Back in January, before the real powers of El Nino were upon us in February, I was able to stock my freezer with opaleye taco cartridges, which lasted me through March. Since in that month the ocean was still a bit riled, I was forced to lower myself to chicken tacos until two weeks ago when again my crew and I netted limits of opaleye for the three days we fished in perfect water conditions. My freezer is now re-stocked.

That's a good thing too because this morning Breakwall Darryl and I visited opaleye point for outgoing tide but we didn't come home with much to talk (or write) about.

We arrived and started fishing at six o'clock. The tide wasn't low enough to fish the platform rock, so we waited it out by trying the spot to the right of the point. The swell was up a little bit; not enough to get us soaked, but just enough to make fishing tough. Darryl persevered though, catching the days first opaleye, a three-taco fatty. We were both getting lots of bobbers going down, but no fish pinned to the hook. We surmised they were little guys.

Finally at eight o'clock we were able to make a cautious crossing out to the platform between wave sets. That didn't do us much good either. We stood there looking stupid for over an hour with only one discernable bite between us the whole time. My theory was that since opaleye spawn near kelp in the spring, and seeing that all of the kelp strands in the area of Opaleye Point had disappeared this past winter, the fish were likely honeymooning out at lovely Santa Catalina Island or something. So, just to crack ourselves up, I deemed Darryl the big wiener of the day in all categories with his one fish as he caught the first fish, the biggest fish, the most fish, and the last fish.

In conclusion, it has been a great opaleye season. Starting back in November, I brought home ten every time I went. In following with the ins and outs of our local sportfishing scene, opaleye are now out and kelp bass are in. I'll be shopping at the Rusty Hook in San Pedro for leadheads and Fish Traps to ready myself for the first weekend in May when traditionally the bass school up to ready themselves for their spawn.

In the meantime, the general trout season opens this coming Saturday. I'll probably drive up to Convict Creek or the Upper Owens River Sunday through Wednesday to flyfish for wild rainbows and browns.

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