Pt. Fermin 3/9
When all you have is Saturdays off each week, it’s difficult to precisely time perfect conditions along the coast for opaleye fishing. One weekend this past October we had high tide and one- to two-foot swell but when I stopped by my usual slime pit at Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach for the traditional full scoop of ulva intestinalis algae bait, there was none. The banks were grey mud without even a shading of green.
The rest of 2023 and into 2024, every Saturday the swell was over four feet and up to 10 over at my usual Christmas Tree Cove zone along the west facing shore of Palos Verdes. I did see on the CDIP Swell Chart areas of PV’s south facing shore were fishable during those times due to the fact the major swell rolls in from the northwest and Rocky Point to Point Vicente breaks the waves, rendering the zone from Long Point to Point Fermin relatively fishable.
The other hurdle is, in 2012 the state closed the PV south shoreline from Pt. Vicente to Portuguese Point to fishing in order to create Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). That means only Inspiration Point to Point Fermin is open to angling but parking, good opaleye habitat and platform rocks to stage from are rare.
In January Breakwall Wook and I went on an expedition to familiarize ourselves with the mysteries of accessing Point Fermin, as the rocks lining the cliff look perfect from a Google Maps perspective.
First stop was a free parking zone at Cabrillo Beach. I’m not going to say exactly where because there are only maybe four spots open early on a weekend morning. We hiked along the beach past Sunken City, where lo and behold perfect casting platforms in the best opaleye habitat clear from choking kelp await within a 30- to 40-minute hike. From the top of the cliff you can see even more great habitat if you exert another 10 minutes.
Next stop was Pt. Fermin Park where exists a paved pathway down the bluff to a staircase leading to the rocky beach. From there the hike was again 30 minutes to some of the most weed-free perfect opaleye rocks I have ever experienced.
Unlike some areas where you can easily fish high tide, I calculated it would be most advantageous at both of these two new locales to show up during an outgoing tide, as the water at height would be washing up right at the base of the sheer cliff faces.
Saturday March 9, my only goof off day of the week, we had a two-foot swell and an incoming tide but convinced myself, too bad, and went anyway, if only to prove my theory of outgoing tide will be the best. A stop at the aforementioned slime pit on the way provided a bucket of the season’s best green bait of long and strong quality.
Out of the two choices I picked Pt. Fermin Park and its ramp to the beach. With rubber boots and headlight in the dark, the walking was slow-going treacherous because of all the flotsam junk that had washed up during recent winter swell storms.
30 minutes later I reached the objective and tossed two handfuls of bait to mix into the whitewater washing from the rocks. I quickly set up then cast out by 07:00 PDT. We didn’t switch to Daylight Time until the next day but I am giving the timeline in PDT anyway.
It must have been 15 minutes and I caught a nice three-taco opaleye and then in another 15 minutes a second shorter fish of the basic weight as the first.
’Twas the beginning of what portended to be a great day of limit-style opaleye fishing but it never panned out. As the tide increased to 6 ½ feet at nine o’clock, the rocks were more difficult to stand on as wave after 2-foot wave pummeled me and the bite pretty much ended even though I kept a good chum line going.
I did have one last hookup at 10:30, a calico bass that ate the bait but was a half inch shy of the legal 14-inch legal keeping size.
FIELD TEST
The past 4 years I had been looking for the perfect rain suit to not only keep me dry while fishing PV rocks but also to take camping and backpacking. All the newfangled suits I tried, Columbia and Frog Toggs for two examples, either soak you right through the material or shred like a paper towel if they even brush lightly against a rock.
In January, while I was hanging with the cousins at the Long Beach Bart Hall Outdoor Show, I perused upon the AFTCO booth and discovered what looked to be the most perfect rainsuit I ever saw. The Seafarer Bib and Jacket are white to keep you cool on sunny days, heavy duty polyurethane coated polyester and today kept me completely dry even though wave after wave pummeled me for four hours. They remained free of damage as I worked jagged rocks to full capacity. Those two plus my Red Wing Irish Setter rubber hunt boots were the perfect combo to remain comfortable all day and have traction on slippery rocks.
Not sure when another opaleye trip will be planned, as I am behind on annual hike training. I predict with all this late rain the green bait will be around until the end of April and then calico bass season starts in May.