As you head west along P. V. Drive South while on your way to Opaleye Point, there is an ocean vista somewhere between White's point and Portuguese Bend that'll give you a clue as to how large a swell to anticipate crashing in on your favorite rock. After work today, finally, a calm ocean top combined with a mid-morning low tide; I'd be fishing the platform rock all day 'till I dropped.

The water was crystal clear, with the lack of swell, and the place reminded me of my travels to the Sea of Cortez. From the platform rock I could see five or six sizeable fish jetting about right below my feet. A little enteromorpha for chum and WHAM, I was on. With polarized glasses I gently placed my bobber above the deep spaces between submerged rocks to bounce a pair of four-taco opaleye.

This is the first year in a long time I can remember there not being a kelp forest within casting distance from the rocks. This allowed me for the first time the ability to cast to dark spots about fifty feet out without entangling in weeds. With that much water to cover the fish have a better chance of freeing themselves. Once hooked, the larger specimens try to dart left and right, from rock to rock, trying their darnedest to get stuck and break off. With fifteen pound Trilene Big Game line, their chances gained are only a fraction of a percent as attested by five more fatties floppin' in the bag.

Yet another limit was attained by flipping the float five or six feet from the platform over to the bottom of the guano rock. Everything that came out of there today was over two pounds until 11:30 when I dropped.

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