The abundant intestinalis algae bait at Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach this morning was that of the perfect-looking long, strong light green.  A full scoop was had in about 60 seconds.

    Scooting down the Opaleye Point trail at Palos Verdes this morning at five, the first thing I notice is that the soles of both my boots started to peel off.  By the time I was at the first fishing hole, to the right of the point, they were dangling from the heel.  Like it’s not dangerous enough down here amongst all these jagged rocks I got this to deal with.  I scouted around and found an old T-shirt, which I cut up into 2 long strands to tie around my boots in order to keep the flapping to a minimum.  And, oh yes, what a good look!

    Since I purchased a new pair of Irish Setter boots for hiking this year, I demoted my eight-year-old pair to breakwall duty.  Seems like the saltwater of the past three trips didn’t agree with the glue they use over there at the Red Wing factory.

    I flung the WildEye sardine around while my three handfuls of chum circulated.  At first light, out went the opaleye bobber algae set-up.  After forty minutes and not one bite, on to the next spot I went.

    I couldn’t believe those band aids stayed on my shoes all the way to Marineland Ledge.  Again the Wildeye went out to several spots along the edge of the nearby kelp bed while more green bait chum soaked.  After it was determined there would be no bass action for the day, out went the bobber rig.  It took 30 minutes before I noticed the float wiggle, indicating interested fish.  I could tell they were little guys as the bait was picked clean off the hook a bunch of times without the bobber ever totally submersing.

    I stayed until eight o’clock but with no hook-ups, on to the next spot.

    I knew Long Point would be a bust because I never catch any opaleye here more than an hour after high tide, and here it was already ninety minutes past this morning’s 5.5 at 6:45.  I gave it an hour but the only thing I got was pissed as my boots kept causing me to loose my balance.  I finally ripped the soles off and threw-em in the bucket and walked back to the truck with mock moccasins.

    To cheer me up I made a joke while in transit to the parking lot.  All I needed was an audience.  Sure enough, there were several scuba divers suiting up.  One obligatorily asked, catch any?  I said yup, I caught two sole today.  Hearing that, two more walked over.  They said, no way, those don’t live around here.  I pulled out the bucket, lifted up the wadded-up gunnysack to reveal my two soles.  That got’em.

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