Calico bass inhabit the kelp and rocks along the California coast. They fight hard, and the International Gamefish Association lists the world record at 14 pounds, seven ounces, caught at Newport Beach, California in 1993. Fish over five pounds are uncommon; aboard the Monte Carlo of 22nd Street Sportfishing, San Pedro, the biggest of well over a hundred caught was about four pounds. Matt's biggest was about 17 inches. Legal size is currently 14 inches, limited to a take of five. Between Matt and I, we took seven. I caught six fish, including a Pacific mackerel about a foot long, and Matt lost count, also catching a sand bass.
We might have had 30 guys and gals on the boat, including a few staff who joined in and caught calico bass near the end of our half day of six hours. The pool winner, however, was a 9.6-pound California halibut, the biggest of at least four of that species caught. Halibut are commonly caught, but not commonly in numbers like fluke get caught on head boats here in New Jersey. They're typically larger, though, and the IGFA world record is 67 pounds, five ounces.
Bait supplied included live anchovies about six or seven inches long, and squid. Matt and I stuck to anchovies, and a lot of the bass got caught by others on jig and plastics and also colored diamond jigs.
Just as well that I judged bringing our standup rods as too much of a hassle, and we rented rods, because those (spinning) rods supplied by the outfit for $15.00 apiece were not the extra-heavy power that would have been too much on these fish. Along with the rods, we were given a four-ounce torpedo sinker apiece, four quarter-ounce egg sinkers, and a pack of Mustad size 1 bait hooks of excellent quality; though we had to pay additionally for that tackle, we never needed more than that. We lost the torpedo sinkers and a couple of hooks to the rocks. Thereafter we used quarter-ounce egg sinkers that worked great.
Depths ranged between 35 and 50 feet, and we fished pretty close to the rocky beach here and there. Periodically, one of the mates netted and flung live anchovies out into the water we cast and dropped to, and more often than you might think, calico bass struck those anchovies on the surface. I once cast directly on top of where a bass had broken water, kept my bail open, let the fish run with the bait a moment, and set the hook, catching the bass. On too many other occasions, I had bass take the bait in the middle/upper column, only to attempt hooksets unsuccessfully.
Once, I just dropped the rig and let it sink to bottom about 35 feet down. I let it be for a while, then decided to reel it up. That's when I felt a fish on that didn't feel like one of the bass. More like that slightly uncertain weight of a fluke as it slowly follows along with the pressure you exert. I tried to set the hook but failed.
Matt and I managed to position at the stern. Generally, that's often the best place to fish, at least according to the conventional wisdom. The current takes your rig more and less directly further back, since the boat is anchored from the bow, although the alignment isn't necessarily perfect, as I'll get to in a moment. Matt and I held our own there, until after a few hours the current had greatly increased. All the lines ended up back there, and people shouldered their way in, no way to ram rods butts against foreheads to hold our own! At first we successfully resisted others, but the game evolved, becoming a matter of revolving from the left corner of the stern to the right, and starting over. That way, lines--all tending to drift slightly in the direction of that right corner--had their play.
I gave up on the game. My back hurt and the competition was intense. I tried unsuccessfully to fish towards the bow, and then sat in the cabin for the last minutes before we headed back to the dock. I felt proud of my son who held his own at that game, but really. He's 26 years old and it was a cinch for him.
The Port of Long Beach is second only to the Port of Los Angeles, right next door, for the honor of being the largest in the U.S. Here I focus on one cool container ship.
Matt and I managed to position at the stern...at least at first.
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