Opaleye Point 11/15
’Tis the season to fire up the opaleye now that we have morning high tides through March and a recent rain to grow the green bait. Perhaps under this theme I encountered more than anticipated and I ain’t talking fish.
On the way to the Colorado Lagoon slime pit in Long Beach this morning at 4am, I heard on news radio that I-5 was closed in both directions due to a brush fire in the Newhall Pass. I pondered the number of weekend fish trips to the north that were thwarted by the flames. Wasn’t going to hinder my enjoyment of the rocks, I’ll be a long way from that mess, I thought to myself.
At the pit there was a lot of intestinalis lying on the mud bank above the mid-tide mark. None was actually in the water, meaning it was a bit thin but there was some of the good long strands draped over two large rocks. Most of what is harvested is used for chum anyway, you save the best strings to wrap around the hook.
I pulled up to the Opaleye Point curb parking spot in Rancho Palos Verdes and began strapping on my gear. It was then I discovered I had forgotten to include my fishing license in the pile. I usually keep it in the glove box, don’t know why it’s not in there. I pondered what to do, waste gas to go home and come back tomorrow; take care of Sunday yard work today? After all, it’s Saturday, there would be a better chance of a binocular-equipped game warden lurking bluff-top.
Screw it, I went down the trail anyway. I would just have to finish up by 8:30 – which I hoped would be rather early for a warden check – before hitting up Busy Bee for a sandwich at their nine o’clock opening.
Normally I would start fishing to the right of the point at the bottom of the trail. Today I zoomed across the cove directly to the Marineland Ledge for two reasons: the point was choked with kelp and I haven’t hooked anything there in three years. In that time the action has all been at the ledge.
There, I chummed a few handfuls of bait into the whitewater washing off the rocks and into the honey hole. While the presumed hoards of opaleye were being attracted to that, I tossed the five-inch Storm WildEye Mackerel to various spots along the edge of the kelp forest for bass. Again, as mentioned in our August 15 story, there is more kelp growing along the Palos Verdes shoreline now than I have seen in 20 years.
I donated 25 minutes of labor to the lure effort with no discernable hits, so on with the opaleye bobber algae rig I went.
I chummed some more bait and tossed out. Quickly I had lots of bobbers going down but not much was sticking to the hook. They could be little guys or big guys nibbling warily. It wasn’t until seven before I had a hookup that felt large. It pulled so hard the hook unbuttoned from the fish’s mouth. Fifteen minutes later I hooked another big one. I gently fought it through kelp, around jagged rocks and on into the net. Hanging from the electronic scale the fat toad opaleye weighed in at 3-0, not a bad start to this winter’s upcoming trips.
After that, more bites were had but nothing stuck to the hook. By eight the bite waned until the next thirty minutes produced little action. The seven-foot high tide would peak at 9:30, I wanted to stick around for that and maybe some outgoing tide action but the fear of having to pay a hundred-and-something dollar fine for not displaying my license on my person above the waist had me scrambling up the bluff and jogging to the truck before the dreaded DFG truck showed up. I did take a moment to photograph the progress of the Teranea project, which replaced old Marineland.
Over at Busy Bee at nine sharp, I said hey to Ryan and Darren, and as I checked out with my roast pork sandwich, I inquired if they heard about I-5 being closed by fire this morning, what a mess, yackety-yack. They said, no, we only heard about the Montecito conflagration. I told them I feel bad for those guys losing their homes and being stuck on the freeway in thick smoke, and that I better get going for home near Corona before a fire starts out that way along the 91 freeway. When I went through there earlier in the morning, the winds were blasting westward at a good clip through the Santa Ana Canyon.
I made a couple short stops then got on the Harbor Freeway north out of San Pedro around 9:30. News radio reported that sure as foreseeing the future, a small brush fire had started in Corona near Green River Road along the north side of the 91 right at nine o'clock! A few minutes later I transitioned onto that very 91 east, and as I topped Dominguez Hills in Compton I could see in the Santa Ana Canyon 30 miles away what looked like an A-bomb emanating. Fearing a freeway closure I went south on the Long Beach freeway to the south San Diego freeway to catch Ortega Highway east to Elsinore.
Traffic was fast through Long Beach on the 405, where between Palo Verde Ave. and the 605 smoke from the Corona fire already had drivers rolling up their windows and turning on the AC, as It was difficult to breathe. Luckily it only lasted three or four miles.
Now here is the kicker: I heard on news radio a small fire started in Rancho Palos Verdes near the intersection of Hawthorne Blvd. and P. V. Drive South, about a mile from where I was fishing. Let’s review; I went in to Busy Bee, first thing out of my mouth was, “How ’bout them fires?” Then I predict a fire will start in Corona in the 91 canyon and right where I had been milling about on P.V., yet another blase starts. Yikes! What will my buddies at the sandwich shop think of me? Hours later when I arrived home I took this pic from my back yard of smoke billowing as fire raged westward through Yorba Linda.
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I went to the San Felipe Shrimp Festival last week, here are the pics.
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500,000 gallon sewage spill at our Laguna fishing hole.
Diamond Valley Lake level drops, no launching of private boats after 10/13/2008.
Devil's Hole pupfish increasing.
Seven abalone divers die this year off California.
Kelp makes comeback along Palos Verdes Peninsula like I mentioned in my 8/15 story.
Last year when Breakwall Shane and I went backpacking into the Sierra high country we were blown out by an approaching snow storm. We made the smart and safe plan: packing up and getting back to the highway before it struck. Once person didn't, here is his story.