Two weeks ago I was saying there was no algae bait at the slime pit in Long Beach; all we need is a little rain to get it growing again.  Tuesday last week the area received probably less than an inch but that’s all it took.  This morning I harvested a full scoop of the long fresh green strands as it’s now lining the whole mud bank perimeter.

    I wanted to use the new access trails that lead down to Long Point to fish the rocks I caught many opaleye from two years ago.  That whole stretch of shoreline known as Old Marineland was closed during the construction of the Terranea resort.  Today the swell was over four feet from the north and whenever an episode of such occurs, Long Point is not fishable.

    Instead I descended the Opaleye Point trail to fish the Marineland Ledge, where the swell is usually half the size of what hits Long Point.  The day started out with a bang as after chumming two handfuls of green bait, I had a nice hit on the first cast of the Storm WildEye Sardine from the end of the ledge.  The presumed calico bass fought hard enough for thirty seconds in and out of the kelp strands to free itself from the jig.

    In the next half hour I had several other hits and misses on the WildEye which resulted in no landings.

    I chummed a couple more handfuls of bait into the water at the historically productive opaleye hole about half way out on the ledge.  I tossed the algae bobber rig out and in no time the float submerged; I was on to a nice three taco opaleye.  Wow that was quick.  The few times last opaleye season I fished here it was hours before I caught one, if any.  The swell looked bad when it came in sets of threes but between the larger waves the fishing was easy.

    The bite wasn’t wide open by any means but still I had lots of nibbles, landing another fat toad opaleye of two-and-a-half pounds.  As the incoming tide rose I cast from the inside of the ledge, where I hooked a good fighter that turned out to be another local sea chub besides opaleye, a zebraperch.  They’re fun to catch but as detritus eaters they don’t taste very good.

    A few minutes later I landed another three-taco opaleye but as nine o’clock approached the bait was being torn from the hook by little guys.  I even snagged one after I reared back for a hook-set.

    I fished the last hour of the six-foot incoming tide from 10 until 11 to the right of Opaleye Point.  No bites were detected there.  All tolled I took home three keeper opaleye.

*****

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