What if some of the most technical fly fishing in the country isn't on a river, but on a southern California beach?

And what if fly fishing the surf has more in common with sight fishing carp than bomb and long cast into the waves?

Today's guest fishes the Southern California coast, and today you're going to hear how surf fly fishing actually works.

We're going to find about how tides replace current seams,

how structure hides in plain sight and why Corbina perch, and even leopard sharks reward anglers

who slow down and learn to see the water differently. This is the Wet Fly Swing podcast where I show

you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools

to prepare for that big trip,

and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love. Frank Vargas is here today to

talk about Southern California fly fishing and a focus on his local waters. You're going to discover

how incoming and negative tides create predictable feeding lanes in the surf, where Corbina actually feed and why most anglers walk right past them.

We're also going to hear about surf perch and how they make the perfect year-round species to learn fishing the surf.

And when leopard sharks show up how to target them and what it takes to get one on the beach,

plus Frank ranks down etiquette, safety, and how fly fishing still thrives, even in heavily populated areas of the country. There's a good one, here you go. Frank Vargas. You can find him at FishermanSpot.com. How you doing, Frank? Good, good, good. Thanks for having me me how you do it yeah great great yeah i'm

excited to talk you know we're gonna jump around like we always do a little bit we're gonna focus

on southern california a little bit where you're at you're kind of in the i guess burbank right

is the area you're down the fisherman spot is the fly shop that you work at you do a bunch of guiding

out there so we're gonna focus on that like if somebody was coming that area, let's say they were traveling down to go to Universal Studios or something like that and wanted to go fly fishing. You know, we're going to chat on some opportunities and then see what else you got through the year. But maybe just start there. Like this time of year, I mean, the cool thing about Southern California is the weather, right? I mean, do you guys, I'm guessing you can fish year-round or give me an update on that?

Yeah. this time of year, I mean, the cool thing about Southern California is the weather, right? I mean, do you guys, I'm guessing you can fish year-round or give me an update on that? Yeah, usually we do get to fish year-round. You know, our peak season, you know, usually is going to be like April through, you know, October, just based on the water temps and the surf. Likewise, you know, this past season, you know, coming into December, you know, we've had people catching, you know, good-sized perch, you know, last month into this month. Corbina had been being caught on the blind. It's just weather dependent, you know, like this past week, we've had some heavy rains come through. So the people that were out in the surf where, you know, fish were on the chomp right before the storm came in. So that's putting us into December. And so as far as like, you know, my experience goes, the latest I've caught at Corbina was, you know, maybe early November, late October type thing. But, you know, having people catch them, you know, in the last month or so has been really cool to see. And just based on our water current that's been coming through.

It's been warm.

The only thing that we've kind of been dealing with was maybe like outside air temps, you know, but other than that, you know, you're just wearing shorts and maybe put a bigger jacket on or something. But yeah, we've been fishing year around. Likewise, we fish for carp two during our off seasons. So it keeps us busy here. you know, if you're a diehard fly fisherman and you want to

get out and fish, you know, we have urban fly fishing is what we call it over here. Right. Well, and the surf fishing, I think, is definitely a little bit different. I guess you consider that urban fly fishing too. Are you, what's it look like when you're out there fishing the surf? Can you fish to surf throughout that whole area?

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