Calico fishing advice on a twilight trip

[gavin310]

I bought one of those DealPerk.com coupons for Newport Landing Sportfishing and I want to do the twilight fishing trip. I'm looking at their fish counts and it looks like mainly calico bass. I've never caught calicos except while fishing for white sea bass using a c-rigged live sardine. On these trips do you just use cut squid, or do most people throw lures? I'm not exactly a pro with my casting reels and know I'll be dealing with backlashes if I try casting lures any reasonable distance in limited space. I think I've seen lots of people using cut squid though.

[Fishbones]

you can fish them many different ways,
flylined,
leadhead,
carolina rig,
dropper loop,
sliding egg sinker,
strip sqiud on mini jig,
strip squid on swimbait,

[ItchyBass]

On these trips you will probably be fishing 40-60 feet of water. A typical setup would be 15-20 lb test, 2 or 3 oz sinker, and size 2 live bait hook. Most people fish a dropper loop with either strips of squid or live bait.

[gavin310]

Oh right on, I got all those techniques down. For some reason I thought most people tossed lures for them.

[Ricky-Ray]

Tons of different way's to catch calico's.

Dropper loop or reverser dropper loop with strips of squid or even anchovies or sardines.

Flylined with or without sinker depending on conditions.

Leadhead with squid.

Leadhead and plastic's (Gulp's, Big Hammer, Blams, etc.)

Check with the deckhands and ask them what's the best technique for that night and they will let you know.

Personally the best way to catch them is on the plastic, but that's just my opinion.

[gavin310]

Thanks RR. Are scents good on the plastics or does it even matter?

[Ricky-Ray]

I've never used any scent's on my plastics unless it was the Gulp baits but that's because they are already soaked with it. I've heard Unibutter/Unigoop is pretty good but again never tried it personally.