There was nothing to write about the trip I took in April to the Sierra for the trout season opener. Wind chased most of the crowd home on Saturday, so when I arrived Sunday afternoon, I for the most part had wherever I went to myself. I fished Aligator Point for brown trout at Lake Crowley three afternoons into the evening with the six-inch broken back Bomber Long-A rainbow pattern without a strike. One morning I flyfished Convict Creek half-way to the lake before becoming bored. I hoped to catch some little guys to keep my interest on the way downstream, then maybe see some big ones entering through the delta for spring spawn, but I never spotted one fish in the crystal-clear water for the four hours I tried. Instead I lost seven gold-ribbed hare’s ear nymphs to the undercut banks. Another morning I had about the same results on the Owens River near Long Ears. The last morning I drove home and back to work.

And I mean back to work, Jack. Twenty straight days without a break. First day off, sleep.

Ten days later, day off number two was just in time for the fishing tackle swap meet at Buerge Ford my pal Breakwall Tim emailed me about. I wasn’t expecting much, but it turned out to be pretty good. I was looking for a light-duty high-quality saltwater spinning reel for ten-pound-test. Found it in a brand new Daiwa BG-15 for $45. Another booth had the nice baitcasting reel I needed for this summer’s calico bass season in an ABU/Garcia Ambassadeur 5000 for $35. That reel will be perfect for casting the 50 lead-heads I nabbed at yet another vendor’s table. I knew it was getting to be calico bass season because I looked at the Fish Counts and it said most landings are catching a bunch.

Yesterday, unconsecutive day-off number three, I celebrated by readying myself for this morning’s trip to Opaleye Point for low tide. I had several stops to make, so I hit the furthest one first then worked my way back home. Stop one was at my secret slime pit for a bucket of choice enteromorpha. Stop two was at Fisherman’s Hardware in Long Beach for some five-and-a-half-inch plastic jigs to complement my new lead-heads. There, I had a choice. Another brand called Big Hammer were thirty cents a piece less than Fish Traps. They looked and felt about the same, so I bought those instead and saved $6 on my purchase of 20. Stop three was at Turner’s Outdoorsman in Signal Hill for two new rods to go with my two new reels. I opted for the Fenwick Inshore graphite rods with the lifetime guarantee.

By now I had all that overtime spent before I even got it.

It ended up being kind of worth it, though. I was at the point and casting from the platform rock by 5:45. I wish I could have arrived a bit earlier because the dawn was already bright by then. To catch a lot of calicos in shallow water, one has to be there while it is still dark out. Yesterday, radio news reports had the surf increasing to double overhead by Sunday afternoon. This morning, thank goodness, the water was still calm and everything was perfect for tossing the Big Hammers. The new baitcasting setup was nicely balanced and could fling the jigs out there quite some distance. Also, all the kelp which had been blooming the past few years in front of the rock was out of my way, courtesy of El Nino. On my second cast, I reeled in a nice two-and-a-half pound calico bass, which seemed to come out from under a large submerged boulder as the jig swam past.

Within the next hour, it looked like that was going to be about it for bass. I did, however, manage to catch two smallish cabezon on the plastic–which were thrown back–while fan casting.

Then the big one hit. I felt a tap-tap then set the hook hard and started cranking. The fish darted from one rock to another, but I had it at such an angle that I was able to free it both times without damaging the fifteen-pound line. As soon as it was in the open area of water immediately in front of the rock, it started to pull hard enough to spin the cinched drag a few revolutions. It held its water fairly well too. I thought it was stuck once or twice, but it was actually swimming in place. It was just a strong fish. The water was quite stained today, so visibility was only a few feet. Even though it was right in front of me, I couldn’t see what it was until I scooped it up with the net. Dang me, it was a big ol’ calico bass weighing in the neighborhood of four pounds. It made me wish I would have snagged that $40 electronic fish scale I saw at Turner’s yesterday.

Another hour went by without so much as a nibble on the Big Hammer, so out came the new ten-pound outfit with a wad of enteromorpha on the end. It didn’t take too long before the bobber was taken under. A gentle set of the hook had the fish pulling drag right for the first barnacle encrusted cranny it could find. Just before it could wedge itself in there, it turned and came toward me. But then it swam on past, taking out more drag as it pumped its tail toward the right. It was kind of fun gingerly playing it with ten-pound-test for a change, instead of the crank-‘em-in 15 pound set-up I normally use. It took about ten minutes of back-and-forth along the staging rock before the net was again implemented. It’s rather tricky trying to net a fish when you’re alone. I do have plenty of practice at it, though. You have to place the net in the water with one hand and guide the fish into it while holding the rod with the other. If the fish decides to pull some more line from the spool, you have to drop the net and reel in again. Once it comes up, you grab the net and start over. The next small swell pushed the fish into the net and I was lifting out a big fat opaleye which looked to be four pounds. Wow, two four-pounders of two different species in one day! That doesn’t happen very often.

The bite for opaleye wasn’t what I would call ravenous. It was, like, fifteen or twenty minutes between hits. They were well worth the wait, though. The next two landed eyeballed in over the two-pound mark, and quite the fight on light gear. After that, two more at a pound-and-a-half each finished the day. From 8:30 to 9:30, not another nibble was had. That was until I got home. Then, plenty of nibbles were had–on the 28 tacos worth the fish flesh I accrued.

Low tide at Opaleye Point once again proved to be too much fun. What a way to kick off the calico season. Maybe it would have been better to get there about an hour earlier, and then to fish several spots along the rocky beach instead of just one. During low tide you can cast out to boiler rocks which are usually unreachable during high or mid tide.

I had so much fun with my new baitcasting rig, I can’t wait until our next scheduled calico bass trip to the Redondo breakwall on my next token day off, which will be Friday night 6/19. Also, if you care to join us, you can check our Activities Calendar by clicking the button at the top for up and coming fishing trips.

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