Two years ago, Breakwall Darryl and I fished the Redondo breakwall several mornings and evenings throughout the spring and summer while I was unemployed. It seemed June was best, with both of us landing lots of nice sand bass and calico bass using the standard number 563 Fish Trap lures on a 5/8 ounce lead head jig. Darrlydog has always been the better basser of the two of us, with '96 being no exception. One day he caught a limit of bass including a 4-8 sandie and a 6-7 calico.

This year, however, he is back in school and I have the whole place to myself. His absence didn't really help me out much, though. This evening as I was boulder hopping my way out to the very end of the line of rocks to fish near the beacon standard, the first thing that was apparent were the thirty or so pinnipeds of various sizes and varieties basking on a dock in the middle of the harbor. Lovely. That sight was pretty much making the tortuous twenty-minute hike out there silly. Well, silly me, I kept on hopping.

As I neared my destination, I saw there were three more baby sea lions lying on the rock I most wanted to cast from. As I neared, I thanked them for moving three rocks over. One animal in particular couldn't move anymore. His rotting carcass was wedged down in the rocks and stinking up the place pretty badly. This scene has been going on for the last nine months or so, ever since El Nino arrived.

So I held my breath and proceeded to pitch my plastic out to the spot where for the past two years I have always managed to hook and land a legal sand bass. On the second cast, today's 14-incher was in the bag. Amazing how that works. I hung out for about another hour before I strapped on my backpack and slowly worked my way back to the parking lot.

For the next four hours, I jigged that Fish Trap from something like about a hundred rocks on both sides of the breakwall, but never again did I feel the distinct tap-tap of a bass sucking it in up to the gills. At midnight, I was burnt and on my way home.

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