Fun Family charter on the Helena (Calico Bass)

[etucker1959]

I haven't been on one of these kind of trips in years. It was a family and friends charter fishing for Calico Bass out of Dana Wharf. (with a lot of newbies) The older I get it's getting harder and harder to kill any fish that didn't deserve it! lol (Calico Bass don't deserve it) So this was an C&R trip for me. So no Jackpot (it did look like taking candy away from baby's) and no fish cleaning unless it was an #20 Yellowtail! Besides I want to be invited back on another trip and taking the Jackpot money away from a Raider fan is not good way to get invited back! lol.

Our first stop was a kelp bed right off of Dolly Parton, I mean the power plant off of San Onofre. lol Today Calico Bass fishing means you catch 7-10 shorts for every legal Bass, but since I wasn't keeping them any way it was all good. I sized down my tackle to make it real fun. I used my freshwater Curado reel and #12 test line and a very flexible rod. Fun Fun Fun! It was a bit on almost every cast, so the action was non stop! I would occasionally get a keeper Bass, but it didn't matter since they were all going back anyway. I noticed a Sand Bass or two were being caught on the bottom. So after landing about 10 Calico Bass I rigged up a dropper loop trying for some Sand Bass. They were there too, which to me was quite amazing! Calico's in the stern in the Kelp Beds and Sand Bass in the middle of the boat on the bottom. I ended up catching 6 Sand Bass and a bunch of pencil Barracuda.

We tried 2 more spots and had about the same action on the Calico Bass, but no more Sand Bass. We had for bait 4 inch sardines which were perfect for this kind of fishing. We did have a couple of scoops of very large Sardines if any exotics shod up. I did see 1 #15 Yellowtail follow up a live sardine in the last spot. At the end of the day the Captain said, "use up the big baits" the bigger Bass will bite them. So I grabbed my #20 stick and threw on one of the jumbo Sardines. Sure enough I got bit right as we were leaving on a bigger Calico Bass. Up until that point one of the more vocal passengers kept telling my buddy Lugie, "it's you or me for the Jackpot!" That stinking Calico wrapped me up in the Kelp real good! But this wasn't my first Rodeo! I flipped the reel out of gear letting the Calico Bass think he's Free!! Sure enough he swam out of the Kelp and I landed him. He was the biggest fish of the day!! I paraded him around the boat just to make sure every got a chance to see him before I threw him back!!! I heard Wow he threw that fish back from a few people. Hey, I'm trying to make sure I get invited back!! lol

They weren't all shorts even though most of them were. 3 people tagged a limit, I might have had one I don't really know. But it's a nice boat and a very friendly crew! Good times for everyone!!!