Editor's notes:

After reviewing the write-up of our last episode, Jimmy B. writes:

Mike.  Is fishing just as boring as it is to read about?

Why, yes it is and it is good to know that my writing skills are such that this fact was conveyed properly.  Within the email, he attached a photo of the swimming creature he landed this past summer.  I hope I never bore of fishing to this extreme!  Here's another trip to reinforce his thoughts:

    A few weeks ago I saw lots of bonito in the daily dock totals and read in WON of catches of them in King Harbor, just like the good ol’ days.  Usually, boneheads schooling inside the breakwall is depenDant on the power plant across the street generating juice.  The warm cooling water outfall (a.k.a. The Bubblehole) is situated within casting distance from the parking lot off Harbor Drive.

    My plan was to park on the north end of the marina near the King Harbor Yacht Club and rock-hop out along the top of the big breakwall to where the bait receiver is anchored, traditionally the premier spot for the mini-tunas.  I would fling the Fish Trap before daylight for calicos (also high numbers in the counts) on the outside, chum some enteromorpha to get the opaleye going then at first light switch to the inside for the bonies using the same Trap.  After they stopped biting, I would switch to using green bait for opaleye back on the outside.  Along with an outgoing tide we had moon up at 08:20.  The swell chart read three-foot swells, just enough to keep the fish out of the rocks without having to get too wet.

    After collecting a half scoop of the green bait, I found myself pulling into the yacht club parking lot a little before six.  The way they work the facility here is that you pull up to an unmanned guard shack, which triggers the little wooden gate bar to go up.  You pick a numbered stall then pay to the honor box.  It’s been this way for years and they still haven’t figured out breakwall anglers don’t have much honor.  What they expect us to do is figure how long we’re going to be there in advance then stick one buck in a slot in the box per each predicted hour.  What I used to do is get a crisp $2 bill, fold it into a one-inch square and tie some four-pound-test fishing line to it.  That way when I was done fishing and they hadn’t come around to collect the tolls, I would pull the line and, presto, out came my money from the slot.

    Well, today I saw the bastards made a slight improvement to the system.  Instead of a slot, they now want us to squeeze our bucks into a hole less in diameter than a Marlboro.  Now we have to take our one-inch square $5 bill (inflation) and roll it up and try to cram it in there.  It looked like the fishing line trick wasn’t going to work either due to the tightness of the fit.  I pushed the bill in until it was flush with the box, a quarter-inch of line Dangling therefrom.

    Merrily on my way through the lot I found the whole breakwall completely devoid of anglers, something you rarely witness here, even on a Friday morning.  This meant only one thing:  these days fishing sucks around this joint.  Otherwise there would be hoards of Danglers like we saw last year when the opaleye were hot.

    One part of my plan worked nonetheless.  From the elbow of the breakwall, a parallel cast along the rocks – I think maybe my tenth of the morning – I had a hit on the Fish Trap.  That felt good but didn’t stick to the hook.

    As soon as it was light enough, I peered toward The Bubblehole with my cheapie monocular and saw it was turned off.  No warm water, no bonito, no anglers, nothing.

    Next stunt was to chum the elbow with green bait and use the usual opaleye bobber enteromorpha rig.  I did that for two hours, as historically it would take about that long for the fish to find the source of the chum before a wide-open bite would break out.  Not today.  All I had were several little guys nibbling the bait off the hook.

    On my way back toward the parking lot to fish the shoulder of the wall, I could see in the clear waters of the calm side bunches of half-pound opaleye basking in the sunshine of a nice day.  Fun to look at but worthless for tacos.

    At the shoulder there were two Chinese guys with cane poles having a go at it.  I asked them if they caught anything or if they have been fishing here lately.  They gave me that silly Chinese guy laugh which I took as a “no”.

    I parked my ass six rocks over from them and chummed some bait.  An hour here with no bites, EEEOWW, I was out.

    What’s an opaleye guy to do?  Go trout fishing in Orange County?  Damn.  On the bright side, I was able to tug on the four-pound line before it broke well enough to be able to use my Leatherman needle nose to extricate my five-spot from the honor hole.  Now I can afford beer.

    Anyway, since I was all the way out here I hit up the spot I caught the 2 ½ pound opaleye two weeks ago, Long Point.  As I pulled into the Marineland parking lot I saw a big fat Injun dude walking back to his truck toting several deep sea outfits.  As I walked past I pondered aloud that he was coming back empty handed because like everywhere else from shore lately, fishing sucked.  He looked at me and suggested my outfits were too small because every one of the ten fish he hooked this morning on his heavy gear busted off.  I said I have a 20# outfit for the lure, he laughed and said too small.  I didn’t get into the 15-pound white seabass I landed from a rock here five years ago.

    As I walked down to the pillar rock, I thought, you know, that was kind of trippy, like straight from a movie scene where you are out there in the boonies fishing and some spirit from a long-passed aboriginal person appears with advice on how to catch fish from his home water, then you turn around *POOF* he’s gone...

   ... Just as I was after an hour or so of no bites on the green bait or the fish trap from the usual spots around the point.

    Back home I checked out to see what’s up with the AES Redondo Beach generating station.  It appears from what I read they’re going to demolish the thing and build a new downtown on the site, for cryin����� out loud.  So ends an era of fine fishing from a parking lot where Dad and I have caught many a bonito, barracuda, mackerel, spotfin croaker, opaleye surfperch, calico and sand bass since 1967.  In 1980 I hooked a yellowtail there but it ran into the rocks as I was about to net it and broke off.  In 1977 I caught my lifetime biggest opaleye from the same spot on a slab of bonito for bait.  It weighed four pounds six ounces.

Speaking of trout fishing in OC, Breakwall Robert went to Irvine Lake and caught this 6.6 rainbow from his kayak.

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