I checked in with Breakwall Darryl yesterday.  He said he would meet me at our Opaleye Point fish hole sometime this morning.  I hussled, getting up at three o’clock, eating a frozen treat, then out the door in forty-five minutes.  On the way I stopped off at Colorado Lagoon to rake in a half-scoop of enteromorpha algae for bait.  I found myself at the bottom of the trail a little after six, about to make my first cast when I realized I forgot something.

    My stupid fishing license.  I was out last night shopping and at one point browsing through the Big 5, but the remembering to purchase a 2002 fish-take document never surfaced from the abyss of my mind.

    So back up the trail I went, to the only known tackle shop open this time of morning, San Pedro’s own Paul’s Bait.  The fact they have a sign painted on their outside wall proclaiming fishing licenses sold here relieved my anxiety… until I went inside.  They said they don’t sell them anymore.  Great, a bait and tackle shop that doesn’t sell licenses.

    I gave Darryl a ring saying I might have to drive over to Redondo to find a license broker.  He said go over to 22nd Street Landing, they’ll have’em.  Oh yeah, why didn’t I think of that.  A sportfishing landing has to sell licenses or else some of their prospective patrons won’t be able to fish.  Then Darryl has to throw in that he tells me every year to buy myself a license for Christmas.  Christmas = new fish license.  Drill it in.

    Twenty bucks later I’m a legal angler.  I informed Darryl, he’ll arrive at the trailhead in thirty minutes.

     Alas at seven o’clock, back down the trail I went.  To the right of Opaleye Point conditions were perfect, with a high pressure keeping the water glassy and only two-foot swells coming in 10-minute sets to rile things up a little.  All week the Swell Chart showed waves of eight to ten feet brutally pummeling beaches from Ventura to Tijuana.  This morning the chart said things have calmed down somewhat, to maybe six feet.  Long Point was down to four, just about right.

    I fished with my opaleye enteromorpha bobber rig for about 20 minutes without a bite.  I knew if I didn’t at least see bites registering on the bobber in that amount of time the spot was a waste.  I calculated if I folded shop now and headed back up the trail I would run into Darryl at the top of the bluff.  Pretty close.  He was about half way down.  GO BACK, I shouted, there’re no fish around here.  From atop the bluff we could see Long Point was very fishable with big splashy waves pounding every seven minutes or so.  Off we went

     Oh well, there weren’t any opaleye at Long Point either.  Water conditions seemed perfect with plenty of calm between wave sets.  Each of us had two bobbers go under without a hook-up in the hour effort we gave it.  I saw there were small bait fish jumping and splashing all around the point.  We surmised our bobber wigglings were perpetrated by those guys picking the bait off the hook.

    We reeled in, pulled up a rock and sat there contemplating our immediate fishing future as a pod of porpoise cruised by.  Since opaleye fishing the past 12 months has been dismal, to say the least, I brought up the prospect of trout fishing in our local mountains every other Saturday until the end of March, when early morning low tides will allow us access to such wonderful spots as the Platform Rock.  Other Saturdays starting in February will be dedicated to the catching of largemouth bass from shore.  If you dare try some freshwater fishing with the Du-man check my activities calendar by clicking the button at the top.  Saturdays, Sundays and market holidays only.  Void where fishing is prohibited.

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