Last time I went to the Colorado Lagoon slime pit in long beach for opaleye algae bait there was none to be had because of all our summer heat.  Well, last July when I was scoping out the Newport Dunes boat launch, I couldn’t help noticing there was a bunch lying around all over the place.  The next month when Breakwall Darryl and I launched the SS Chaparral from there it was mostly gone, again due to the hot weather.

    Two weeks ago while I was in the neighborhood I stopped by The Dunes and saw a large clump growing in the mud next to the ramp, so this morning at 4am, there I was with rake and pale, drawing up ¾ scoop of the longest strongest strands ever to be found anywhere.  This plus seeing opaleye in the fish counts from San Pedro boats last week had me anticipating a pretty good day.

    What I like about September and October is that you can fish an early morning low or incoming tide at the bass rock at the end of Hawthorne Blvd. in Rancho Palos Verdes then at the pre-noon high tide fish for opaleye at the Long Point hotspot.

    Scrambling down the trail at five o’clock, I was standing atop the bass rock 20 minutes later making my first flings of the Storm WildEye five-inch mackerel using my brand new never used before rod and reel, an 8’ Californian Calico Special ($130 at Turner’s) and Ambassadeur 7000 conventional reel ($60 at Wal-Mart) spooled with 20lb Trilene Big Game.  The Wal-Mart on Ontario in Corona had a blow-out sale on all their Ambassadeur reels.  I picked up 2.  The 7000 is usually $100.  I’ll tell you about the other one later.  Needless to say it was a great pleasure casting with this set-up; real smooth and quiet, too perfect.  It was so much better than my old, worn out junky outfit I had been using the past ten years.

    Facing a setting full moon, the light reflecting off the water, the cumulus clouds and the bluff was spectacular.  The only thing better was on my fifth cast I hooked up... and it felt BIG.  Last month when I was here I had one that felt the same but it came off.  Not this time.  With the new tackle the fish came right up to the rocks before it freaked out and started pulling really hard.  The swell chart said two feet but with a cutoff low pressure system over the ocean, it was a breezy and rough two feet.  The fish kept slamming against the rocks when I tried to lift it out but it was too heavy.  I figured by now the first couple of feet of line was starting to fray, so I reached back for the net.  Around here you need a scooper with a long handle.  The one I use is expandable to ten feet.  Still, it was difficult in the dark with only a headlight to aim a fighting monster into the net while the water is going in and out rather belligerently.

    It took at least five minutes of hanging on until I was able to land it, another 5+ pound calico added to my resume, the fourth that size I have caught from this one rock in the past two years.  The exact weight of today’s fish on the Normark scale was 5-5.

    One thing I noticed about this spot is that when the waves are crashing, the calico bite isn’t that good.  Even though the swell is small today, it’s the low pressure and the breeze that is pushing it over the rocks and almost in my face if I wasn’t careful.  At least another hour passed before I had the next bite on the mackerel, a very nice two-pound calico added to the bag.

    Casting all over the place for another hour, the tide was getting to be too high for this spot as all the good standing rocks were starting to go under.  With no more interested parties looking at the mackerel, I tied on a small yellow leadhead and pinned on a chartreuse 4” Gulp! Swimming Mullet curly tail like we used to catch the big bunch of sand bass back in August.  With nothing hitting that, at 7:30 it was time to cruise over to Long Point for the opaleye.

    At the spot to the left of the pillar rock, the water was clear with sets of occasional two-footers... perfect.  I tossed out the obligatory four handfuls of green bait then flung the mackerel for bass while the chum disbursed.  I made ten casts to each side of the point with the lure before refocusing back to the opaleye.

    My new opaleye stick consists of a 7’ 6” Californian Calico Special rod combined with an Ambassadeur 6500CL3 reel ($40 at Wal-Mart).  I am used to using a spinning rod and reel with the opaleye algae bobber rig, so my first cast using the baitcasting reel was a bit scenic.  I didn’t have the spool brake adjusted properly so when the bobber went out it kind of stopped in mid-air due to its light weight and the spool kept spinning, causing a bird’s nest.  While I was pulling out the backlashes my line got all caught up in the rocks and broke off, leaving my bobber and hook out there floating aimlessly.  As soon as that happened the thought of not remembering to put more painted red bubbles into my backpack ran across my mind.  CRAP!  I only have one more on me and it is all cracked and stuff.  I have 15 sitting on my garage shelf back home.  I re-tied and set the depth of the hook from the bobber to five feet instead of seven so that there will be less of a chance of snagging the bottom.

    It took me over 20 casts to get used to this outfit.  After adjusting the brake I got pretty good at hitting the spots I aimed for.

    It didn’t matter anyway as I had not even the slightest bite on the algae for the ninety minutes I gave it.  I also tried a couple other places around Marineland but apparently no opaleye were around today.  Maybe I will call Darryl to see if he will take a bucket of green bait and I to the West End of Catalina Island on the SS Chaparral in two weeks.  There ought to be some big ’eyes out there.

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