Palos Verdes 1/5
We had perfect conditions this morning with no wind and the Swell Chart predicting three-footers to mesh with the six-foot high tide at eight. I popped by the slime pit at Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach two-and-a-half hours before high water and found acres of long and stringy ulva intestinalis algae bait available for the raking.
A quarter after six, hiking down the bluff to Christmas Tree Cove on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, in the cold gray of dawn I could hear quiet, as if the swell was non-existent and thought maybe it was too small to elicit a bite from the opaleye that prefer their surf to be a little riled up. As soon as I reached the rock pile at the back of the cove a set rolled in. I quickly reached into my bucket and tossed three handfuls of the shorter strand algae into the backwash to ready the area with chum for first light.
This week my favorite rock was vacant and no other anglers were around possibly warding themselves off from the predicted rainstorm approaching later today. First thing to do is to dump out the bait on a flat rock then fill the bucket with water so that you can soak the longest strands to make them more manageable as you wrap them around the hook and line.
At six-thirty I cast out but could not yet my fluorescent red bobber in the darkness. About eight minutes later I could barely notice the float went down, a very good sign. I baited again and tossed out. Within a minute it went down again and I was hooked up… to a little guy worth only a half-taco and released.
Another re-bait ‘n’ toss and again within a minute the bobber went under and this time it was a barely-keeper of a taco and a half. Opaleye tend to stay alive in a soaked gunnysack for two or three hours so later on if I nail bigger ones I can replace this one.
Around seven o’clock more fisherpersons showed up including one dude who hiked his float tube down the trail. As he launched from the beach I wondered if two legs in waders with black swim fins wouldn’t look like pinniped flippers dangling below, meaning the local sharks might mistake them for a snack. I didn’t keep an eye on him since I was watching my bobber go down like crazy!
By seven thirty I caught seven opaleye with the biggest slightly over two pounds for three tacos. Finally a good day! And surprising too, since The Breakwall Crew rarely catches any in such calm conditions and in this type of Lake Tahoe-like clear water caused by the shoreline not having been pummeled by crashing waves the past ten days.
I turned around to rebait when I saw float tuber already hiking back up the trail with his boat on his back and a five pound yellowtail in hand. Good job dude! With that incentive seem like he would want to keep fishing for more than the hour he gave it.
And for me the hits just kept coming. I chummed a little every half hour into one of the larger swells that rolled in to keep the fish around and it paid off big. At nine-thirty I netted a three-pounder, the largest opaleye I have caught since I can’t remember; maybe 2011? I will filet this one to have for Sunday dinner with vegetable and salad.
At ten-thirty, after four hours I finished the session by landing 16, throwing back three small ones from earlier to rack up a daily limit of 10, the first such haul of opaleye since I forget when, maybe 2015? Oh what an opaleye season it has been! Perfect bait all winter and no swell on my days off. It finally all came together. A pair of divers who hauled out right when I was packing up to leave told me they saw opaleye all over the place this morning.
Afterward I drove north on P.V. Drive West to Flat Rock Point to check the trail in daylight before I go crazy and some day hike down in the dark. I haven’t been there for over 30 years and I remember it was one of the more treacherous pathways along the peninsula, which is good as that deters a lot of the riffraff. Since this is one of the major points in the area and pretty much the first big one south of the beach, it gets hit hard by any north-west swell over one foot. If one of these high tide Saturdays the swell is calm I will try here.
Next attempt will be January 19.
video of today's action