Palos Verdes 11/20
Last Palos Verdes trip I did well, catching two legal calico bass and two descent opaleye. I was saying the bite for the latter lasts longer if the tide stays higher later in the morning, like nine or ten o’clock. Today we have the perfect incoming tide 5.7 at 9:45 coupled with a two-foot swell.
At Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach the ulva intestinalis green bait is plentiful but not of the long strand. Most chunks broke apart as I raked piles into my pale. I found only one small clump to use around my hook. The rest is chum.
I was at the fish hole past the bass hour due to the return to standard time combined with laziness. I cast my five-inch WildEye sardine knowing all thirty casts were futile in such bright light.
Before I started with the lure I chummed the channel between rocks with green where I caught the two opaleye last month. The water looked perfect, churned up just enough to keep the fish on their fins without the angler being slapped upside the head by La Bufadora.
Once I cast my green bait rig it only took a few minutes before the first bobber takedown, resulting in a high spirited three taco opaleye in the net. High tide is two-and-a-half hours away, meaning at least four hours of good times remain.
About fifteen minutes later I hooked up again but this one was noticeably smaller, and as I lifted it out, I saw it was only one-and-a-half tacos. Normally I would throw this size back but company will be over next week for the holidays and I know they love my tacos.
By now I could tell the bite wasn’t happening because generally, if it were, I’d be hooking the three-taco size until the tide rolls out. By eight o’clock something was amiss when I kept losing my bait without the bobber being wiggled. I guessed it was a whole herd of micro-size ‘eyes already on the scene, porking out on my tab.
Then I saw the real reason for the disruption in hooksets: two big fat seals headed right for me, staring me down the whole time. They just hung right in my casting zone as if they thought I was going to toss’em mackerels all day.
Thinking they wanted to rest their blubber atop the rock upon which I stood, I packed everything and moved down a hundred yards to the next acre of casting platforms. I chummed, tossed out and hoped, but nothing was happening in twenty minutes. Dam, here came the seals again, floating in my cast zone, keeping their eyes right on me.
I packed up once more and aimed for the back of the cove just below the main trail down the bluff. Here there are rocks you can see at low tide covered with ulva sea lettuce. At high tide the opaleye come in to graze the leaves off the boulders, or so is my theory. I tried this spot for over an hour with no seals or other hassles but never even lost my bait to a little guy the bite was so bad.
I don’t know why this side of the P.V. Peninsula isn’t very good for opaleye compared to the now-closed south side of Pt. Vicente where Opaleye Point and Long Point are located. It looks like all the same water, weeds and rocks to me. I’ll try it again though, in two weeks, as long as the swell is good. Also L.A. received some good rain the past two days, which will boost the quality of the green bait.
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