Checking the swell chart this morning at 00:30, I saw the main So. Cal. Model showing a wave height of three feet hitting Laguna Beach, not too bad a coupling for the 06:30 low tide.  For funzies I checked the local San Pedro Channel chart, which contradictorily displayed six-footers rolling into Laguna.  Only one way to straighten out this confusion, go there and look.

    Reading the Daily Dock Totals from 3/27, I saw sportboats from L.A. Harbor to Newport beach reporting lots of opaleye but not much sand bass.  This news encouraged me to stop by for a half-scoop of enteromorpha algae at the Colorado Lagoon slime pit in Long Beach, even though I’ve never seen many opaleye around my favorite L.B. rocks.  There’re plenty of the high quality strands available this week.

    Walking to the left from the bottom of the Crescent Bay staircase by 03:00, I saw the two swell charts in tandem were correct.  It was a rough three feet complicated by a blustery west wind. I made my first casts with the five-inch Fish Trap moments later at this one spot where I always catch two calico bass and three sand bass.  I knew today was going to be unproductive; I didn’t have a hit within the first ten tosses.

    While I was futilely flinging The Trap, I soaked a raw grocery store shrimp on the bottom.  By 05:00, with the ocean flattening and the wind abating, I had no takers on either, so back across the beach I went to try the rocks to the right of the staircase.  With my headlight directing my every step, the visor on my ball cap hid an impending peril.  I heard a growl, looked up and saw I was within two feet of a now awake and pissed sea lion!  That scared the bejebus out of me; I started screaming like a wussy boy as I gingerly backed off from his first of five lunges.

    At a spot The Breakwall Crew named Sargo Point the swell was much larger due to the rocks facing the general direction from which roll the waves, northwest.  I could tell any bass action on the trap would be nil as all water within casting distance was awash in foam.  I did however have a bite on the shrimp rig.  I let it take some line out before setting the hook but it didn’t stick.

    I chummed the spot where I saw someone catch an opaleye years ago but an hour of using the enteromorpha bobber rig was ineffective.  In that time nothing partook of the shrimp set-up either.

    I packed up to hike back to the staircase, hitting a few spots with the Fish Trap along the way.  It wasn’t until I stopped by Dangerous Dan point before I finally hooked up with the lure – a fat fourteen-inch calico bass worth two tacos – from the very rock that Breakwall Dan was washed off from two years ago.  He had ten stitches installed to close the lovely cut on his palm.

    On thing I have been wanting to try for a while was to return to the rocks to the left to attempt using green bait at a very opaleye looking spot.  A gent was using ghost shrimp there, he wasn’t having much luck either, except for three Garibaldi.  He did however catch a one-taco opaleye from the cracks at Twin Points.  Excitedly I hopped the 30 yards over, where in the deep wide crack my bobber indicated much action.  I dropped the hook size down from the usual 1/0 to 4 after noting the size of the opaleye.  I slowly brought my bait up to where I could see it surrounded by microeyes of three or four inches.  Forget that.

    It was already getting to be 09:00, way past my usual quitting time.  I decided to cast the Trap and the green bait next to the friendly fisherman to pick his brain, as he has been coming to Crescent bay for the past 12 years.  As per usual my first question was, “See many opaleye here lately?”  He said the big fatties were here all the time before five years ago, seven out of ten he caught on ghost shrimp and mussel were opaleye.  That corroborates with what someone else told me four years ago.  He also is buds with the local Laguna Beach City Marine Safety warden.  I know from the signs that the city’s coast is a protection area and you’re not supposed to pick the mussel, which never stopped me from baiting a hook with them.  My new pal says they don’t mind so much if you pick a few for fishing, just don’t plan on harvesting a bucket full.  Pointing over to where earlier I said I always catch bass, he too said he always catches sand bass there, except for today.  I was glad to hear it wasn’t just me.

    He also gave me another tip for my favorites.  He pointed to a rock about two miles south and said he catches a bunch at a spot called Moss Point, a name resounding very opaleye.  I stopped by on the way home to investigate.  Looks like another good pile of rocks for low tide access with plenty of free parking.  Or maybe he tossed a red herring to keep me from fishing next to him at the other place.  Either way I’ll try it out for opaleye in two weeks while we wait for the bass to come around.

*****

Email from Old Pal Duggie:

Excellent website Mike!  I especially like the video clips.  Now you've got me thinking about doing something similar.  I have tons of digital pix stored on CD ROMS and in my hard drive.  But I don't have the variety of adventures that you do. 

I fished for stripers last November and landed a decent 30", 9 lb'er.  We were using live shad hooked through the nose and one or two split shot to get them down.  It was a great fight and the sucker lived for hours after being strung and dropped off the side of the boat.  Tom came up for the fish and landed a keeper as well. 

But still I mainly throw flies off the S., T. and M. rivers.  Occasionally I'll cross the Sonora pass and fish the Walker.  I've fished the Owens a few times and really enjoy that.  I've even hit Hot Creek 3 times since "99".  I think that place is over rated. 

My buddy and I drove up to Redding last October and hired a guide to fish for trout feeding off Salmon roe during the spawn.  We had terrible luck and arrived at the front end of a horrendous storm with sheets of rain coming down sideways and wind gusts up to 50 mph.  The guide reluctantly (and with our acquiescence) called off the float, and instead dragged us to his wading spots to try the fish (free of charge - guilt can be a marvelous thing sometimes).  We stood in 3-4 feet of roiling current while the wind howled past.  The most fun was snagging (accidentally) salmon who in turn would bolt, and strip line off the reel like harpooned whales.  Off course we would have to break-off and re-tie, but not before getting a good couple minutes of angry salmon.  My buddy landed a decent 14 inch fat rainbow.  That was it for the entire trip. 

Attached is a pic of a 17" bow taken off the S. at dusk in mid March, using a dry fly (parachute Adams).  He fought well, and for my efforts, I was treated with a healthy coating of his "joy-juice".  Apparently it was spawning season and he felt that was his last opportunity to "unload" before his passing.  He obviously wasn't aware of the "catch & release only" rules of that stretch of river.  I felt so dirty and cheap afterward.  He never calls.  I would be embarrassed if I ever ran into him on the river again. 

Take care,

Doug 

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