SoCal Beaches

When I moved to Los Angeles from Sacramento 2 years ago I thought my fly-fishing opportunities close to home would be minimal at best. Besides the mud pie on a stick from Gunther's, easy access to fishing was the thing I was going to miss the most.

The first year down here I spent time exploring the Kern and Owens Rivers on weekends that I was lucky enough to reserve a campsite, however, with the arrival of my daughter last August I've been looking closer to home. Heading out to surf in Santa Monica I saw a guy walking back to his car with a fly rod. He told me he was sight fishing for corbina, the bonefish of Southern California, and all you need is a trout set-up with a sinking line and to walk the beach looking for "structure."

This summer is my first time fishing saltwater and so far I've been out about 12 times and just got my first "bean" yesterday and second one this morning.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...33e0114e_z.jpg
The name of the game is to find structure like rips, troughs, and holes in the surf zone, along with crab beds which are areas where mole crabs create small holes in the wet sand when burrowing back down after the waves knock them loose from the bottom. Corbina will cruise into shallow water behind a breaking wave, often times so far up that their backs are exposed and other times "tailing", picking up crabs along the bottom while swimming against the longshore current and back out to sea. If you are wading past your ankles they are most likely behind you.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1760db8c_z.jpg
These fish have great eyesight and are suuuppperrr spooky, earning the nickname Spookus Maximus, corny but gets the point across. Also, they are very well camouflaged on the bottom...having spooked what feels like half the Corbina in the ocean I can attest to both of these things. Some anglers go multiple seasons before landing their first, definitely not a numbers game but worth it. A well-timed, soft cast behind the right wave that the Corbina have chosen to feed behind is all you need to make the connection then hold on for multiple line ripping runs.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...407f53b9_z.jpg

I'll try to update this report throughout the summer, been lurking on the board for a while and figured it's time to contribute with something a little different. If you want to check out videos and more photos I'll be posting on Instagram under the handle TheFlyFishingPhysio.

-Chris

Thanks Chris

I have heard of this fisheries and it sounds exciting. Very much like Redfish or Drum.

In the summer you usually have the calmest surf action which is probably what you need.

Powerful surf makes sight casting pretty hard.

We have the mole crabs in Nor Cal and in Florida too.

I always hear summer is best down your way for the surf fishing.



Up in Nor Cal and further north we have surf perch that some fish for year round but summer might be best.

We have some Stripers in the surf north and south of San Francisco in the summer.