Had my friend Mike out from TN over the weekend and had hoped to get to Clemente for a few big bass. Some swell and a bit of wind mid-channel made us change plans and hit Catalina.

We pulled around the backside and up into the kelp and boilers, I gave Mike a swimbait rod with a 5" Bighammer and said throw that there swimbait into the boilers and kelp. He kinda gave me a WTF look and started chucking.

I had a steady bite going before Mike pulled out his first Catalina Swimbait fish.



Mission accomplished, now we went looking for bigger fish, in much tighter.

I was throwing the Big Pearl Bait Dragon Tongue Surface plastic and a 7.5" Sluggo for a nice bunch of 3-4lb fish on the surface and Mike had a decent pick on smaller swimbait fish.

We fished our way down towards the Isthums and finally Mike yells, "Oh this feels like a bigger fish"...

...and a nice callie, his personal best, comes over the side:




Fished until about 2pm and beat it back before the wind picked up. Ended the day at the SWBA Tourney BBQ with a plate full of Chili's BBQ Ribs, salad, a bowl of Chili and a few cool ones.

Total somewhere around 25 fish for the two of us.

Talked to Mike again this morning and he's still pretty stoked on his PB calico.

Ed