SD Bay Opaleye

I think I was watching you guys catch those. Pretty cool.

 

I've caught plenty of opaleye on shrimp. Have you found peas work better than other bait when targeting these fish? I've never tried peas.

 

Try frozen peas instead of canned.....in general you'll be fishing opaleye from the rocks so find a small depression on the rocks. Put a little water in the depression if it isn't already there then dump a few peas in the water to thaw them out. Fish two or three peas on a #6 hook with a small split shot just above the hook(for casting weight) and a bobber about 3' above the hook. Canned peas are too mushy. Lots of different fish will eat those peas

 

Those are some nice opaleye! I’m about to be taking my boys out soon, and i’ll be checking the freezer for peas for sure

 

The water I mentioned above is meant to thaw out the peas so you can get them on the hook properly......properly means you just want to puncture cleanly(not tear) the skin of the pea putting them on.

 

Not that anyone cares but this reminds me when I was a kid and would go to Camp Fox on Catalina every summer. They had a fishing platform in the bay that we had to row out to. All I wanted to do at Camp Fox was fish. Our bait was whatever the kitchen had. Usually left over bacon, bread or pancakes. I didn't know enough to bring peas back then. The opaleye were very hard to catch. They would nibble a bread ball but usually spit it as soon as they bit it. Then they would eat the spit out cloud of bread and you would have an empty hook. One day I noticed that pancakes or bread that were accidently dropped over floated off the platform would soon have big opaleye feeding on them as they floated off in the distance. So I rigged up my line with 4 or 5 hooks. ( Yes, illegal but I was 11 so what did I know back then, lol.) I would hook a pancake with all the hooks and float it out weightless. As soon as it got far enough out the opaleye would start topwater crashing on it grabbing chunks of pancake. I was catching them consistently. These were pretty big opaleye back in the day. 14-18" were common. It's a fun memory from the 60's now that I am 64. Even saw a yellowtail swim through one time. Okay, that's the end of my old timer story at Camp Fox, Catalina. I haven't tried to catch opaleye since. But I am getting hungry for pancakes.

 

I think that is legal in SW.

 

A hundred hooks is still legal for opaleye to this day