bassin' tips

Omited by WR

[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

[seatech]

Robert,

If you look at the photos with rods/reels in them you'll see a Shimano Castaic and a couple of Curados matched with freshwater bass rods. About the only exception is the rigs we chuck iron with.

Most are loaded with 15 or 20lb mono or 50-65lb Powerpro (mainly for working the big surface plastics thru the kelp). Makes for a few busted off fish but getting a 5-8lb calico out of the weeds on a light bass setup is just killer!!!

Ed

[Robert]

Awesome Ed!
There is no doubt you have probably forgotten more about calico fishing
than I will ever learn in my lifetime. Uh, let me rephrase that: You haven't forgotten anything, and will still know more than I could ever hope to know
about fishing for calico's! For real though, unless I was using a heavy rod like a 270H jig stick when I was fishing live bait from a party boat, I couldn't turn those bad mamajamma's around. I know you guys use mostly artificials,
so it is a different ballgame from 10-15 years ago when I was targeting the big
calico's. Those are some absolutely epic bass that you and your friends caught.

Robert

[hobb3s93]

when i went on a 5 day yellowtail fishing trip, the calicos were spawning at the islands. the things were hard to keep off the hook! i ended up catching a HUGE cali on a scrambled egg iron, and my friend caught a 13.5 pounder(biggest bass of his life) that had a face only a mother, and a fesherman could love here are a few pics of the trip, the guy with the calico wasnt the one who got the 13, this was just the average size bass we were catching. then the one with the tuna is me(i was tired shut up!) and the one with the yellow is my bro.