casting at tails

[PaulC]

Thought I would post this here given the picture's content.

Went out today again despite the low visibility conditions to chase corbina for a few hours.
Tails everywhere as they were feeding in the various troughs and skinny water.
However, not being able to see them in the suds made stalking pretty difficult.

Ended up with one perfect shot.
Current running left on the trough, tail pointing left meaning the fish is moving upstream.
Led the fish with a cast hoping the current would pull my bug into the zone.
A couple strips, a tail, and the fish inhaled the bug.

My dogs ate my old lucky fishing cap and I picked up a replacement at Bill's shop when I was up there. Looks like its becoming the new lucky hat.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Cronin/bean_052007.jpg

[Adam Grace]

Congratulations! I hear those sucker are difficult to catch with a fly. It takes more than a hat to catch a wary fish, but it cant hurt to wear a Kiene's hat, especially because it's such a stylish hat! 8)

[PaulC]

Hey Adam,
I'm sure the reason the girls on the beach were looking at me was the stylin hat.
It couldn't have been the fact I was running around in waders, throwing a fly line with a plastic basket strapped to me. lol.

They are hard fish to land on the fly, especially in conditions like today.
But occasionaly, you get everything to line up right and anyone with a decent cast can pick one up.
Too bad those days aren't more frequent :)

[Loren E]

nice fish Paul! How do you like that galvan torque? (i think thats what it is)

[Adam Grace]

Yeah, that's a Torque reel and a SAGE Xi2 rod, what a wonderful setup. I love that rod......and the reel isn't bad either. I'm kind of a gear whore, that's what working for a fly shop does to you. :)

I am also curious about your opinion Paul.

[Hairstacker]

That is a sharp rod/reel combo! I don't have that combo myself but I do have that exact model and color hat. :lol: I've been wearing it so much I finally had to wash it. I was afraid of what the washer might do to it but I bought one of those plastic cage wash things for it and it worked like a charm. :)

[PaulC]

Hey guys,
Its a Sage 6wt Xi2 with a Galvan Torque T6.
Great combo for the summer surf down here.
I did have some issues with the drag last year.
They used to have a bronze bushing in there next to the stainless shaft which caused some corrosion issues despite religious cleaning.
They've since replaced that with Peek high tech plastic which has solved the problem on the newer reels.
Pretty cool material, great they are using it.
They refurbed my older model reels and had them back in my hands no time flat!
No problems since that.
I run the drag fairly light with corbina and palm drag when necessary.
Mainly a feel thing and the fish can have a weird stutter in their run.
So....I've never really taxed the drag system, but its a 6wt and I'm fishing 8lb fluoro at most.
Happy so far since the bushing change and its been about a year.

I have a T10 that got some good workouts on the drag system with bonita and no complaints.
-Paul

PS. I have one of those plastic hatwashers. It washes the hat great but if the dogs get the hat its useless :)

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks Paul...........

I wonder how closely related the Corbina is to the Redfish?

[PaulC]

Hey Bill,
Looking quickly on fishbase, it appears both share the same order and family of classification.

Redfish: http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=1191

Corbina: http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=3587

A pretty detailed study on corbina showing everything from age vs. length and length vs. weight is:
http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=kt9h4nb3jx&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text

Pretty amazing how old some of these fish we've been catching in the surf must be.

[mems]

Aloha paul, cool fish looks like a big croaker or maybe a white trout we would catch down in the gulf. I heard they were pretty spooky, worse than bone fish. Mems.

[PaulC]

Hey mems,
They are super spooky most of the time.
Alot of the casting is done from way up on the beach, away from the water's edge.
With low visibility it makes it real tough. If you get close enough to see them, you'll quickly see the wake of it hightailing it out of there.

When the sun is up and they are in structure, you can sometimes get a few casts in on a group of 2 or 3 that are moving along the edge of a trough or bucket.
Thats really cool as you'll usually see one or two break from the group and competitively go after and pounce on the bug.

They definitely are a challenge. I've heard the same about them being more difficult than bonefish from other guys that have done the CI, seychelles, etc. trips.
I haven't had a chance to really chase bonefish at those destinations, so I can't compare.

I know flyfishing for bones in Kauai was pretty difficult. The winds, being able to see fish among reef structure, etc.
Hope to go back sometime in the future and give it another go.
-Paul