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Photo: N1ywb at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Menticirrhus undulatus
How to catch California corbina
California corbina feed in 60–74°F water and bite best at 64–72°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 1 water.
35 pts · trophy at 24"Feeds 60–74°FBest 64–72°FIn season nowBeach / surf
About
The gray ghost of the Southern California surf: a whiting-cousin that tails in a foot of water for sand crabs on summer high tides. Spooky, sight-fished, and the surf angler's trophy.
How to fish it
Walk the wash on the incoming tide at dawn and sight-cast a sand crab on a light Carolina rig into the trough.
What it eats
soft-shell sand crabsghost shrimpbloodworms
Live bait for it
Sand crabs (Pacific mole crabs)A soft-shell sand crab on a #4 to #2 hook, Carolina rig, cast just behind the first break — the corbina and barred surfperch bait.
Ghost shrimpThreaded on a #4 to 1/0 baitholder hook on a Carolina rig in the surf or the bay — the surfperch, corbina and sturgeon bait.
What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itLeader15–30 lb fluorocarbon
Hook#2–2/0
Braid10–20 lb
The rule
not confirmed hereRules differ by state — check CDFW (no take by net; hook-and-line only) before you keep one.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
PPeakSSpawningAArriving·AroundLLeaving
Pacific