I checked San Diego Creek for enteromorpha Saturday before work.  There wasn’t any.  The patches of the algae I saw growing there this past summer probably wouldn’t have worked for bait anyway because after closer inspection I found this section of waterway to be not close enough to the ocean to qualify for intertidal zone status.  For the best flavor you want to pick the stuff growing in brackish water.

    This inconvenience had me at the supermarket after work cashing in another coupon for peas to use for fishing high tide this morning at Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach. At a quarter to five I was able to make it out to one of the big rocks to the left of the Cliff Drive staircase but I could tell by the way the small waves were almost to the base of the cliff a whole three hours before high tide, I wasn’t going to be able to fish there for long.  Before the rocks went under water, I picked 20 smallish mussels, then started casting the five‑inch Fish Trap while it was still dark.  An hour of flinging the lure from different spots resulted in no discernable hits.  By six I had to flee in fear of getting cut off by the rising tide.

    I walked over to the rocks to the right of the staircase but the tide had already rendered this sector inaccessible.  Since all the rocky‑bottomed prospective opaleye areas at this staircase were off-limits, about the only other option left was to put the peas back in the freezer and use the mussel in the sandy surf.  I tied on a Jim Gahan bottom rig, where you use a weight at the end of a leader tied onto a slip swivel above another swivel attached between the main line and another leader with a #12 baitholder hook fastened thereupon.  Weighted by a one‑ounce split shot, I tossed the eight‑pound‑test rig just behind the white water of a very small rip current caused by waves of one foot at the most.  It didn’t take too long before I felt nibbles.  Moments later I reeled in the day’s first fish, a barred surfperch measuring two inches.  In the next thirty minutes I landed five more of the same specie, the largest going four inches.  Needless to say, none were kept.

    I became bored of that in no time.  It was a quarter ‘till seven when I packed it up, driving a half-mile away to check out other locations.  I encountered one sign at a promising looking spot that said no fishing in the nature reserve zone.  Down the road was another stair access with a sign, but it was friendlier.  It listed several species that were okay to keep, one of which was the opaleye.  Too bad there was mostly sand with not too many rocks to attract nigricans.  Finally I saw a sign that was very positive.  It was at the Dana Point Ralphs.  It said my favorite beer was a buck off with a club card.  Sipping a brew over Ortega Highway on the way home I avowed to not come back to fish Laguna Beach at high tide. 

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