I was at the Colorado Lagoon slime pit this morning at 04:30, a mere 90 minutes before the peak of tide high. The fully imbued lagoon made raking in a pale full of enteromorpha algae somewhat laborious, as most of what was floating near the shoreline was white and dead, not that of the dark green long stringy.  Nonetheless, after 20 minutes of searching and raking, a nice sized chunk of rope texture topped off a full scoop.

    Last month I had had pretty good luck for opaleye off Palos Verdes’ Long point, as they were still biting all the way until eleven o’clock when I had to split.  I would have liked to try this spot first but the property owner doesn’t open the gate until 07:30 daily.

    So down the Opaleye Point trail I descended, using a length of rope tied to the bluff-top railing post.  I see someone else has installed their own green and black nylon rope in a similar fashion, Dangling one-third the way down the trail.  I liked my red and black nylon rope better, as it is of a larger diameter.  With goatskin gloves donned, slippage was naught.  The trick is to attach the bait bucket to the end, lower it to the trail, then rappel yourself safely down.

    At 06:00, it was pretty much high tide.  In the pre-dawn light Chum Minh tossed out a few handfuls of the not-so-long-and-stringy bait into the rocks so that the rips would deliver the broken-up threads of bait just behind the whitewater.  Speaking of, there wasn’t much of a tumult today, as I kind of expected what with storms in the Northern Pacific and all.  A check of the Swell Chart before I left showed the angle of the swell coming through the Channel Islands was such that Point Vicente broke most of it before it got to the area between Long Point to Inspiration Point.  Very glassy conditions were revealed upon sunrise.

    Also, there was what looked like a squid boat not far from shore with big bright lights shining into the water.  Maybe we’ll be reading soon about white seabass and yellowtail caught at the islands while using the candy bait.

    Anyway, with the area to the right of the point sufficiently chummed, I tossed out my opaleye enteromorpha bobber rig out about 30 feet, letting the bait sink to a depth of five feet below the float.  This area is very shallow, even at high tide.  As usual I only give this spot about 20 minutes to produce a fish, otherwise it never will all day.  At least that is what I have gathered the last 15 years of fishing here.

    That was a quick 20, wasn’t it?  Already time to move across the cove to the M. Ledge.  I haven’t fished here in quite a while and Dang has the access changed.  The bluff has crumbled so much that it was basically hands and knees trying to get over the trail.  I could tell nobody has been over here in a while as the mustard plants growing over where you have to crawl haven’t been disturbed since they germinated.  It was kind of scary making my way over this pile of bluff crumblings as  it seemed any extra weight could have the whole thing (me included) tumbling down 20 feet to the surf.  Hopefully one of my three fish poles would poke out of the landslide so that the recovery team could more easily find my body.

    Setting up about half way out on the ledge Chum Minh got to work as did I with a five-inch Fish Trap tossed out to the various nearby kelp stringers.  Twenty casts with that and nothing, out came the opaleye rig.  Around here at high tide you can get away with a depth of seven feet and with that I had hits rather quickly.  After several bait stealings I alas had a hook-up, an opaleye of three tacos was shoved into the bag.  Oh goodie what a start... and what and end.  I only had a couple more hits here in the next hour, even after flipping the bobber out to several spots.

    That wasn’t a good sign.  I was thinking the clear and calm water wasn’t helping any.  Normally the Breakwall Crew catches more opaleye when the waves are pounding in pukey green.  Oh well, back up the trail I went.

    Over at Long Point by 08:15, I had three bites at the usual hot spot to the left of the point but that was it in 20 minutes.  Is my green bait the wrong flavor, or what?  It was unusually calm over here too, which was quite disappointing.

   By this time I saw the tide lowered enough that the pillar rock was accessible between waves.  Rock hopping out there I only got wet up to my ankles.  No prob., I was out at the pillar tossing the fish trap while more green chum was soaking.  With polarized glasses I could see only one fish, a teensy garibaldi worth zero to anyone.  If there were opaleye around you could see them going back and forth with the swells over the lighter colored bottom.  Nothing of that sort today.

    I tried green bait from the pillar close in, out far, to the left, right and straight out to the kelp paddies.  Nothing.

    At 09:30 it was already Busy Bee time, but I tried one more spot before bailing, the cave rock, where to the left there is kelp where the opaleye at times hang out.  I’ll be darn you can’t even access the rock anymore from this side of the cliff due to all the rocks that used to make up the beach have washed away and it’s 15 feet straight up with no footholds to get there.  Sheesh.

    So off to Busy Bee I went, had me a roast pork sandwich today.

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