Fishing Big Baits Will Produce

And as the saying goes…

If you do anything long enough you’ll eventually get lucky. Hell, it’s the law of averages; right? Wrong. That being said, I’ve never caught a Calico Bass that was as big as the one my buddy Tom Mishek caught on my boat late last month, and I’ve been actively fishing for them for over ten years!

Here’s the rundown on this amazing fish:

Tom and I Headed to Catalina from Davies launch ramp, in Alamitos, through 20-knot winds and a hell of a bump. Just snotty the entire way over… my boat is really dry, but we got soaked. Wind was oddly straight out of the north, and we were both wearing water 5 minutes into the trip. In the afternoon, you can pretty much count on just a bit of West in that pesky wind, which will help with the angle, but every blue moon, when it blows hard straight out of the North, I don’t care what rig you’re in, if it’s a center console, you’re getting wet.

We finally pull up to the Isthmus on the front side, two hours later, and the wind was ripping straight down the island… no calm water in sight. We were drifting so fast, and the water was so rough, that the trolling motor was completely useless. I got us in as tight as I could, and set up a drift, heading East.

Within the first couple of casts, we were both on. We looked at each other and smiled, hoping that regardless of the wind, it would be a good afternoon. Five inch, Basstrix swimbaits in smoke/red flake and olive brown bait were the ticket. We had a half dozen fish each in the first 20 minutes, easy. That’s when I went to the blade. As usual at Catalina, more bites, less hookups on it… but Tommy was consistently catching fish.

The current was really ripping, so I’m assuming that’s why the fish were on the chew. All the kelp was laying down, so the blade was really drawing a lot of strikes, but the fish were averaging 1 to 2 pounds, so a lot of them couldn’t quite get to the hook.

We drifted the outside of the kelp for the next half hour or so, with a steady pick on the fish. Then…

Tommy gets bit and swings… The reel starts screaming as whatever is on the other end of his line, starts ripping line…

Now, we’re both fishing 12lb, on smaller, light action rods. Tommy had my Calcutta 200TE and a light, 12lb, 8ft Calcutta rod. He’s totally bendo, and the reel is still screaming with the drag pretty much buttoned down. He looks over at me on the bow and shakes his head… ”Whatever this is dude, it’s got some shoulders…”

I figured right off the bat, that it could be a big white sea bass. The rod tip was bouncing pretty good, and it just looked solid… I mean, Tommy was arched all the way back, trying his damndest to move this fish, but he was having issues. I thought it might have been hung up in the kelp, but we’d drifted far enough off of it, so I wasn’t sure. All I could really do was watch this unfold in front of me, and see what happens.

About 5 minutes later, after a few, long, blazing runs in every direction, Tommy starts short pumping this fish, and making up line. I grab the Boga-Grip out of the console, and move around him, over to the gunwale. As my eyes followed the line into the water, I could see something down about 12 feet, and it definitely was NOT a White Sea Bass, because it was BROWN! You know how your mind goes a mile a minute when you’re all excited and all that adrenaline is coursing through you? Mine was going twice that speed. Was it a lingcod? A Leopard Shark? A Black Seabass???

Was it a lingcod?
A Leopard Shark?
A Black Seabass? NO!!!

As this leviathan rose from the depths of the green water, it was obvious that it was a Calico Bass and a big one… double digit for sure. As soon as it was close enough, I plunged the Boga into the water, into its gaping maw, and pulled this gigantic fish over the side of the boat.

Ya know how you do the obligatory “Oh my God that’s a toad”, high five, and scream when you get a good one? Well, we didn’t do that. We just stood there, totally silent, looking at this fish. I probably just held it for a few minutes, even before I looked at the spring scale on the Boga, which was somewhere between 11 and 11.5 pounds!!!

Tommy finally broke the silence and asked… “How big do you think that fish is?” I handed him his fish and answered his question with… “Take a look at the scale”.

Well, I snapped a few digital photos and then released the fish. Man, it was a great feeling seeing that fish swim back into the deep… Very impressive.

We caught a few more fish, and then right before it got dark, I went into the water and rounded out the day with a limit of lobster. We were back at the launch ramp before midnight, even after the almost two hour ride back.

Couldn’t look happier: After assisting friend and fishing partner (Tom Mishek) with his 11lb. Calico Bass, Sandy displays an impressive limit of bugs caught after dark at Catalina Island.

All I can really say that could sum up that day, other than it was an enlightening experience, is that you never know when, where and how, that trophy double-digit fish will be caught. We’re all experienced anglers, and what we do (throwing swimbaits) is probably the best way to try and get that toad on your catch list, but here’s the thing… Tommy’s a good stick. We’ve fished together for years, and although he’s more of a big game fisherman and tends to only fish bass for fun; every now and then with me, he’ll stick a big one, including a 9lber. and that 11+ in the past couple of months, on my boat.

Basically, what I’m trying to say here, is that any shoemaker (not that Tommy’s a shoemaker) can hang a big fish at any time, so what we’re doing doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. We as saltwater bass fishermen represent such a small percentage of the anglers in southern California , and though it should stand to reason that one of us should have the world record Calico Bass by now… we don’t.

The bottom line is, if you want to really try and focus on catching huge calicos… Either throw the 5+ inch swimbaits or throw live mackerel, smelt, squid, or tomcod, at places like Clemente, Catalina, and Ensenada … I’m not saying you WON’T catch big fish throwing small to medium plastics, because most of us have, I’m saying that I personally think that if the world record is ever broken, it’ll most likely be on either a BIG chunk of plastic or on BIG live bait.

Anyway, I honestly have to say, although this particular fish was not weighed on an “official” scale, I really can’t say how much it weighed exactly, but I do know for sure, it was a double-digit fish, which at Catalina on a swimbait is quite a feat. Seeing this fish come over the side of my boat, was a magical experience. It is, for sure, the biggest Calico Bass I personally have ever seen caught on a rod and reel. The thing was just…huge!