All the beautiful new-growth enteromorpha algae I scooped up at the Colorado Lagoon slime pit Saturday did me no good at Opaleye Point this morning.  Two hours fishing from the platform rock at low tide resulted in only one measly nibble.  I tried for bass with the Fish Trap before dawn.  That jig produced even less of an outcome.

    At eight, I packed up and moseyed on over to the Cave Rock, where a couple months ago I caught eight opaleye within an hour while dunking wads of the green bait into the nearby thick kelp strands.  Well, for whatever reason, the kelp is gone and so are the opaleye.  Didn’t even have one bite in two hours of trying.

    I suspected the fish might be missing from my inshore spot when I read in the daily dock totals that some of the sportboats, especially out of San Pedro, were incidentally catching opaleye out where they were fishing.  One of my fish books told me in spring the opaleye migrate out to the offshore kelp forests to spawn.  Their offspring then drift pelagically with the currents until they reach rocky shoreline, where they grow out of the zooplankton to be worth about three tacos each.  I recon at the moment, while they’re out doing their thing, if there’s no kelp there’s no fish.  Kind of a scientifically lame excuse for not catching any.

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