The day portended on a promise, anyway.  We had a -1.5 tide, no swell and recent Daily Dock Totals ringing up white seabass, yellowtail, barracuda, and large quantities of calico and sand bass from SamMo Bay to Dana.  Also I saw two opaleye listed, which encouraged a stop to the Colorado Lagoon slime pit in Long Beach on the way in for a scoop of enteromorpha but what was there was sun-bleached white and rendered funky.

    Down the Opaleye Point trail and ambling right, I managed to scale up and over The Dreaded Hump to be making my first cast of an anchovy anchored to the bottom from Cave Rock near Marineland a little before four this morning.  I picked this spot due to there always being dirty water churned up from the bottom of the sandy cove.  Stories have it that on the backside of Catalina Island the white seabass like to hang in and around the breakline between opaque and clearer waters for undetermined reasons.  Why not Palos Verdes, which at a time not too long ago was itself one of the Channel Islands.

    A few years ago, I think ’98, I hooked a seabass casting here in similar conditions but didn’t land it.  It was during an El Niño episode, a condition under which kelp does not flourish.  You could’ve cast anywhere you wanted from the end of Cave Rock and not had to worry about snagging lures on the plant.  Not these days.  What with the colder water around (60 – 64 F.) it seems the waters around the whole peninsula are surrounded by an impenetrable barrier of forest.  One could only fling Fish Traps to a single boring opening to the right.  The whole area straight out and left was choked for a mile out.  I did catch two on the anchovies, but neither were something I’d bring home to the wife; thornbacks, or what Breakwall Darryl likes to call throw’em backs.

    After over an hour I was through with this place and headed back over the hump to fish some new rocks about a half-mile south of Opaleye Point.  I hit up the southernmost boulders, which are old basalt pillow lava riding the tectonic uplifts, under water during normal tides, located near the middle of Abalone Cove.  The bottom was too rocky to park a ’chovy, so out came the Fish Trap outfit.  A few spots were only accessible by me having to wade up to my knees.  The clarity and color of the water looked great and exciting and the omnipresent line of kelp was fifty or more yards out.  Problem was that as I hit several spots on the way back to Opaleye Point I had no takers.

    I found some king-sized mussel on one of the rocks.  I took five of them to the platform rock at Opaleye Point to see what was around, since just about everything eats the mollusk.  I swear I cast all over the place for almost an hour, each time reeling in the original chunk of bait I started with.  This is unusual.  Mussel should only last for a few minutes on a hook even if it’s only sardines picking it off.  Conclusion:  there weren’t any fish of any specie around here except for them creepy ol’ thornbacks.

    Down the street from the Opaleye Point trailhead, the Albertson’s on 25^th St. had three-pound chunks of boneless, skinless frozen chum salmon filets for $5.  One of those bad boys smoked with apple wood will psychologically make this trip productive.

    Field Test:

    The new breakwall boots I picked out last week worked great.  They’re Dr. Martens model 8877 in black made in England with soft Vibaram-stlye thick waffle outer soles and an air-ride inner.  They gripped extremely well onto whatever I stepped on and the size 10 fit was amazingly comfy.  They have a steel toe so if you fall in you might sink straight to the bottom.  Also they’re not waterproof, causing wet socks, but along slippery rocks it’s the grip and price that counts.  Regular $130,  only $50 at Big-5 while they last.

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