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....