The other day I saw someone’s posting on the Pier Fishing Message Board where they proclaimed they saw an opaleye near a dock down the street from the Balboa Jetty.  My calculations conclude to a sum total that if there are a few noticeable opaleye hanging near a dock on the inside a harbor that means there should be more feeding off the end of the nearby line of rocks.

    Yesterday on the way home from Palos Verdes I stopped by the Colorado Lagoon slime pit to replenish my bait bucket.  At low tide it was easier to garner the long stringy enteromorpha algae than it was at morning’s high tide.  The super duper quality stuff was soaking at the low water mark.

    Today I took the four gallons of bait to the Balboa jetty, a.k.a. the Newport West Jetty.  On the rock hoppin’ way out I saw bonito spraying sardines close to the rocks in the main harbor channel.  I unstrapped the backpack, removed the Fish Trap rig and flung the lure right in the middle of the frenzy.  Ten casts were fruitless as I figured the boneheads were so small they likely thought the five-inch plastic was one of them.

    I set up shop about fifty yards from the end of the jetty so as to cast to the outside.  A few handfuls of chum in and around the rocks and we were ready to go.  First item of business was to pin a frozen anchovy to a 3/0 hook and anchor that out into the sandy bottom.

    I had takers on the opaleye enteromorpha bobber rig right away.  Either they were small or biting lightly as the float barely moved.  After an hour of suffering through nibble after frustrating nibble I set the hook a nice one, an opaleye eyeballing in at 1-8, or three tacos.  The bobber never went down, it just sort of tensed up.

    As the sun hit my side of the jetty I could see several opaleye milling about and coming up to sup on the chum strands the small waves were washing out of the rocks.  One dude was using a small plastic curlytail minnow and caught a two-pound calico bass.  Casting next to me he was as fascinated as I while we viewed the opaleye show below.  He commented that the one I landed was larger than the bonito the ten splasher/fly and Krocodile guys were landing out at the end.  Brought back memories of the five-pound boneheads we used to catch in King Harbor back in the early seventies.

    Another hour and hundreds of nibbles passed before I landed another opaleye, this one being slightly bigger at 1-14.  Again, the bobber barely flinched, signifying something was on.

    Between the two opaleye landings the fish pole bell clipped to my anchovy rig sounded and the line went slack.  Crap, into the rocks whatever it was went, breaking off the 20lb line.

    Re-tying the anchovy rig, I looked up the main channel to breathe in the lovely Newport Beach skyline when I spied a sea lion frolicking in the outward flow as the tide receded.  To myself I thought, good, he’s way over there and I’m fishing over here so there shouldn’t be any conflict of interests for the time being.  I anchored the ’chovy out there and again tossed out for opaleye, focusing heavily on the bobber.  In the background I heard the seadog behind me barking and sounding very human-like, not yelping but yelling HELP!  Next thing I hear is one of the bonito guys whistling and yelling at a couple boats speeding out towards “the dog”.  Oh, and here comes Big Red the Newport Harbor Patrol vessel – sirens blaring – calling off the rescue attempts of the other skippers.  They picked up the victim and hauled him over to the nearest dock.  Moments later the sounds of an ambulance siren was heard in the distance.

    Big red cruised back over looking for witnesses.  I said I thought he was a pinniped out there, not a pinhead.  The bonito guy said he was the one who called via cell phone.  The cops said he’ll be okay.

    If I had my marbles about me and realized early on this was a dude out there with his head barely above the rapids I would have tied on a three-ounce Krocodile, cut off the hook and flung that out to him.  Hang on, buddy we’ll get you in!  Can you imagine the conversation at Charismas dinner?  An in-law would ask, so you like to fish?  What’s the biggest one you ever caught?  I would reply, why just last week I bounced a 150 pound bonehead onto the rocks while casting a Krocodile from the jetty!

    As the tide flew out and eleven o’clock approached, the opaleye disappeared along with their nibble nonsense.  I was in a mental state one notch below complete happiness with the two opaleye I managed, all the while feeling oh so proud they were bigger than anyone’s bonito for the day.

    Saturday I visited Carlsbad to investigate jetties around there.  I fished the south jetty at the outlet of Hedionda Lagoon but It's really not long enough for my tastes, although I did see some smallish opaleye hanging out and I had a few hits in three hours.  Also I had a big hit on the anchovy on the bottom but the waves had my line all twisted up in the rocks and busted off.  At the south power plant jetty it was a better day to surf than fish.

*****

From Richard B.:

Colorado Lagoon.....  Haven't heard anyone mention that place in a very long time...  I learned to swim there when I was pretty small.... My dad would swim off the rafts and  I would jump in after him... then paddy my little butt to shore. I was 4 I think.  But I remember it wasn't ever very clean, I guess it has gotten worse over the years too.

Enjoyed your commentary.

Richard

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