After three or so weeks of rough water along the coast, the swell chart yesterday said the wave action at Point Conception was down from ten to only four feet.

When I pulled up to the entrance to the Marineland parking lot a little before six this morning, I found the gate open. However, the gate at the chain link fence near the water was not. I had to drop all my stuff over it then illegally scamper myself atop the mesh. I tore my pant leg on the way down the other side. All three rods I carried went everywhere, tangling with each other, with the fence and the nearest bush.

Walking the short distance to Long Point I was thinking when the landlord's rent-a-cops show up they'll see my truck parked there, know what I'm up to, and likely get me in some kind of trouble. I hoped they would be nice and only issue a warning if they felt like being dicks later.

At the point, the high tide was at a 6.1-foot climax right when I showed up. The waves weren't too bad, but still I had to wait an hour-and-a-half before I could make my way out to the big rocks. In that amount of time spent fishing to the left from shore, I managed to land three two-taco size opaleye on enteromorpha. It didn’t matter which shoreline rock I stood on, I continually was being sprayed by waves. I had my rainsuit with me but it was too late to put it on. It was relatively windless and warm this morning, but for sure I’ll have to start getting into the habit of wearing it now that winter is upon us.

Alas at 07:30 I was able to barely make it out to the Long Point staging rock where I found the opaleye bite to be outstanding. There is this small rip current to the right of the rock which measures, oh, fifteen feet long and three or four feet wide. It’s easy to see because it’s an opaque lime-green color as opposed to the clear blue water everywhere else. My guess as to why the fish like to hang out in there is because at high tide the waves wash small nuggets of fish food right to them.

What I do is throw some enteromorpha along the shore so that it breaks up as it rides the rip out to the fish. Then, as the thread-like algae filaments are amassing in this one spot, I drop a sizeable wad wrapped around a number one Owner Flyliner live bait hook into the middle of it all. This technique seemed to work fairly well. I had my limit of ten in an hour.

I spent the next hour having a ball catching another fifteen with my ten-pound-test outfit. Five of those fish were weighty enough to use as replacements for some of the small ones that were already in the bag. By 09:30 my limit of ten were all between one-and-a-half and two pounds. I stayed a little longer in case a school of three or four pounders came through, but apparently none did. The bite for one-and-a-half pounders was still happening when I left at 10:00.

As I hefted my bucket of fish back up the trail to the parking lot, I figured I would have to face my crime of fence jumping like a man, so I made up a story. If one of the guards asked, I was going to tell them I parked here in the morning, then walked way over there and fished several spots along the beach before making my way back here to my truck.

I saw two Westec cars in the lot somewhat close to mine. It looked like they were just checking me out because they didn’t zoom over and try to mess with me like I thought they might. They did, however, give me grief by proxy in the form of a Westec citation slipped between the door and the driver’s side window. I grabbed it then drove the hell out of there before reading that is said the next time they see my car parked there before 08:00, it will be impounded and I will be arrested for trespassing.

Well, eight in the morning is too late for my liking. Plus, I don’t need to park there just to fish Long Point. The only reason I was there is, it’s the closest walk to the fish. Otherwise I have to park at Opaleye Point and carry all that bait, equipment and fish a mile one-way over rocks and other obstacles to get there. I guess that’s what I’ll have to do now that I’m blacklisted from the parking lot.

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