ok, last year I had to pleasure of meeting Glenn Ueda and posting many of his corbina adventures with you. I met Glenn fishing one morning on one of my local beaches, we became Corbina pals and I got him to come visit some of my home water. Glenn was on a tear last season, and ended up having the dream corbina season landing 25 sight caught fish off the beach in one season, pretty cool stuff.
Glenn’s epic 25 fish season 2014, photos by glenn ueda
So it’s the end of March and as many of you know, California is experiencing another El Nino year. Our water temps have been in the low and mid sixties throughout the winter. Yellowtail are literally beaching themselves, grin! We don’t have much bait in our surf other than grunion, the sand crab beds haven’t begun to take shape yet. We have sighted some fish recently in the Southbay, but they didn’t seem to be aggressively feeding. Well, Glenn got out last week on his bike and scouted the lay of the land, somewhere in Orange County and found some fish walking the shoreline and and got them to eat the fly. I hope we get some of those feeders up our way soon. He landed three beans on two separate days. We will be following his fish counts closely this year, with this great start Glenn could break his previous mark. I hope he does, he really works hard at it…no free lunches…good luck buddy LOL
“Wanted to update your blog readers on the first 3 corbina of the season! They were caught in a two day timespan, and is typical, the structure was eliminated under a crushing swell. Being March, not many fish sighted yet, and though water temps are hovering in the 65 degree range, sand crab beds are still absent. Perhaps, the memory of what should be there has them feeding in tight to the beach and thus tempted by the small #8 grey merkins I’ve been tossing. Regardless, I am encouraged by what I am seeing and remain hopeful that this will be another special year for a species that I have to come to admire, respect, and pursue endlessly.”
Take care,
Glenn
photo by Glenn Ueda
flies, sand & surf 
Got a couple of new hats! Way to go…..
Reblogged this on A Fly Rod in My Sea Bag.
I know I am not putting in as much time as Glenn, but for my efforts I would like a little more love. Could you share what fly line and leader set up he uses?
We typically use a 7 to 9 foot leader. You can go 8 to 15 lb for tippet, they are not leader shy in the surf. I sometimes don’t even taper my leader and use straight 12 pound. We use a loop knot to the fly and we fish sand crab patterns, the surfin merkin fly in sizes 8, 6, and 4 is all you will need, the two colors we prefer are light grey and salmon pink. They typically are tied with ep fibers. The hooks are Gamakatsu s11 3h sharp and strong hook. Hope this answers your question, good luck out there!
-Al Q