Breakwall Darryl and I were going to take the SS Chaparral out to fish local near-shore rocks today but this week’s swell storm washed away that plan.  Actually the water has calmed somewhat the past day, down to three feet from eight.  Monday, such beaches as Ventura and El Porto were being pounded by surf of over ten feet.

    In reviewing the San Pedro Channel Swell Chart the past five days, I could see that the shoreline from the edge of the Marineland Ledge past Abalone Cove to Inspiration Point held the calmest water, except for harbors, along the coast.  Well, what do you know; Opaleye Point is right in the middle.  Maybe a big pile of opaleye will be waiting it out here while the swell subsides around their other haunts.

    With opaleye back in the Daily Dock Total reports from San Pedro-area sportfishing landings and an astronomical seven-foot tide this morning at 8:15, our poor success rate this season was all but forgotten.  With a scoop of Colorado Lagoon enteromorpha algae I was down the Opaleye Point trail chumming the water to the right of the point by six.

    While the chum was steeping, I glanced out across the channel to Catalina while making the few obligatory tosses of the five-inch Fish Trap.  The swell was deceivingly small from my prospective, however a stiff breeze making the bluff-top flag stick straight out also whipped up the whitecaps out there, making our decision to not launch the correct one.  I only wish good ol’ Darryl could join me down here.  Since his quadruple bypass this past October, his strength level is still not up enough to allow his fat ass to hike up and down steep bluff trails all day.  Poor guy.

    I had one hit on the Fish Trap, but with daylight now upon me I switched over to the opaleye bobber bait rig.  With the tide peaking, I had to stand atop a rock ten feet back from the rocks we usually perch upon.  As usual with the right of the point, you chum and cast and if you don’t catch any big ones right away, you must move on over to the Marineland Ledge.  Today I veered not from the plan as for 20 minutes all I detected were little guys nibbling the wrapped green strand off the 1/0 hook.

    Historically, at the ledge, the two hours either side of absolute high tide put the opaleye close to the back of the cove, as opposed to the points, where they hang out during your regular tides.  Today was no different.  From the back of the ledge I cast maybe fifty feet from the cove’s shoreline.  I had a few bites, with the bobber completely submerging, but pissingly, no hook-ups.  It wasn’t until I jumped back to the very first casting point of the ledge and tossed directly over the rocks of the crumbling bluff slide of four years ago that I really started to notice lots of action, as finally I hooked into a sizeable specimen that pulled hard.  I guestimated it to be around three pounds but when I lifted it out with the net I could tell I haven’t caught many opaleye in a while because it only weighed two pounds three ounces, or three tacos.

    The only thing that was bugging me about today’s conditions was that the water was surprisingly clear for being so riled up.  Sets of three footers were rolling in every five minutes but still there was none of the puke green I so endear.  Otherwise it was a rather light bite as they seemed to be slightly line shy.  I could tell because 80% of the hits were detected by the bobber only half-submerging as opposed to a killer bite when the whole thing disappears.

    As a result, out of a hundred wigglings of the bobber I only landed one other opaleye of the same fourteen-and-a-half inch length as the first one, only it weighed in eight ounces less at 1-11.  Both were non-spawning males.

    Sometime around nine o’clock the bite died.  I cast to various places farther out along the ledge, garnering maybe two more bites before I packed it up.

    Over at Long Point, which was out of the calm zone due to it’s angle to the westerly swell direction, the waves were constantly pumping, with an occasional four-footer rolling in.  Yet fishable, I tried for an hour, chumming a lot, only having two bobber dunkings the whole time.  The watch said moon up was going to be sometime around noon but I didn’t stick it out that long.

*****

From Chuck P. in response to our report from 1/2:

Mike,

Laguna Niguel Lake,  one of my old haunts when I lived in Dana Point.  The fish quality improvement sounds good.

FYI,  I fished Dixon Lake Sunday morning 1/18  for trout "trout cove" from shore.  Power bait and lures no luck -  but, one guy out of about six in my sight  did awesome!  With nightcrawlers -  I did not buy any that morning - dumb, usually do.

I watched him catch , a @3 lb, another 4lb,  and then the granddaddy an 8lbs rainbow!  in about two hours while I was there.   No one else got any.  A helper"no fish guy"  was loaning his net and weighing them in on his scale calling out the weight across the cove. "shock and awe" impact.

keep fishin -

Chuck P.

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