Finally after a month the weather has cleared enough to allow The Breakwall Crew to access our local shoreline without dying.  The problems recent heavy rains have caused us are cloudy water thanks to the silted flows of our three major rivers, the Los Angeles, the San Gabriel, and especially the Santa Ana, which dumps into the ocean near Newport Beach.  Reading postings on the Pier Fishing Message Board many pier rats aren’t catching much from there or Balboa thanks to water like chocolate milk.  Second would be trying to get anywhere from here, as storms out here in Temescal Valley had five creeks washing rapids, mud and boulders onto our main roadway. Pic1, Pic2, Pic3.  Here’s a pic of the San Jacinto River spilling into Lake Elsinore at 2.5 million gallons per minute.  The third and absolute worse is that whenever it rains hard all our precious enteromorpha algae either dies or washes away.

    This morning at 04:30 I shone my headlight into Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach looking for long strands of the green bait.  As predicted, all I could see was the slightest thin green film two to three feet under the cover of high tide.  During the heat of summer the algae turns yellow and dies.  The first rains of fall will have it growing long again within three weeks.  Then when the first big rains of winter strike, it just kind of disappears.  My theory is that too much fresh water combines with the salt water and ruins the mix.

    My second favorite place for green bait is at the west end of Edinger Ave. just before the bridge in Emerald Bay.  Here I found none, likely due to it growing along the mud banks of a major drainage channel, which flowed highly recently.

    I found myself tail between legs at the check stand of the San Pedro Albertsons buying a bag of Picksweet frozen peas upon their opening at six.

    Next stop was atop the bluff at the end of Hawthorne Blvd.  Peering down I could see that the swell chart prediction of six-footers was true.  The whole area between Point Vicente and Palos Verdes Point was washed out.  No need to expend energy down the trail to face that madness.

    One area the San Pedro Channel Swell Chart had as relatively calm was good ol’ Opaleye Point.  Also Palos Verdes is far enough from any of the evil rivers so that the water would probably be not so chocolatated.

    To the right of the point I found the swell to be a perfect combination to a high tide of 5.6 at 06:23, with a set of three-footers coming in every ten minutes, just right to stir things up without becoming un-fishable.  As reported before about this spot, you either catch something right away or move on.  If you do catch something immediately, they only bite here for about a half hour then you move on.  Today it was condition B as the first toss of the opaleye bobber pea rig went down within a minute, a missed strike.  I skewered six more peas onto the 1/0 Owner Flyliner hook and tossed out.  BAM!  I was on to a nice two-pound opaleye that a wave helped me to bring ashore.

    Finally we’re going to have a great day, to myself I hooted.  Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.  To improve the bite maybe instead I should have hollered, this place sucks, because in the next half hour I had no other nibble.

   Moving on over across the cove to the M. Ledge I found the swell was pounding in pretty good at four feet.  Also I saw there had been another collapse of the bluff that dumped tons of rocks and dirt right at the high tide line, causing the water to become stained.  No big deal, we’ve caught a lot of opaleye here before in worse conditions.  Also, looking up I could see another extremely large chunk of bluff about ready to fall.  I guess the only way Search and Rescue would find my rotting carcass is by my seven-foot poles sticking up out of the rubble.

    Well, I gave it my best effort but only had three bites in two hours up and down the ledge as the swell would permit.  On the way back to the trail up to the truck I tried a few spots inside the cove and back at the first hole I hit earlier.  Nothing.  Next I went over about fifty yards to the left of the point where I had one bite in thirty minutes.  Next I was at Busy Bee for another roast pork sandwich, the perfect treatment for any form of blues.

    About the only other tidbit of good news today besides the one three-taco opaleye in my ice chest was that as I drove home along the 91 through the river canyon I saw the Army Corps has brought the flow out of Prado Dam into the Santa Ana River down to normal levels.  In case you haven’t heard, recent construction on the earthen portion of this very full flood control dam caused a leak and the flood gates were opened wide until the problem was repaired.  Perhaps for our next high tide in two weeks we will have more reasonable water clarity when we hit up Balboa Jetty.

*****

Email out of the deep blue from JR.

Hey Dufish, 

   Your perspective on fishing areas that to me were unfishable due to the sprawl and congestion of So Cal is refreshing. When you go out to fish do you ever meet up with a crew, I'd like to go out if possible. I'm in Montana fishing Browns on the Big Horn, but I will be back and I need my fishing fix. 

JR 

   Yeah, you look at that picture of the opaleye on the rocks with the big city in the background and think, who would want to fish here?  But when you walk way out on the rocks and put the sprawl at your back, it's just you and the elements (and hopefully the fish).  Being raised in the South Bay it all seem natural, helped my brain override all the congestion and made it easy to find solace in a rock surrounded by lots of tasty fish with not another soul in sight, especially at Laguna Beach.  Then back up the trail you look out and see there are 20 million people in a 20-mile radius.  Freaky. 

    I like browns too.  I have my favorite secret lake in the Eastern Sierra wilderness where I saw one that looked to be 18 pounds.  I've backpacked there several times and caught four six ponders like this one using a 6-inch Bomber Long-A broken back in rainbow trout pattern.

    My work schedule is ever changing so I can't fill out my activities calendar (click the button at the top) too far in advance but sure, send me an email to this address if you see a convenient fish date this year and we'll hook up.

dufish at thebreakwall dot com

*****

Editor's notes:

I regretfully announce the passing of my Father, Steve, on December 28, 2004 at age 81.  Here is the eulogy I wrote and delivered at the memorial service.  We gave him a 21-gun salute.

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