frankjz
06-11-2012, 03:12 PM
Hello All,
I'm a relatively new member and this is my first catch post this year. I'm in the LA area, so most of my fishing is from Pt. Magu to Marina Del Rey. I've caught an assortment of fish this year, including five undersized halibuts and a couple of short calicos. I've been following the solid advice of Arthur and Bones and other members of this site. To them, I want to say thank you very much. I've also had the pleasure of bumping into Bones at the shore and watching him in action. That man knows what he's doing and is damn humble about it.
Anyway, I was out in the surf on Friday morning (the first time I've remembered to bring my camera), and found much of the water to be a salad bowl. As I'm sure you all know, it was rough surf for most of last week and the big slugs and piles of seaweed strewn on the shore as I approached my first spot at dawn verified the beating the shoreline has taken.
I fished with LCs for about an hour constantly getting covered up, and I finally gave into the conditions without a single bite. I decided to try a more beachy spot with less structure just to keep my throwing arm in shape. No better here; it was just as crusty and weedy as the first.
Should I try one more spot or call it day? What the hell? I'll give it a try. I drove about 15 minutes south.
The tide was really low by this time and I marched deep across very sandy shores. There was hardly and breeze and with my new 12lb. Nanofil line, I swear I could toss the LC a country mile. Just a couple casts later, I got a strong bump and then another and I jerked my Diawa VIP rod sharply. The surface exploded and the reel hummed as this brilliant white shape took off first deep and then parallel to shore. He fought and splashed and actually jumped a couple times I kid you not. Because of the size of this fish and the white flash I thought I was looking at the underside of a decent halibut.
As I managed to get him in closer with the help of the surf, I thought he might be a smaller WSB or a croaker. I never expected to catch a corbina on anything but sand crabs or mussel so I was super surprised as I beached him and saw this awesome fish at my feet. He flipped around and popped off just as I noticed that I'd actually snagged him on the outside of his gill plate!
35650
This is only the second corbina I've caught. The other one I got on sand crabs over 25 years ago. Fortunately, that corbina was 21.5 inches so this one wasn't my PB and I felt okay about bringing it home and putting it on the bbq. It weighed in at 5.7 pounds and my friends who came over said it was the best tasting fish they could remember eating. At the risk of sounding snooty, I agreed with them!
35651
I stuffed it with fresh thyme and savory and bay leaves, crushed garlic, onions, tomatoes, and few squirts of lemon. My year's effort/fun in the surf to date was well paid off with this meal.
35652
Thanks for listening and best of luck to you all.
fz
I'm a relatively new member and this is my first catch post this year. I'm in the LA area, so most of my fishing is from Pt. Magu to Marina Del Rey. I've caught an assortment of fish this year, including five undersized halibuts and a couple of short calicos. I've been following the solid advice of Arthur and Bones and other members of this site. To them, I want to say thank you very much. I've also had the pleasure of bumping into Bones at the shore and watching him in action. That man knows what he's doing and is damn humble about it.
Anyway, I was out in the surf on Friday morning (the first time I've remembered to bring my camera), and found much of the water to be a salad bowl. As I'm sure you all know, it was rough surf for most of last week and the big slugs and piles of seaweed strewn on the shore as I approached my first spot at dawn verified the beating the shoreline has taken.
I fished with LCs for about an hour constantly getting covered up, and I finally gave into the conditions without a single bite. I decided to try a more beachy spot with less structure just to keep my throwing arm in shape. No better here; it was just as crusty and weedy as the first.
Should I try one more spot or call it day? What the hell? I'll give it a try. I drove about 15 minutes south.
The tide was really low by this time and I marched deep across very sandy shores. There was hardly and breeze and with my new 12lb. Nanofil line, I swear I could toss the LC a country mile. Just a couple casts later, I got a strong bump and then another and I jerked my Diawa VIP rod sharply. The surface exploded and the reel hummed as this brilliant white shape took off first deep and then parallel to shore. He fought and splashed and actually jumped a couple times I kid you not. Because of the size of this fish and the white flash I thought I was looking at the underside of a decent halibut.
As I managed to get him in closer with the help of the surf, I thought he might be a smaller WSB or a croaker. I never expected to catch a corbina on anything but sand crabs or mussel so I was super surprised as I beached him and saw this awesome fish at my feet. He flipped around and popped off just as I noticed that I'd actually snagged him on the outside of his gill plate!
35650
This is only the second corbina I've caught. The other one I got on sand crabs over 25 years ago. Fortunately, that corbina was 21.5 inches so this one wasn't my PB and I felt okay about bringing it home and putting it on the bbq. It weighed in at 5.7 pounds and my friends who came over said it was the best tasting fish they could remember eating. At the risk of sounding snooty, I agreed with them!
35651
I stuffed it with fresh thyme and savory and bay leaves, crushed garlic, onions, tomatoes, and few squirts of lemon. My year's effort/fun in the surf to date was well paid off with this meal.
35652
Thanks for listening and best of luck to you all.
fz