I asked my daughter, Quinn if she was willing to get up early with me this past Saturday to try an catch a Corbina. She remembered our first outing two years ago when she was 8 and she landed two fish that morning with her dad, so she was all in. I rigged up the spinning rod, using a carolina rig with a light 1/2 oz. barrel sinker and a size 4, red mosquito hook. She asked me if we were going to use crab sandwiches and I replied yep. The crabs were still a little small so I like to pin two crabs, back to back, or sometimes even three crabs on one hook. They can’t resist the crab sandwich. The one thing we had going for us was I knew where these fish lived. We saw a few sliding so we casted her crab sandwich just behind a small wave heading for the real submerged crab bed. The light sinker allowed the sandwich to roll over the crab bed, sort of like rolling a beer bottle into a jail cell. It was less than ten minutes when Quinny’s rod went bendo and she replied, “Dad I got one!”. We rehearsed the fish fighting technique in the car so she was on it, pumping the rod up, reeling down and putting the wood to the fish. When she got the first fish close to the beach I coached her on how to surf her fish to shore and let him run if he got freaked out by the shallow water. She slide a 21 inch fish on the beach. She later landed another around 19 inches. So in doing the math, she’s been out with me twice now and landed a total of four Corbina in just few hours and Pop’s got zip. LOL I think I am gonna stick to guiding her, we make a good team! LOL
Photos courtesy of Janet Chang Quattrocchi (mom)
flies, sand & surf 