bassin' tips

Omited by WR

[Robert]

Water Rat,
In the Big Salty out here some guys have been doing a variation of the rig you mentioned with the bucktail. It is mainly used for shallow water rockfish. They would tie on a heavy metal jig (Salas 6X Jr or UFO 5) and 24" up the line they would tie on a Kalin's Magumbo grub on a dropper loop with a piece of cut squid
on the hook. Double your pleasure, double your fun! Drop it down to the bottom
and deadstick it. Many times you will catch multiple fish on each drop.


Robert

Omited by WR

[seatech]

.and a few calicos:

SWIMBAIT









Spinnerbait



Big Surface Plastics/Iron









Crankbait Fish

[yakman]

hello everyone this is my first post nice spotties biggest iv seen i fish around San Pedro side of the LB Harbor spotties dont seem to get that big here i used basically the same stuff maybe on lighter gear and i release everything especially here

[PerryC]

Yakman,
Welcome to the forums .

I also fish those areas as I live in Orange County and play with the bass whenever I can. If I get something a few pounds inshore, I think I'm doing good. These guys though...that's a different story.

Perry

[gone_fishing]

Originally Posted by hobb3s93

thanks for the tips guys i just have one more question, what is the best place for me to start? i was thinking either alamitos bay, newport, or possibly cabrillo? i really want to hit up mission bay...but its a two hour drive

Newport, Newport, Newport

Hank

[Robert]

Originally Posted by Water Rat

Robert, The technique was developed first in California by Saltwater fisherman. Skeet Reese and some other California Bass Tour boys really made it popular with the redneck set on tour, when fish just wouldn't bite, they were catching and placing.

Now whether the double jeporady rig came from the saltwater boys or the freshwater boys, I could not tell you, but what I can tell you is it most definetly originated in California.

I am very envious of the competitive advantage that exists in California. The saltwater and freshwater cross-over is incredible. Until the saltwater guys taught us how to fish deep for bass, we were all clueless.

Cool place you live brother,

Sam

aka Water Rat

Water Rat,
Living out here does have its good points. It's not all peaches and cream though. Housing is outrageously expensive. If I want to go hunting I have to plan on driving several hours to get away from the urban sprawl. I'm kind of envious of your location in a lot of ways. You can probably just walk down the road and catch all kinds of fish. I'll bet you don't have to go far to go hunting either. Did you see that picture of that 9.2 lb calico bass that Ed caught?
Those calico's are some mean bass! They will kick a largemouth's butt and steal their lunch money! I'd like to see Bill Dance hook into a calico that size!
I find it kind of odd that the pro bass fishermen on T.V. never even mention
the saltwater bass fishery that we have out here. I'd say that 98% of the country doesn't even know that it exists. I guess it's probably better that way. Otherwise everyone and their brother would be out here. Calico's are slow to grow too. A fish the size of the one Ed had is well over 10 years old. Probably closer to 20. Almost no one that I know keeps calico's to eat. We like to c&r them.

Robert

[seatech]

Excellent points Robert. While big green bass do pull hard, calicos above 5-6lbs pull way harder than there freshwater cousins. A 4lb spotted bay bass pulls almost (if not harder) than a 7-8lb calico.

Seems most So Cal anglers are set on fishing for yellowtail, white seabass, barracuda, rockfish, halibut and SANDBASS, all to put food on table, which is great. There is a pretty hardcore group of folks that fish calicos and go to enormous lengths/costs to get 'um. And 99% of these fish get released (however they are pretty tasty!).

Maybe it's best that the TV bass guys don't show the fish and have this fishery overrun like all others in Cali!!!

...and YAKMAN, there are lots of big spotties in the areas you mention!

Ed

[Robert]

Ed,
When I used to fish for big calico's on the party boats we would use the heavy gear. Forget the lightweight stuff that is used for freshwater. I used a Cal Star 8' 270H with 30lb mono and a Diawa SL30SH with the drags hammered down! You need to lay the wood to those mothers right now or they will take you into the kelp and it's over! Now I know a lot of guys now use spectra witch would cut through the kelp a lot better. Those big calico's aren't shy at all. I have seen them inhale some huge macs that I didn't think they would want anything to do with. My hat is off to you for catching calico's as big as those on a regular basis. Those fish have a big set of shoulders and a very bad attitude. I would still love to see the look on the faces of some of the bass fishing T.V. hosts if they were to hook up to a big 10lb+ calico on their freshwater gear!

Robert