Palos Verdes 2/18
This morning at 2 I awoke to check the Swell Chart, which showed a two- to three-foot swell hitting the west-facing shore of Palos Verdes, perfect for opaleye at Christmas Tree Cove.
At the Colorado Lagoon slime pit by 4, a majority of that perfect algae bait from two weeks ago had already died and turned white. It took fifteen minutes to pick through any remaining green strands with the rake to fill the pale.
I drove out of the neighborhood then stopped on the side of the road to I.M. my pal Wook saying, “I got the stuff, man, meet me at the spot at 5.”
I showed up at 4:55 and 90 seconds later he was there. The reason we started so early this week is because last trip I saw some dude catch a legal bass over to the right of the cove and now that the monster king tide wave storm of January had cleared out most of the kelp, it would be easier to cast for calicos, even though it is three months before we usually catch them.
We hiked in the dark along the shore to the dead tree at the high tide mark and made a few casts but we were too far out and the swell was quite large. All we had to do was backtrack 50 yards to the left of the first big rock that broke the waves and casting resumed without consequence. Problem was, after an hour or so, no bass bit for either of us. I finally snagged my Storm WildEye five-inch sardine and broke it off unintentionally.
By then it was opaleye time. This week instead of fishing the rocks at the back of the cove, I chose a fine set of rocks to cast from during the 6.6-foot-high tide at 07:15. Last week while hiking back up the trail after a successful opaleye session, I noticed the nearby landslide had slipped 50 feet and was depositing more mud into the water than usual. Since the general California Current moves from north to south, we chose casting platforms a hundred yards up current from the filth plume.
I chummed while Wook continued for bass. It took a while but in maybe 45 minutes I landed a nice three taco opaleye. Into the bag it went. While the tide was up, I had many bobbers going down and then at almost eight o’clock I hooked up to one that actually pulled drag, something that has not happened in quite a while. It felt pretty big so I did not rush it in, letting it tire out for a few minutes before I dipped the net to pull out a monster that eyeballed in at almost four pounds! After the photo session I pulled out my scale but it didn’t work. I had fresh AAA batteries on me and everything.
A half hour later I hooked up again and once more the reel’s drag sang out even after I tightened it after that last catch. Again I babied it in for a few minutes then dipped the net for another of the same size as the previous one! I haven’t caught opaleye this big since I don’t remember how long.
Around eight thirty the tide zoomed out and for the next hour the bite went with it. We were done by 09:30.
At home I laid the two biggest fish on my Taylor kitchen scale. One was three pounds two ounces and the other was three pounds even. When I caught them, I thought they looked almost four pounds. Hahahahahaha! It’s been so long since I bagged such nice ones, my eyeball scale needs recalibration!
