David Siskind | Sunday, 24 August 2025
Not a lot of fishing this week, but I did get some good practices in and had an epiphany. Improvements while coming seem too slow to me. I want some fishing mastery and need to focus more on how to get there. I won’t beat myself up here but my impediments are mostly due to poor character. So I slapped myself and said “you’re languishing! Get to it”! We’ll see if I can be a better man. I’ll let you know.
I did go to the beach yesterday and probably learned something. The tide was too high and the flats were over-flooded but the light was great and I could spot fish occasionally. Some in the swash, some farther out, just past the lip. Typically it’s best to stand on sand 20 - 30’ above the swash, feet mostly dry. Proximity casts to the swash in advance of incoming fish (seen or unseen) work often enough. They are short casts, maybe 10-20’ of line past the rod-tip. While fishing these out corbina sometimes show elsewhere, tailing or cruising. It’s imperative to pick up and cast quickly before the fish turn tail ahead of receding water. I think the ideal approach may be a variant of the snakehead shot - feet in the sand, fly in the swash, eyes peeled for moving fish to target. I’ll test it and report in. I wasn’t quick enough yesterday. I did hook and lose one fish but I suspect it wasn’t a legit eat. I’m not sure why corbina are so susceptible to foul hookups. They typically happen when my fly is tumbling toward me with some slack in the line.
Next month I’ll visit my kids on Block Island (RI) and Vienna. It should be fun. I’ll try and catch a striper on Block Island. There might be some albies and blues there too. I have a new 10 wt Hot Tortuga and will likely be using it to cast Big Eelies off the beach. I may be able to arrange a charter but haven’t as yet. October is redfish (see photo above), January Malaysia with Paul again, and on-and-on until I run out of money.
I have to complain about Trump. His cringey infatuation with his buddy Vlad has passed the point of self-parody. What is the matter with him? More ominously he’s now taking election advice from Putin. Meanwhile, a clownish trio, Hegseth, Vance and Miller, descended on LA’s Union Station and were met by a crowd of ninety-year-old communists (according to Miller), hissing and booing while the trio smirked and strutted. Who raised these people? There’s no way we’re going to be able to vote our way out of this nightmare. I dream of a mob of hungry seniors consuming them all in a gray orgiastic wave (go watch the movie Perfume).
David Siskind