Talked the girl into letting me get some solo fishing in Sunday. Plan was to hit the jetty with jigs, hammers and war-blades and be home for dinner.
Slow afternoon one small calico on a jig outside, one halibut on a hammer inside about 16". Got a call from the girl that she wanted to take the kid and his uncle (12) to knotts. Go ahead I said I don't want to wait in line all day. So with the girl and the boys gone for the evening I got some bonus time on the water, and I put it to good use. Changed to the rattling flipping jig after the sun set and started getting lots of dinks tearing up my chigger craw. Landed 3 or 4 but still looking for that big bite. Knotts was about to close and I had to beat them home so I started running and gunning hitting a few pockets with my jig and moving toward shore. Noticed I was getting more attention when I just moved the bait slow and steady. Sure enough while swimming the jig through the gaps in the kelp, POP...THUMP.... Swung on her as she peeled the line off my new Abu Garcia inshore(20lb max drag that I had all but as tight as it would go) shot down the line through the kelp and burried herself in it and stopped. A couple minutes of see-sawing back and forth and praying I pulled the biggest calico I have ever caught out of the slop. New PB at 23" I would say 7lbs +. I need to buy a digital scale!
this big girl was released and is doing fine. ready to spawn in a few weeks or days even, fat fish.