Fishing for Calico Bass

Fishing for calico bass just may be my favorite fish to fish for. Specifically, throwing a nice swimming surface jig for these fish just cannot be beat. Calico bass are not a particularly glamorous fish to catch. Almost everybody that goes fishing with any regularity in Southern California has in all likelihood caught many calico bass. For most, it is just another fish to catch. Frankly, it was for me as well for many years. As previously mentioned, I started working on boats as a regular deckhand when I started college. A couple of seasons on the Fury II out of Ports O Call Sportfishing in San Pedro. As spring approached, anchovies got smaller and smaller. Many of the transient fleet started leaving for San Diego on their yearly summer fishing albacore. We were the nightly island boat leaving at mid-night, and we would run a lot with 8 to 10 fishermen. Though these trips stunk for side money - it did afford the fishing fanatics that we were, a chance to fish a lot.....daily no less. I would go back on the boat on my days off just to fish. Much of the time, we would have two full tanks of 'chummers' - anchovies so small, you can fit 10 to 12 in your hand. For the bait fishermen, this was a sad situation. Multiple anchovies on a size 2 or 4 hook and a rubber core. However - for the jig fishermen....this is a situation made in heaven!! We could go to any number of spots on the front and the back side of Catalina and pepper the hell out of these spots with brailfulls of chummers. Not only would the abundant chum bring out any fish in the area - they would come out in full attack/eat mode. There were days when Frank Garcia (the other deckhand - Timmy's son Toby nicknamed him Fank), the Maggot (Jason the pinhead's nickname) and I would fill the bait tanks with enough calicos to fill out limits for all the passengers. All before the skipper (Tim Ullon) would wake up from his morning nap. The Isthmus Reef was particularly good at times. With the current running east, we would make a chum circle over the west edge of the reef. Before the anchor was set - the calicos would be going nuts on the chum. One of us would grab my jig stick and start firing the candybar. My rig of choice was a Sabre 540 - cut about 6 inches off the tip, a Newell 338 filled with 40# and a green and yellow candybar. Absolutely the best swimming 'straight off the rack' jig there ever was. I started off using a full length 540 which was ten foot. But right away after the first few casts with a full size candybar (#112), the tip was too soft. I initially took two to three inches off, and ended up taking about six inches off, which felt just about right. I also started out using 20 pound test, but quickly ramped up after losing a jig or two to 25 to 30 and eventually to 40. The line started to get unamanageable over 40 lb. Everywhere we went, that 540 surface iron setup was ready to go. On one particular trip, we had filled the bait tank with nice calicos - all 3 to 5 pounders. At the end of the trip, we had filet bags with limits for all passengers. As we were handing the bags out and collecting for the fish cleaning - everybody appreciated the bag of bass filets and tipped us nicely. I think we were charging 45 cents per fish - so a limit of bass was $4.50. Most folks gave us $8 to $10 and thanked us. One guy though - he gave us a $5. Both Fank and I looked at each other and thought - dang, a cheapie...he was going to tip us fifty cents. But he stood there....and waited. I asked him did we miss something? He said he counted the filets we put in his bag....it was one short. He said...'if you guys had given me the last filet, I would have give you the .50'. Well, sometimes you see a little bit of everything. One day Timmy was off - and Pat Jackson was running relief. We went to Farnsworth to have a looksee and ran right into a school of nice 20 to 40 lb yellowtail. Pat came right out of the wheelhouse, grabbed my jigstick and was on a yellow. On this particular trip, we had a couple of deadheads off another boat (I don't remember which one), but I remember his name was Bill. We nicknamed him Billdo for short. We had put a very large green mackerel in the bait tank - not sure why, but we did. Billdo grabbed one of the boat's trolling rods (broom stick with a Penn 6/0 and 80 lb line), cut off the feather, tied on an 8/0 hook, threw the giant green mackerel out and BAM. He was pinned to the rail. That yellow was a solid 40 lbs. All the yellows we caught were 25 to 30 lbs - with the exception of Billdo's 40 pounder. What we did not see much of was white sea bass. We would occasionally get one or two - but not in any numbers. The yellows were fun to hook on the jigstick. But the bigger ones would just tear you up and break you off. Not much fun. Barracuda were also fun to catch on the surface iron - but the bigger ones would swallow the jig and bite you off, and they were slimy! EEEEW. Not much fun here either. But the calicos were fun. The bigger ones would pull good - but not enough to break you off on 40 pound line. Nothing quite like watching your surface iron swim back to the boat with multiple fish following it....

Where the hell did whatshisname go?

During the years I was fishing a lot on the open party boats around LA, I would see a lot of the same guys over and over - which means of course that they saw me too...maybe. But anyway, here it is 40 years later - and sometimes I wonder just where in the hell did some of these guys go. I don't remember all the names - but once in a while, I think of one. Ted....Ted Shono. I would see him fishing on the City of Redondo all the time. From when Roy Peters was running the boat - to Rick and Jacky running the boat - with Derry on deck and Doris in the galley. Sometimes data just dribbles out. Ted was a few years younger than me, but close. Going on a boat out of Redondo was just so convenient. Didn't matter if anything was biting or not - there would always be a crowd on the City. From the early days when the boats used to sit a mile or so off the horseshoe pier fishing small Bluefin Tuna - to yellowtail and white seabass around Palos Verdes - Hagerdy's, Dominator.......what memories. If I had to think about it, I probably fished out of Redondo more than I fished out of Pierpoint. Pierpoint was when I was too young to drive - and could only get there if my dad took me. Redondo was a different story. From the time I had a Schwinn Stingray to a Honda CB350 motorcycle and a permit at 15 and 1/2, I was going to Redondo Pier. And it was cheap. I don't remember exactly - but I think it was $10 or so to go on the 1/2 day. And the three (3) barges. Anyway, I was on my way home from LA and stopping by the Japanese market to shop....and in the fresh fruit and veggie section was an older guy stocking. Kind of looked familiar......I reached out and said 'Your name isn't Ted is it?....Ted S####? He said yes. I was wearing my Royal Star jacket - so he said I probably knew him from fishing, because he fishes a lot. I asked him if he remembered going into Yo's tackle shop and fishing on the City 30 or 40 years ago. He says, yup...that was me. He used to fish with all the good fishermen of the day. I asked him if he remembered a guy named Kohei? He says, yeah....I remember him. He was a pretty good fisherman. Damn....made my day.

The art of the 'short pump' and other things you talk about at the tackle shop

The first time I saw the 'short pump' in action - I was on the Freedom out of Pierpoint Landing around 1966/1967. I had just started to go on the islands / all day trips. My dad had come home with yellowtails and halibuts, and I wanted to catch those. Tackle-wise, I was still ill equipped...not horrible, just marginal. Big spinning reels - Garcia 302's (always wanted a 402, oh well!) and Optimo with blue monofilament from Thrifty. We went to San Clemente Island - around the east end somewhere west of China Point. Big yellowtail were biting! I was in the fray in the stern, but was just a little kid getting in the way and being pushed around. Bobby Carr was running the boat and was fishing. I watched in amazement as he threw in a bait, and hooked a nice yellow. He just quickly reeled and pumped the rod in a very quick fashion and bounced a nice fat yellow. Looked big to me - but more I think about it, the fish was probably 20 pounds or so. Still a heck of a feat. He never gave the fish an inch of line. He looked at me, quickly grabbed another bait and hooked a fish....then handed it off to me. This fish just turned, pinned me to the rail and broke me off. Just like that. I don't remember what he said - something like, 'kid you need to learn how to short pump'. Took a while, but I finally got it after a while. I still see people on TV shows and on boats trying to 'short pump' - with mixed results. Mostly, I'm not sure people know how. The whole point is to not let the fish turn its head so it can take off. When you first hook the fish, the first couple of pumps on the rod and cranks on the reel are crucial. Once you get a couple of grinds and you know the fish is pointed at you, you have to continue to apply pressure and keep it coming at you. One constant pull is what the fish should feel. When you pump the rod - each pump of the rod gives you a certain amount of line. That certain amount of line has to be put onto your reel, immediately followed by another pump of the rod and repeat. Any slack in this process gives the fish an opportunity to turn its head and hence take off. Which isn't all bad - just adds more time for other potential mishaps to occur. What do you have to have in order to do this right? Well, heavier than normal line is a must. One cannot 'short pump' a 50 pound tuna on 15 pound line very well. You can however 'short pump' a 50 pound tuna on 40 pound line. I think most folks tend to fish with a light drag, afraid of breaking their line. Most line breakage occurs at the knot. Hence, use a good knot. Ask around and find the best knot. We used to sit around at Yo's shop after closing time. The usual troop that had nothing better to do than hang out at the local tackle shop. We'd have contests to see whose knot held up the best. I use a Palomar knot now. But you have to be careful not to cross the lines at the hook. If you take a magnifying glass (if you are older - and need it) and look at the two lines at the hook, you'll be able to tell if the lines are crossed or not. It makes a difference. If they are crossed, the knot will break before the uncrossed one does. This is just one of many. So once you have a favorite knot that does not break, we are good to go. Remember the more knots you have on your line the less you can pull. Just thought of a funny story. When I was working on the Fury II during the summers when I was going to college, we used to get an array of good fishermen coming on the boat fishing. I never knew Marv's last name - but he used to run one of the Catalina ferry's from San Pedro/Long Beach to Avalon. He was a good fisherman! I recall we had a good yellowtail bit going on at Farnsworth Bank. Make a tank of big greenies on the front side of the island - and off to Farnsworth. All 25 lbs+ yellows - nice ones. Marv came out fishing on one of those days. We had 25 or 30 people fishing on the boat. Most folks had no idea how to fish the big baits for these yellows. This fishing was right up Marv's alley. He had to be in his mid to late 60's by then - so he had been fishing for a long time. He was a quiet sort of guy - and lot of history on his face. I just remember seeing him bit every time I saw him. At the end of the day, we only had 15 or 20 of these jumbo yellows - and Marv.....he had 5 or 6 fish, filling two sacks! He'd fish heavy line and once he hooked the fish - did not give them an inch. That was awesome. As far as a rod goes, my preference is for a heavier parabolic type rather than a fast taper type. The long parabolic Harnells are great rods to short pump with. The first true fast taper rod I remember catching a big fish with was a Sabre 865XH. Had a nice soft tip to be able to cast an anchovy - but once you put a load on the rod, it shut off quickly. The first bigeye tuna I caught locally was 130 lbs and was caught on that rod with an old Newell 300C/500 full of 40 lb line. I don't remember if I was using Ande or Meslon. Catching that fish on that rod made me decide I liked parabolic rods better. We also discussed hooks. At that time it was all Mustads. I started with the non-forged regular hooks - 94150 I think. But soon changed to a forged hook - 9174's. For some reason, the bait swam better with these hooks. Remember, it was all anchovies then - big ones in the winter/spring, and straight 'chummers' (small 2-3" anchovies) in the summertime. I broke a few 9174's and changed to the 92677's - which were forged and slightly offset. Pretty much use these hooks all the time for dang near everything, even today. For the long range trips - I do use the fancy Gamakatsu's, but for local fishing - 94150's is it. When I think about it, I can't believe them hooks are a few bucks apiece. We were using Mustad 118H's before the fancy hooks came along - and really, we did just fine, for caballito fishing anyway. For the big baits - was a different story. 7691's were and continue to be it for me.