Catching bass with the Fish Trap has been so mediocre the past few times I tried that I was glad to see those opaleye hanging out under the rock I was standing on two days ago. This renewed my interest in taking advantage of that get-off-at-four-in-the-morning crap.

On the way to work yesterday I stopped by Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach for a bucket of enteromorpha. I was able to find only a half-scoop but it was enough to test the waters, as it were.

I ended up leaving this morning thirty minutes late, which delayed my arrival at the Opaleye Point trailhead 'til 05:35. Unlike two days ago when there was no wind, today I would be casting into a stiff breeze that had the flag at the top of the bluff sticking straight out from its mast to the northwest. About now I was ready to go back to bed.

But no. I put on my pack, grabbed my poles and pale and marched down the trail like a good little opaleye soldier. At the bottom I hanged a left and aimed for that special pillow lava one hundred yards away.

Once I arrived at the hot rock I tossed some muddy enteromorpha all around for chum, then I climbed aboard. However boring the bass bite may have been lately, I will still always cast the Fish Trap first thing – until the day I fall in and drown – just to make sure there are no predator species around that I might have missed.

Thirty minutes later I felt the magical tap-tap of one. I swung the rod and this time did not miss. At first it felt like a four pound calico bass, pulling the fifteen-pound Trilene Big Game fifteen pound test from my Ambassadeur 5000 baitcasting reel for a short spurt before coming in lunker style. That didn’t last long. All of a sudden it sped off in a burst of energy, stripping line from the reel for about ten seconds before stopping. At that point I knew I had a white seabass of considerable size since usually a calico will only pull for a few seconds. It came in a little more then took off to the right, stripping line from the reel for another ten seconds. It came back around to the left kind of slowly then tore out again for ten seconds.

The fish's resources quickly spent courtesy of strong monofilament and a tight drag, the rest of the battle was just a matter of dipping the net once he came close enough to the rock. When it was finally to color, I could see it indeed was a seabass, but if legal just barely. As it swam back and forth in front of the rock, one of the morning's small swells rolled in, helping to deposit the fish head first into the net.

It felt pretty heavy as I carried it back to shore for the weigh-in ceremony. After I disgorged the hook I whipped out a ruler and measured it up; twelve, twenty-four, twenty-nine inches! One inch longer than the legal twenty-eight! I brought out my Normark fifty-pound scale but the LCD display was damaged beyond usability. The last one I caught this length went nine pounds five ounces.

Back on the rock I forgot about the enteromorpha/opaleye trick for some more Fish Trap flinging. About the tenth toss after landing the seabass my lure broke free of the line in mid-cast. Oh man, I forgot to retie the Dang thing. I went back to my pack, broke out another Trap and went back at it.

A half-hour passed without any hits. I was about ready to give up the lure for bait when a tap-tap, a swing and a HOOK-UP happened. Whatever it was pulled pretty hard but not stripping the line like the seabass did. There was heavy resistance but not the powerfully pulsating type that a bull calico can produce.

As it came up to the rock I couldn't identify it at first. I had to follow my line into the water before I saw it was a big halibut. What a pleasant surprise! No wonder I couldn’t find it in the water as it rose to the surface, its color of brown perfectly matched the rocks and kelp that were underwater before me. I let it tire out some before netting it, then hopped back to the shore where my other victim lied. It looked like a keeper and a quick check with the ruler verified it at twenty-four inches, two inches longer than the legal twenty-two.

I thought, man. What got into me all of a sudden?

Anyway, I kept with the Fish Trap for another hour, getting hits now and then by another small halibut I saw follow the lure up to the rock and several nibbles from what looked like foot-long queenfish that were just playing around.

Finally I switched over to my spinning outfit and tried for opaleye. Periodically while using the lure I would sprinkle some bait around, so I knew the area was well chummed. I tried casting the enteromorpha/bobber rig to several spots for an hour but never saw that I had any bites and there were none swimming around below my feet like two days ago.

I suppose I could have packed up this spot and tried fishing the platform rock or Long Point for opaleye but I doubted my luck for the day was going to get much better.

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