At 3:30 this morning Breakwall Dan and I aimed ourselves toward the right once we reached the bottom of the stairs at the end of Cliff Drive in Laguna Beach, to fish the area where we caught all those sand bass last trip.

    Problem was the swell was up a little – to three feet – and our headlights made this one link of the trail up and over the bluff look too treacherous for two old guys to chance, seeing the sheer slope was granular loose sandstone.  One slip and it was two broken legs attached to a body being washed out to sea.

    I thought, man, two weeks ago when we were here after daybreak, we went right over this hump to some of the best rocky shoreline I’ve ever encountered.  Thwarted, we marched back over to fish the rocks to the left of the stairs.

    When we arrived we saw the tide and waves were not yet low enough to fish our favorite spots.  Instead we proceeded several yards to a few platforms in the other cove to the south.  There, the natural breakwall of the point reduced the swell size and I instructed Dan to cast his Fish Trap away from one of the submerged reefs to our right, where I broke off several lures in the past, so he wouldn’t risk doing the same.  He and I flung our plastics from this one rock for a while and sure enough I lost my first jig to the rock I said to cast away from.  See how good I am?  I know exactly were to snag and lose tackle.

    I tied on another Fishco red leadhead and a Channel Islands ‘Chovy pattern Fish Trap, then hopped over to another casting mount further into the inlet where a few times before I nailed some sandies.  Bunches of fruitless casts later I was standing next to my partner hoping for the best.  I took advantage of him taking a quick water break to toss my Fish Trap to the areas he was covering minutes before.  HOOK UP, a barely legal calico worth two tacos attached itself to my hook.

    After depositing the fish into a small tide pool away from shore for safe keeping, I ambled back out for more fun.  I was casting straight out, letting the jig hit the sandy bottom, then reeling in with a moderate speed jerky motion.  A while later Big Dan announced he was heading back over to the north to fish those rocks.  I said I would join him in a few minutes, after I catch the other calico he missed.  Before he could garner up all his crap I again screamed HOOK UP, cranking in another of the same specie and size.

    Impressed with myself though not gloating (too much), I went back out to the same spot to cast again.  Dan was over there saying, hey wait a minute.  We had a deal.  You catch the one I missed then you join me over where I’m going.  Oh, he’s so funny.

    Twenty minutes passed before I packed up for the jaunt back over to where Dan went.  I noticed that in only one hour a vicissitude occurred; the air cooled somewhat and amazingly the swell went flat.  Awesome, our favorite rocks will be fishable once again.

    I could make out the adumbration of Dan over on the big rock, as I wondered why he wasn’t fishing his usual spot across the small channel where he always catches at least one.  If he was going to pass it up, fine, I sure wasn’t.  A few casts parallel to the rocks to the left, HOOK UP, another calico slightly over twelve inches slid into the bag.  A couple more casts in the middle of the gap and HOOK UP, my fourth calico legal by a thread.  I even made another cast aiming for the rock he was standing on.  HOOK UP, only this time the calico was only eleven inches and released.

    After ten minutes it seemed I caught all that were to be harvested at this spot.  I walked over to rejoin Danny Boy where he informed me of the king-sized hit he just had on his Fish Trap.  It was the big yank that didn’t stick.  However he had the evidence in one nicely shredded plastic bait body sans tail.  Hmm, barracuda?  White seabass?  Both toothy critters are in town right now.

    As we chatted at rock’s edge I made a few pitches out there.  Dan, I asked, why didn’t you fish your usual spot?  I caught three there.  I did, dammit, he bitched, but in twenty minutes I never had a bite so I came over here.  DOH!  Moments later, HOOK UP, a short sand bass was on the end of my line, yet another fish in his face.

    By now the skies were bright enough to try once more to get over the hump to the right of the stairs.  The tide was at its low point, allowing us to cross into la-la land by gingerly stepping atop some rocks covered by water just above our shoestrings, instead of climbing the sandstone.  But first we stopped to fish a couple rocks where last time we both nailed legal sand bass.  As I fan cast my Fish Trap here and there from one spot I heard Dan whoopin’ in the distance.  He reeled in a halibut measuring in at a mere four inches under the legal 22.  Another half hour around here without much action we again packed up and moved on.

    As we made our way to the furthest point before the next sandy cove, which is Emerald Bay, we encountered several fisher dudes, the first who had a nice sargo sitting in a tide pool.  The next group had five big zebraperch, one opaleye and a score of one to three pound sargo.  The zebras don’t taste good, one opaleye isn’t a day but sargo make great tacos.  I was looking forward to catching a few on mussel after the bass stopped biting.

    We walked all the way over here just to see that 150 yards away in the next cove there was parking for next time.  The water looked deep and very fishy next to the rocks, just as the results these other guys posted would suggest.  After the two of us determined the bass bite had ended, as indicated by no hits on the Fish Traps, I switched over to mussel for sargo.

    Initially I tried to splitshot a wad of the mollusk on a #8 treble hook.  That didn’t work well.  We saw that the guys we just passed with all the fish were still reeling in the sargo one after the other, with only about three minutes between hook-ups.  They were rigged using a one-ounce sinker with three hooks tied above, each baited with mussel.  Seeing that, I rigged my 8lb outfit similarly so the half-ounce weight was on the bottom and the bait pinned to a #8 hook Dangled from an eight-inch leader about two feet above.

    At first I caught a four-inch grunion, a three-inch blacksmith, another grunion and two teensy garibaldi.

.  All were thrown into a big pool nearby for show until the next high tide came in.  Also homeboy next to us, the guy with all the sargo, kept catchin’em and wanted to know If either Dan or I would like a few, since he already had too many (must be nice).  I said no, I’ll catch my own, thanks.  He promptly tossed his next few smallish sargo into the tide pool so that all the tourists walking by could have a nice aquarium to joy over.

    It took a lot longer than I thought but at last I had a keeper sargo fighting and pulling drag from the light saltwater combo.  Naturally the first time I walk away from camp without carrying my net with me, HOOK UP, I need it.  I looked back at Dan, hollering for net service.  Dang me he was busy over there with his own fish on.  I tried to gently lift the fish out of the water and sure enough the thing came of the hook and flopped back into the brine.  Whatever Dan hooked came off too.

    These guys were still cranking in the sargo, which made me want to extend our day at least another half hour.  Within 15 minutes I was on to something that felt sizeable on the eight-pound line.  I brought it to color, netted it then let out a big YEAH as I turned around, stumbled into a tide pool scratching up my leg pretty good, turning one white sock very pink.

    As 9am approached the bite started to wane.  Even the sargo crew next to us had enough.  Just then a DFG warden came through, checking out everyone’s licenses and catch.  He just eyeballed my four calicos saying, yup, they’re legal.  He didn’t spend much time with the dudes next to us for all they caught.  On our way back to the staircase we did see he made a major bust as he wrote up one imigrante who had at least two short bass and no license.

    Our next trip to Laguna is planned for 03:30 Saturday, July 27, when we will have a low tide at 6:12am.  Dan, you have two weeks to scout a parking spot for us at Emerald Bay close to the sargo rocks.  Thanks.

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