Did you see in this past Sunday’s paper there was a coupon for two packages of Picksweet frozen vegetables?  I cashed mine in for peas.  I took a bag down to Opaleye point for this morning’s 5.3 high tide at 7:40.

    As per usual, before it was pea time, I started using the Fish Trap near the Marineland Ledge at 3:30.  I could fish from The Plank for only thirty minutes before the incoming tide forced me flee to higher rocks.  That wasn’t an issue as I could cast to the edges of every kelp paddy around from wherever I stood.  For the next two hours, many casts were made to every small opening I saw, with the results a resounding zilch.

    I packed it up and headed back to Opaleye Point.  On the way, I made two casts every ten feet throughout the cove until I reached my favorite opaleye casting rock, just to the right of the point.  Two‑and‑a‑half hours later I was bassless.

    By that time it was daylight and I unstrapped from my pack my opaleye bobber treble hook pea rig.  The bite for opaleye was pretty good.  In twenty minutes I caught five, but at six inches apiece, they weren’t worth keeping.  My next fish was a jacksmelt of five inches.  It was amazing how one of the size ten’s prongs made it inside a mouth that opened to a circumference of about one‑half the size of a pea.

    After a while I finally landed a keeper, a thirteen‑inch, two‑taco calico bass that couldn’t resist something green.  I think for next time I will have to change my Fish Trap color from blacksmith perch to chartreuse.

    In the next hour I caught more of those little opaleye while dunking peas.  I hope the rest of the season (until April) isn’t going to be like this.

    On the way home I stopped by the Albertsons for ten bucks worth the frozen red snapper filets (great for fish tacos) and redeem a store coupon for a free pumpkin.

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