David Siskind | Sunday, 20 July 2025
I continued my never ending quest for enlightenment and went back to the beach on Wednesday. The tide was right and my long bathroom emergency was behind me (not a hemorrhoid joke - there was really a leak). I acted on the plan I articulated last week “target anything that could possibly be a fish and will then learn better how to see all of them and only then how to feed them.” It turned out to be a pretty good plan, only abandoned in spots. I found that I see fewer fish as soon as I start to cast covering water. Looking and walking reveal more. Once my line is in the water, I stop seeing and find myself fishing the fly and am oblivious to my surroundings. I was blessed by periodic good light (unusual for SoCal mornings on the beach) and started seeing corbina. Signs included, fish bombing out of the shallows in 2-6 inches of water as waves recede, feeding swirls, turning swirls, backs in a variety of postures, nervous water and color, and divots in the sand marking a sand crab eat. I got better as the morning progressed. BTW all of these signs are nicely documented in Al Quattroichi’s short book, the Corbina Diaries. He’s got some great photos as well as sound tactical advice. If you’re out here and want to try this I suggest you read it.
After approximately three hours of seeing and not catching, I cast to some nervous water and “color” and saw a swirl a few feet away and started to strip to catch up to it but the swirl was an eat. It was a good fish that ran into my backing twice, and measured just shy of 24 inches (see photo). Of course I had to beat myself up for not knowing exactly where my fly was nor recognizing the swirl immediately as an eat. Self-abnegation is my main mode.
I plied my developing skills at a new beach near LAX on Friday. The currents were stronger, the waves bigger, and the shots way more difficult as a result, but I saw a lot of fish in all possible postures. I never hooked up - can’t even say if I ever showed a fish my fly, but that’s a problem for another day. I’m seeing much better.
Casting note: Accuracy and stealth are key here. A key is to make sure I’m in "closed stance" position when applying any power “smoothly” - right shoulder advanced. Benefits: 1. Clears space for haul, 2. Starts the line moving from the ground up. Failure to do this leads to poor tracking and some tails. I need to practice closed stance and bumpless power application MUCH more. I seem to default to a lagging right shoulder and a bump. Stupid.
And for humility: Huge FlyFisherman on Corbina Guys
The waves and tides are fucked for the next week. Sad.
David Siskind