Palos Verdes 10/24
All September long catch reports from San Pedro listed scores of opaleye caught daily. These catches in such quantity are so rare that if I were to see they reported ten of the blue-eyed honeys in two days within a month I would be interested. To see every day they caught 20 to 100, I’m dam excited!
Now all we need is some green bait. The last check I made a month-and-a-half ago at Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach I found nothing and a stop at the west end of Edinger revealed only mud. I would have to wait for the first significant rain of autumn for the growth to begin. Right on schedule the southern portion of Los Angeles County received an inch on October 10 and this morning the lagoon was full once again of the long strong dark green strands of ulva intestinalis an opaleyer dies for.
The next trick is to pick a day when the swell is two feet or less. As I reported earlier this year, the MLP Act closed to fishing the calm side of Palos Verdes, the locale of my favorite spots Opaleye Point and Long Point. Now we have only the rough side available, from Point Vicente north. The past two days I saw the swell chart readout projecting a two-foot swell all week, but this morning when I awoke I saw an increase to sets of three. Although the conditions weren’t perfect I was undeterred, as The Breakwall Crew historically has caught many an opaleye in swells approaching five feet.
Ten years ago when they punched Hawthorne Blvd. through past Palos Verdes Drive and installed a new scrape ‘n’ build monster box neighborhood, they paved a nice parking lot right at the top of the old Chowigna Trail that leads down to acres of perfect basaltic platform rocks to cast from. You pull up any time, park, strap on your gear then jump over the bluff-top railing and be fishing in ten minutes. Until two years ago. Then, The Crew was kicked out by a rent-a-cop who said we can no longer park in the lot until sunrise. That’s way too late for me.
A little north if you can find where Via Neve and Paseo del Mar intersect there is another footpath with 24-hour free street parking that will garner you access to all the good rocks but it’s at least a 20-minute walk from the cove at the bottom of the trail. This morning I was hiking down the cliff at dark:30 and reached shore moments later. I stopped when the trail disappeared into high tide washing up against the bottom of the bluff. Since I was in new territory and still could not see very well through the predawn ink, I stayed back and cast my five-inch WildEye sardine out from a safe pile of boulders.
After twenty fan casts for bass I snagged and lost the lure. By now enough light allowed me to easily view my next challenge, making past what appears to be a new P.V. landslide over to the fishing grounds. I watched as the swell rolled in and sucked out, contemplating the timing of the crossing so that I wouldn’t get sucked out to the middle of the cove. Instead, while waiting for high tide recede some, I stayed put at the boulder pile for another hour, casting the opaleye green bait bobber rig after chumming the waters. I mean, it doesn’t look much different here than it did at any of the other places now closed where we caught lots of fish.
Seventy minutes of no bites had me Jonesin’ for a move. The crossing of the landslide wasn’t as dangerous as it looked. The worst part was all the mud sticking to my boots. The small waves rolling in actually helped wash it off the Vibram to make better traction.
Once across I found better rocks to fish from with calmer waves, as three footers were breaking at the far point, rendering this side calm enough. The next issue was clarity. The water was filthy over here as all that new landslide mud I crossed a little bit ago is being taken by the current southward right into my face and being churned to a froth by two-footers at this shallow point. I peeked around the corner to view my aforementioned favorite platforms to see what looked to be the Colorado through the Grand Canyon rapids.
It wasn’t even worth the effort to get over there. Instead I found a nice flat rock with ten feet of calm water in front. I chummed and fished for two hours without even one bobber-wiggle. Dejected and with clothes stinking of green bait, I made my way back over to the trail all the while reassessing my grand opaleye scheme.
Looking ahead to the back of the cove now that there is real sunlight, one can see clearly the big crack at the top of the bluff and the new landslide that poured all the mud into the water.
From the top of the bluff I could see to the left, where I ventured, the water is off-color while to the right it is relatively clear. The next high tide calm water episode will take my scheme that-a-way.
Meanwhile in two weeks, now that I have most of the opaleye out of me for the immediate future, I will find something else to do, like explore the 4x4 back roads of Lake Silverwood to locate prime largemouth bass and striper habitat to fish this coming spring.
*****
Fish News:
Lots of opaleye being caught lately
Oarfish washes up onto Cabo beach.
Marlin leaps onto fishing boat
Pond in place to protect Owens Valley pupfish