash into once they are covered by the waves, and that give the fish water over their backs. That is why walking the beach at low tide is great as you start to see where the best ones are and fish those as they get covered, and then keep doing the same as you walk backwards up the beach with the incoming tide. The corbina move between these areas and sometimes you don't even see them in them at close range due to the sand in the water which is why the blind casting to those holes is still worthwhile. Once you get your eye in, you will see the 'beans swimming along the shallow water towards you at distance in between the waves, and then drop down into them. I'll have to see if I can scan an old article I wrote for Pacific Coast Sportfishing (Aug 2004 edition!) and share it sometime, although that was bait fishing in that one, the beach craft is the same.
Enjoy your time on the beach - I'm really jealous.

 

[jkim]

Thank you very much, Paul, for all these great tips. Hopefully, you can make it back to southern California in the near future so that we all go out together fishing for Corbina.

 

[acorad]

Could you be more specific about looking for structures? Are you simply talking about artificial structures like break walls? Probably not but I'm quite sure what you're referring to.

jkim, I guess you are not the same jkim who posts on SCSurfishing.com?

Anyway, go there and use the search function. Dozens of threads on structure.

As Fish&Fly wrote, go to the beach at low tide. Find the holes, gullys, trenchs, sandbars, etc., on the shore that will fill in as the tide comes in. They are often no deeper than a couple inches. Those are your structure, and those are where the fish will be as the tide comes in.

Often holes on the beach will have a gully/trench from them to the water. If you find the right holes, the beans will swim up the trench and enter the shallow holes when the tide fills in as they look for sand crabs. In that case the beans are easily seen as the water is shallow and clear.

This is Glenn's favorite setup, and he walks many miles on many beaches to find these conditions as they do not exist on many beaches.

Best,

Andy

 

[jkim]

Thank you, Andy. I didn't know there's another person using my user name... or I've been using his user name. I'm not the jkim that posts on SCSURFISHING.com. I should be jkim2 in order to avoid confusion.
I'll definitely keep all these tips in mind and will also fish other beaches such as Long Beach and Seal Beach. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions.

 

[jkim]

Today I hit the beach at the lowest tide and found some depression area, about size of a typical putting green. Waited until the water moved in and started casting. No Corbina but I caught three - one 19" Halibut and two small yellow Croakers. All happened in about 30 minutes. That Halibut must've been very very hungry.