CORBINA DEFINITELY NOT FAR OUT : COASTLINE CROAKERS CAN BE HAD ON SHORT CASTS AND SAND CRABS.

Byline: Brett Pauly

With some forms of fishing, you can actually lose for winning.

Take California corbina angling. Without spending much time, effort or money, you can catch a lot of fish. The bummer is, it's often not corbina, which means you're fishing incorrectly.

Usually it's a result of surf-casting too far, which can yield plenty of perch but not many corbina.

The principle for hooking these powerful, shallow-water summer spawners is so simple, in fact, many anglers try too hard and miss their target entirely.

``You don't cast far at all. You can throw maybe 10 or 15 feet out, that's it,'' said Garrett Ray of Venice, who has been using lightweight tackle on corbina for more than 60 years. ``I flip the bait on the dry beach and wait for the incoming water to cover it and bury it.

``You don't try for them unless you can see them. And never stand in the water. I'm usually 10 feet back. If you go in, they're gone.''

You see, corbina are the great risk-takers, the recon team, the search-and-destroy squad of nearshore fishes.

When they reproduce from June to September, primarily in July and August, they hide in chuckholes right on the coastline. As the breakers crash and roll up the shore, they make mad dashes onto the beach, usually in groups of two to five. There they thrash crazily in water so shallow that their backs are exposed in order to dig up sand crabs - their staple food - before scooting back out to their sanctuaries in the receding water.

Sometimes you see them standing straight on end, using their tough snouts to burrow for prey. A sensitive chin barbel helps them sniff out the sand crabs. If the timing of the raiding mission isn't perfect, they can get stranded on sandbars.

Their movements are highly visible, so, ideally, this is sight-fishing; don't cast until you spot them. (When the surf has receded, well-versed corbina anglers search for likely depressions for the fish to hide in between feedings and cast to the hole as the water covers it.)

The key to success is baiting up with sand crabsand resisting the temptation to toss a monster cast. Leave that action to the traditional surf-casters with 15-plus-pound setups and buttoned-down drags who bank on halibut and bass that fin past the breakers.

Of course, nothing's guaranteed, especially when it comes to corbina.

Los Angeles angler and outdoors writer Bill Beebe says there may be no greater frustration than when beaches are teeming with corbina that won't touch bait.

``They drive you crazy,'' he said.

Unlike perch, which peck and peck at bait, corbina are stealth and subtle.

``They will get up to the bait and you won't even know you're getting hit,'' said Jack Bailey, who aims for corbina near his Santa Monica home up to four days a week. ``Sometimes they come up and suck the whole bait off and you won't feel a thing.''

But when they swallow a hook full of sand crabs on 4-pound line, a light trout rod and a loose drag, watch out - you're in for a wrestling match.

``They'll run like hell,'' Bailey said. ``They jump. They roll over. I've had them take out 200 feet of line and nearly spool me. I've spent 15 minutes trying to get one in that was only about four pounds.''

Indeed, the fight on your hands is fabled and worthy of a fish many times the size of a corbina, which measure to about 32 inches.

Ray, 68, recalls beaching them to eight pounds on linen line in Santa Monica during the late '30s. Today a 6-pounder is a leviathan, and they are wary of even 2-pound mono.

The long, thin cousin of the white seabass in the croaker and drum family is usually gray or bluish - or sometimes brown - on top, with undulating lines on its sides and white on the bottom.

They range from Point Conception to the Gulf of California, preferring the shallows (rarely are they found deeper than 25 feet) off long sandy beaches where the wave action is strong and prevalent enough to make assaults on sand crabs. An important game fish for surf and pier anglers from about Santa Barbara south, they are illegal to fish commercially. When filleted and baked, broiled or fried, their meat is delicate, white and flaky. It is even eaten raw.

The bite shuts off when the spawning is over. At that point they become dormant and lay like logs near piers and in channels and backwater; some remain in the surf year-round but become lethargic.

Many anglers enjoy corbina fishing because a boat isn't required - or any of the expenses associated with it.

``I call them the poor-man's steelhead,'' Beebe said. ``You may have to pay a parking fee, but that's it.''

First-timers can try at night - the easiest time to catch them. On incoming tides just after the sun goes down, when sand crabs become more active, ``It seems like every corbina in town comes out,'' Bailey said.

However, he said, it's hardly considered sporting. Anglers need heavier tackle to deal with seaweed and undertows that they can't see, and there's not much fun in catching corbina on stout gear. On even 8-pound line they don't stand a chance.

The challenge is during the daylight, when the fish can see you, they aren't as hungry, conditions are better and lighter tackle is used.

Bailey suggests hitting the beach about three hours after an early-morning minus tide, as the waves start to cover the corbina's feeding grounds.

``It's about the funnest thing around,'' he said.

Tackle Box

Here's how to catch corbina on live bait:

Rod: Try a 6-1/2-foot light- to medium-weight trout outfit, with a limber tip and a reasonably sturdy butt to handle casting lightweight sinkers and retrieving fish to 6 pounds.

Some anglers prefer ultralight rods, but often there is not enough bend to turn a bull corbina on the run.

Reel: A small, ultralight freshwater spinning unit is the standard, although an ultralight level-wind conventional matched on a bass rod is not uncommon.

Line: 2- to 6-pound-test monofilament.

Terminal tackle: Drop on a quarter-ounce to 1-ounce sliding-egg sinker, depending on surf conditions. (On flat days no weight is required.) Tie on a small swivel. Add three feet of same-test leader.

Use a size No. 4 or 6 Mustad 9260D hook, or a similar bait-holder hook with a short shank and an inverted eye - the eye opens toward the point of the hook, making it easier to hide the hook in the bait.Hooks can go as small as size 2 and as large as 10.

Bait: Corbina are partial to soft-shelled sand crabs, although they'll go after the hard-shelled variety. However, said corbina angler Garrett Ray, ``It's the difference between hamburger and filet mignon.''

Cover the entire hook.

Corbina also hit mussels, clams, bloodworms, sandworms, ghost shrimp, soft-shelled China crabs and grunions, as well as artificial grubs, some lures and saltwater flies that resemble anchovies, sculpins or other near-shore fish that they dine on.

MAKING BAIT

Here's how to make bait for corbina fishing:

Since tackle shops typically don't carry soft-shelled crabs (but likely bloodworms, ghost shrimp and, occasionally, hard-shelled crabs), you must gather them yourself.

Rig a coffee can or hard plastic container with twine or wire to tie to your belt and punch a few holes in the bottom, so that saltwater can be flushed in to keep them alive and fresh.

At the ocean's edge, look for tiny mounds of sand where the crabs have burrowed. Without a thick shell, they can barely get under the sand. Another technique is to use a sand-crab net in the surf to snare the crustaceans as they roll in and out with the waves.

Their hard-shelled brethren can be seen in receding water. Laying in masses of up to 20-square feet, their feeding extremities make distortions, or ripples, in the outgoing flows. Start digging; they're found three or four inches down.

It takes a knack to find the crabs; going with an experienced harvester is highly recommended.

MEMO: Outdoors Editor Brett Pauly's column appears Thursdays in the Daily News.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, 2 Boxes

PHOTO (color) Outdoors writer Bill Beebe hooked adecent-sized corbina on a recent morning at Venice Pier.

Brett Pauly / Daily News

Box: (1) Tackle Box (see text)

(2) Making Bait (see text)