David Siskind | Sunday, 19 July 2026
I spent the week assaulting the local beaches. I saw corbina every day but only on Wednesday did they present themselves cheerfully, tailing, surfing, and cruising. I caught two and missed one eat. A good day. I also walked the beach with two congenial new beach buds. Richard is new to the beach, a new owner of an HT6 and was introduced to me by Paul. We walked Dockweiller without seeing much. He told me of a flat to the south there that had some finicky fish piled up. I’ll check it out during the next round of extreme tides. A second day on the same stretch was similarly unproductive. Fish showed, but only for a few minutes.
Wednesday I met Bernard. I moved up the PCH to a south facing beach, in the shadow of Point Dume, blocking the North West swell that complicated the conditions at Dockweiller. The surf was less energetic and the bottom of the tide was lower than I’d ever seen it. The rock jetty to the west was well above the water for hours. Fish were showing up and down the beach. Mid-morning I ran into Bernard, traded corbina lore and fished in close proximity for a couple of hours - close enough to each get some video connected to fish. Somehow his money shot of me with my fish didn’t happen so I’ve posted his instead (he really beat himself up about that). Bernard also apparently has a drone. He shared some of his videos of corbina up against the shore. They’re instructive. He filmed corbina eating on the way out. Conventional wisdom has it that they eat either cruising in channels and temporarily piled up water on a low gradient beach, or surfing in with the vestiges of the inner break as it rolls up.. The swirl at the swash margin is the eat, then they turn and boogie out. Ain’t so.
Bernard caught them on video eating while sliding back out facing the deep. This suggests a fly cast seaward from the swirl might get eaten and is worth a try - just don’t line the fish. And Wednesday, I saw a small group nose down into the receding flow fighting the current and continuing to feed facing the beach. There was a standing wave where water passed over their backs - and they turned and fled just ahead of the disappearing water. Kind of amazing. I always assumed that this sort of standing wave in the swash was due to structure and conflicting waves. I’ll be feeding them in the future. Might be someone there.
And Thursday I walked Venice Beach from Muscle Beach to Marina Del Rey - like Dockweiller, a West facing beach. The swells were two feet higher than on the South facing beaches. I saw fish but not set up for good shots. Bernard was still fishing up north and told me the fish were still piled up and showing. But I liked the beach and will fish it again - just when the surf is a little tamer. People along the sand in Venice seemed inordinately friendly for some reason. Not sure why but many wanted to talk. Sweet but distracting.
Casting note: I’ve fixed my sinking-line crab presentations. Suddenly casting the snakey sinker clicked - i crafted loops that unrolled perfectly - the fly going right where I aimed with controllable splash on entry. All this with substantially reduced effort. The key was maintaining subtle constant tension (see the club reverse-shield-cast). I’ll go out there again with a lot of confidence. It’s funny the better I’m casting the fewer casts I make, spending more time stalking fish and immersing myself in my environment, keeping my powder dry. Tomorrow will be the last day before a week of storm surf will arrive and, combined with middling tides, is likely to keep the corbina off my nearby swash-flats. So, I’ll be off to the river and the park grass next week.
Club training: The gold-standard club cast is an oval or in club-speak a reverse shield cast. Today is the day, according to my surgeon, I can return to lifting heavier weights. I don’t really do that much any more (hate the gym) but assumed he didn’t want me working on deadlifts or swinging kettlebells. So I practiced the movements with a light clubs. Now liberated I’ll work with 10 lbs but will increase to 15 lbs soon. I love the imagined effect on my casting.
Cheers
David Siskind