Well what can I say, I love it when a plan comes together. There’s nothing more rewarding than sharing your knowledge with young people. We need more passionate young anglers in this world to carry that fly fishing torch forward. I was so fortunate to have three amazing trout bum anglers with me this morning. These kids were all pretty good fly casters, something you need to perfect to excel in fly fishing. They didn’t have much experience fly fishing off the beach though, let alone sight casting for corbina, one of the most difficult ways to land fish on a fly. This was a new game with different challenges. But they were passionate, focused and listened closely. Corbina are not honest fish, they eat a fly only when they want to. I preficed our beach session with this is not an easy task, it is one of the hardest things you will ever attempt in saltwater fly fishing. I am here to teach you guys how to play this game, what to look for, learn how these fish move up and down the beach, where to cast a fly, etc. CATCHING ONE WILL BE A BONUS!
We got to the beach early. It was a Saturday and a busy beach day, so we all met up at 6:30am, which gave us enough time to survey the typography of the beach, see the crab beds and with the bottom of the tide creating a large wet flat, give us enough room to spread out and practice our casting. We were all set; we had a game plan. Now we waited for the fish to show. I knew they would be there around 8am, so I told the boys to be patient. I showed them the seams they would ride to get to the crab beds. I pointed out nervous water. They started to see a few corbina here and there, and they were all getting excited about what I described as beginning to happen in real time. At around 8am my buddy Colin who was helping me out hooks up to a beautiful fish and lands it showing the boys that this difficult task was possible. In the meantime they are all bumping into fish but they are unbuttoning, thats ok, they are in the game, their flies are in the right places and we are seeing lots of fish. Own hooks up and breaks one off. They corbina are aggressively moving toward the beach in groups, tailing and swirling right in front of the boys. It is the magic window which can last up to a half an hour. I’m just hoping one of these kids connects, when all of a sudden Leo Jr. yells, “Im on!” I began coaching him through he fight, not to have any slack in the line, he fought the fish like a true champ. He had it on for a while, it gave him a real good battle. After what seemed like ten minutes, we slid the fish onto the sand. First thing I check is if the fish was fair-hooked and it was. A fair-hooked fish is one that eats the fly, not hooked in the side or tail. We measured it, took a few pics and got her back in the water to fight another day. What a great morning. The stoke was high. Mission accomplished! True gratitude on my behalf to witness something so special. All the boys are now hooked on Corbina sight casting, mainly because they realize the challenge was high and the reward great. –Al Q
flies, sand & surf 