Reading the daily dock totals the past couple weeks I saw the sand bass have finally arrived in So. Cal. to the tune of 800 per Orange County landing per day.  I’ve been waiting for this annual influx since spring, a phenomenon which is supposed to help out the situation of boredom over at my favorite Laguna Beach rocks.

    This morning at 4 I was making my first casts from Sargo Point with a new lure, a five-inch Storm WildEye Anchovy.  I found them at the Sport Chalet the other day. The WildEye lures are realistically lifelike, their beauty hooking and landing this fisherman.  I cast the lure to all the usual spots around the point without any bites so I switched back to the trusty five-inch Fish Trap.  There wasn’t much attracted to that plastic either.

    Something different today was the bioluminescent plankton in the water.  No matter how far I cast I could tell where my lure was, as with each jerk of the line I could see a small green, glowing ball.  Also the little guys are handy to have around to keep track of what fish are nearby.  In front of the casting rock were small glowballs, likely created by darting grunion.  Far off the point way past casting distance there was a huge glowball chasing bait that looked as if it could be one of the bluefin tuna they’ve been bringing home lately out of local landings.

    By five thirty and no hits I walked back across Crescent Bay to fish Twin Points.  After five casts to a spot on the Santa Ana Cove side of the points, where I always catch something on a plastic swimbait, I realized I’d be wasting time the rest of the day, as I detected no bites.

    I kept at it, casting from all the normal rocks with either a Fish Trap or a WildEye until sunrise but got nothing.  Something else different today was the swell at 0 feet.  Before a breeze picked up, all around the water looked like Lake Tahoe.  You could hang ten on even the most Dangerous rocks this morning and never get your toes wet.  One of these days Alice I’m going to catch a whole bunch of tasty somethings during conditions such as these.  Wouldn’t that be a dream?

    By 7 I switched over to using a big wad of mussel on a 1/0 Owner Flyliner hook fifteen feet under a red Cast-A-Bubble.  I had lots of hits, mostly little guys, finally landing a baby sheephead, which was released.

    Two more low tide opportunities scheduled for 8/22 and 9/5 before we swing over to incoming tide opaleye 9/19.  I hope these dates prove to be somewhat less BORING than today, and for the most part, all of this year up to now saltwater-wise.

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