Early bean report. I have to admit I was not optimistic about the state of water quality for this year’s fishing season, due to the fires and domoic acid levels, but Mother Nature can be resilient. There have been lots of dead sea birds, dolphins and sea lions washing up in the surf recently; its very sad. Today I witnessed a dead garibaldi on the beach, which was a first for me. With all of this going on, we are seeing a nice number of inshore halibut being caught right off the beach, which adds some hope.
So on a positive note, this week we began to see lots of sand crabs show up on our local beaches. There are some corbina beginning to move around in shallow too. Best to target these fish on fly during the minus low tides right now due to the larger surf we have had recently in the South Bay. The 62-degree water is still a little too cold for them to be kamikaze on the sand crab beds like we are accustomed to seeing during the warmer early summer months but never the less they have located the crab beds at low tide and a good presentation may get it done. Even as they begin to stage in the deeper troughs behind creating waves, blind casting likely looking areas adjacent to their exposed food source on low tides can produce this time of year. The fish in the photo was caught on a blind cast. When the weather and water temps stabilize for a few days even at 62 degrees right now, the fish will settle into a pattern and eat. Pretty soon the water will warm up and it will be game on. Those 67-68 early summer water temps usually signal in the official corbina season. Tight lines, but not TOO tight –Al Q
flies, sand & surf 
Al, thanks for the update and I’d love to observe in So. Bay sometime.
Bud
Bud:
Have you ever fly fished for corbina before?
-A
Never corbina.
Bass at El Salto, Mexico, Alaskan river king almon, and Lake Cachuma blue gill ☺
I have light spin tackle.
Bud
Bud,
I unfortunately only target these fish on fly rod. The hardest way to catch one. They’re very easy to catch using light spinning gear and sand crabs or mussels for bait. Go online and look up carolina rig, use softshell sand crabs. You can pin two back to back so they can’t burrow in the sand. During the summer the corbina come in real shallow over those crab beds, just pitch your crabs and wait for the incoming wave to bring those fish in, you will have a ball.
-A
Thanks for the tips Al, I’ll get motivated to try with my gear. I need to retrieve my sand crab rake from Rex ☺
Bud
Bud:
Me and Rex will get you out this summer!
-A
water temps still in the 50’s up here in Ventura; lots of perch though.
sorry I missed the shooting head session in Pasadena – is there a source for custom shooting heads? I’m looking for one to use on my switch Rod – maybe 25’ length 300 grains or so, quick sink
thanks for any help
tight lines soon
Rob Talmadge
805-218-0777
Rob: You may have to come down to coffee casting in El Segundo one friday morning. I can show you the set-up that we like to use. You can easily build one yourself. Shoot me an email and I will let you know the next time we get together…
-A