Every two weeks the tide is low enough to access the outer rocks along the Palos Verdes coast. I purchased forty bucks worth the Fish Traps from Turner’s Friday to ready myself for Saturday Morning’s minus tide at 03:10. Recent reports posted to the Saltwater Bulletin Board say that the white seabass and sand bass are on the chew all over the place. One of the reports extolled the virtue of getting there early.

Down the Opaleye Point trail, across the cove, up and over the dreaded hump, I made my first cast from the end of the Cave Rock — where last week I hooked a legal seabass — at 03:30. I shined my flashlight into the water to check the kelp gauntlet but that trick didn’t do me much good. I lost two Fish Traps in the first two tosses.

Back on track, the third Trap lasted about an hour before it too became snagged and I had to tie on my fourth. Soon it was dawn and I had to skedaddle because the tide was coming in so quickly that the gap between the outer rock and the inner rock was filling with water. Ho hum, three hours of casting into prime white seabass water netted me only one barely legal two-taco calico bass.

Next I tried the pillar rock at Long Point. I had a few hits while using the Fish Trap but nothing stuck to the hook. Since the bass weren’t too interested I tried the iron in a one-and-a-half-ounce prism Krocodile for barracuda. Even before I started with that lure I could tell I wasn’t going to catch any ’cudas because if they were within casting distance I would’ve seen them boiling and jumping and stuff. Needless to write, I didn’t catch anything here so I moved on.

I worked my way back to the Opaleye Point trail by casting the fish trap from various rocks near the shore. As the tide was coming in fishing the rocks was somewhat difficult. I lost two more fish traps, got soaked up to my belly button and caught only three more calicos, with two of those barely over the twelve-inch legal minimum.

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