Calico Bass Secrets

Calico bass are to me are one of the ultimate light tackle game fish here on California's west coast. They are found in good numbers south of Point Conception about midway down the Mexican coast of Baja on the Pacific side, and there are good populations around the offshore islands in that area.

I used to take my 4X4 Suburban down the coast of Baja with an eighteen foot aluminum skiff on the roof and a fifteen HP outboard for go. It had the large sand wheels on the back so it could be rolled over the sand and into the surf. I knew several places where large rocky points stuck out into the ocean and there was calm water behind them where launching the skiff was pretty
easy. My basic tackle was a med-heavy casting rod seven and a half feet long with a Newell 220 size reel loaded with twenty to twentyfive pound Trilene line for fishing plastic and bait fishing with squid. My other rod was a eight foot jig stick with a Jigmaster fast retrieve reel for throwing surface iron. Back then plastic lures were basically limited to scampi's the twin tail plastic that started the ocean plastic revolution.

Now there are hundreds of plastics on the market, but back then the bass loved the scampi in green or rootbeer color. There were no laser sharp hooks so we sharpened the ones we had.
The general plan was to drift the edge of the kelp and cast into pockets in the kelp, leadheads hung up to often so we put the scampi on a freshwater hook with a wire weedguard and put a half ounce bullet sinker in front of the scampi and pegged it up against the hook with a toothpick pushed into the hole in the sinker and broken off, with this weedless rig we could cast it back
into the kelp Forest and reel it across the top of the kelp and stop it in holes in the kelp and let it sink, we caught some huge bass that way, sometimes the bass would explode up throught the kelp and hit the scampi as it was being reeled over the kelp, super exciting! This still works well today as most fishermen fish the edges and miss the large wary bass that live way back in the kelp.

Most of your hits come as the lure is sinking, once it hits the bottom I quickly reel it back in and make another cast. The shad single tail baits so popular now work well on the wind so cast it out let it sink then wind it back to the boat. In summer a faster speed gets more hits but in colder water the best plan is to cast it out let it sink then slowly hop it along the bottom all the way back to the boat. When fishing is slow and always in cold water add a squid strip or head to the hook, this results in many more hits and the fish will hold on much longer giving you plenty of time to set the hook. Don't set at the first tap, let the fish bend the rod down before you set the hook and you will double the number of hookups. When clients ask me how hard to set the hook, I cast out put the rod in a rod holder and when the rod is bent double I pick it up and reel it in, "that hard" I say. With the new laser sharp hooks, just let the fish pull the rod tip down and wind the reel quickly and you will miss fewer fish.

One of the most fun ways to fish for calicos is on the surface iron, I prefer the single hook model surface iron, the single hook is easier to release fish from as opposed to treble hooks and do much less damage to the fish. I take pliers and pinch the barb down about ninety percent and it easily comes out of the fishes mouth and does no damage at all. My favorite colors are wounded
soldier ( a dull military green with a red head ) and mackerel, though color rarely makes any difference, once the color is worn off the jig it still catches bass. The secret is to take a rubber band, loop it on the line ring on the front of the lure then stretch it back and hook it under the barb on the hook, this makes it totally weedless, you can cast it way back in the kelp without fear of getting hung up.

I use forty pound test for this fishing, as you will hook some real monsters back in the kelp and you need the heavy line to get them out. Also you will catch some really big white sea bass on the iron. There is nothing quite like seeing a large fish explode through the kelp to eat your lure as it is running right on top of the kelp. Yeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!