I went fishing at the Redondo Breakwall one Sunday evening a few weeks back. Nothing happened to write about, so I didn’t.

This morning, however, there were two small incidents that might amuse you.

First I started fishing Opaleye Point at 04:30 during low tide with a calico bass pattern Fish Trap lure. It was pretty dead at my trusty spot. I never felt a bite the whole hour-and-a-half I hung around. I ended up snagging and losing four lures there.

Interesting event number one occurred after I hiked up and over the dreaded hump to fish the end of the Cave Rock. I had always heard whenever boats head to the islands to fish white seabass they anchor tight to the shore near a breakline between milky-looking beach water from a cove and clear water from an outside current. For years I saw these conditions always existed near the Cave Rock but I never tried it. For one thing you can only access the outer rock for a few hours during low tide.

From this spot a weightier leadhead can be used since the bottom is composed mostly of sand. There aren’t too many rocks to snag on out there. Plus with more weight you can cast farther. I must have made fifty casts in the first hour I was there, only reeling in a short calico bass for my efforts.

On about cast fifty-one, it happened. I felt a tap-tap then swung hard to set the hook. I had the drag on my 17-pound baitcasting outfit set as tight as it would go but still the fish was able to pull line non-stop for about fifteen seconds. It struck the lure to the left of the rock fifteen feet out in the little alleyway between there and a kelp patch. It pulled straight out in a dauntless attempt for open water before turning around at the end of the rock to roll over on its side. It’s bright chrome flash was of such great size that I guessed it to be over the legal twenty-eight-inch minimum. As I kept pressure on it, the fish pulled more drag while darting in a zigzag pattern into some small non-threatening kelp strands attached near the end of the rock. And *POP*, just like that, my jig was flew back and hit me in the ass while the fish swam off to freedom.

I let out a loud "OH!" then retied my lure. The next hour or so yielded another seabass that was landed but at about two pounds was well below legal size. Not too long after that, I landed a legal two-taco thirteen-inch calico bass.

I persisted in casting the Fish Trap from the Cave Rock until seven-thirty, then without any more hits and feeling scorned I made my way over to Long Point to try there. The waves were up a little bit, causing the largest of the sets to wash over the pillar rock but not the staging rock. I tried the Fish Trap and the prism-pattern two-ounce Krocodile for a while before I decided to fish my way back to the cave.

I stopped to cast from all the likely looking rocks I could find along the cove but didn’t catch very much. For losing ten Fish Traps to rocks I only landed only one other fourteen-inch barred sand bass.

Thing number two happened about this time. I usually bring two or three set-ups with me so I can have that many different types of lures or bait handy without retying. Well, I was ready to give a big heave-ho to fling the seven-eighths-ounce Fish Trap way the really far and ended up hooking up my spinning rod and casting that out there. Thankfully it landed about three feet from where I was standing so I could just wade out up to my knees to grab it. Nonetheless, the spool of the baitcaster was a complete unfixable bird's nest from which I will likely have to cut out the line. I suspected if anyone saw that move they would about die.

The remaining thirty minutes I cast the Fish Trap with my spinning outfit but didn’t notice any more hits.

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