redemption at the beanery

2012 © photos by Al Quattrocchi.

well there are still a lot of corbina around and everything seems to have started late this year. the water was pretty cool through June. it never warmed up into the 70s until mid-July. these warmer water temperatures have seemed to activate these crazy fish. i fished with a buddy on saturday morning at at dark o thirty and we had the perfect incoming low tide and a calm summer sea. if you look at the picture above you can see the channels of sand crabs being washing back with each incoming push. timing your casts and lining up with one of these channels is the place to have your fly when these fish come in tight to plant their foreheads into the sand looking for crabs. we saw many large schools of corbina moving up and down the beach. i was fortunate enough to have hooked two fish on saturday, the first one i landed with my pink merkin stuck to it’s face. the second fish blew up a big group and took off perpendicular to the beach, his metallic side shimmering inside a wave, then unbuttoned. Unfortunately there were many sharks at the same party, mixed in with the corbina. many times i though I got bit by the right kind only to be spoiled by the steady tractor-like pull of the shovel nose sharks.  i beached two, and broke off another two that i never saw.  good times…