Calico Bass – The Old Man & The Seas

The Off Season

**Fish or no fish, it’s good to get out and see the sunrise**

I have not posted anything in a while for one simple reason: I have had nothing to post about.

I have fished in the Pacific Ocean off and on for nearly 40 years and to date, this is the worst fishing season I can remember after last season being one of the best. I guess the fish don’t know my schedule.

I still go out because, for me, while catching fish is my primary objective just being outdoors in the sun, wind, fog, and even light rain comes in a close second. I could be outdoors doing many other things like riding my bike all over town (which I do when I am not fishing) but riding a bike does not replace the thrill of the strike, the fighting of the fish, or the challenge of trying different tactics to get fish to bite.

So I go out and I will continue to go out even as he seasons turn bringing in colder weather and cooler ocean temperatures. If anything remarkable happens before the next season comes around, you’ll be able to read about it here.

Until then, keep the bait fresh and the lines tight.

Pacific Update

Even during the current pandemic, fishing in the Pacific goes on.

With the ocean water warming up over the past few weeks, the fishing has improved as well. The temperature today is a toasty 64 degrees.

As you can see in the pictures above, the fish have been plentiful and varied no matter what pier I have tried. Of the Ventura Pier, Stearns Wharf, or Goleta Pier, the best has been the Ventura Pier although I think Stearns Wharf will soon catch up. It takes a while for the warmer water to get up the coast. Goleta, which is north of Santa Barbara will be the last to benefit from the warm water of these three although on my last trip up there, I managed to catch two keeper Calico Bass.

I am happy to report that the majority of the fishermen and women are wearing masks like mine even though we are outside in the sun, fog, and wind. We are all in this together and the fishing community in my part of the world has responded to the call.

Drift Lining

My time to get out to the pier, the wharf, the shore, and a planned boat excursion, is going to be limited for a while due to prior commitments so I thought I’d explain what I mean when I mentioned in many of my posts that I fish with a drift line. The concept is simple but actually fishing this way can be a challenge.

As I mentioned in an early blog post, my grandpa always advised me to take a fishing pole and what he called a “wishing pole” with me when I had a chance to do so. The wishing pole is one that I would weight down, bait up, and cast out to the deepest part of the lake, ocean, or river that I could reach. Then I’d set my drag so it would alert me when a fish is on the line. This pole would be used to fish for all the bottom feeding fish that tended to be larger and put up a better fight than fish who do not feed this way. Submarine size Carp and Catfish are examples of freshwater bottom feeders while Rays and Sharks are examples of saltwater bottom feeders.

Going after bottom feeders with your wishing pole is simple and easy to do and I think it is the way most people fish even when they use live bait. However, going after the rest of the fish out there with your fishing pole rigged as a drift line takes more effort than simply setting your drag. For one thing, you should never set your fishing pole when practicing this method especially when there are hard hitting fish like Mackerel and Bass in the water.

A drift line is simply a line with no weights or bobber on it. You can have multiple hooks if you want a greater challenge like catching three Mackerel at a time, which I have done many times. Your fishing pole should be as light weight as you dare use and the lighter the better, I say, since I like a good fight and I like to give the fish a chance. I always use my old ultra-light rig when I drift line so there is a 50-50 chance that I will either haul in my catch or it will get away. Since I only fish for sport, this doesn’t matter to me.

Whatever you use, it should be easy to cast with only the weight of the bait on it since no lead weights are used in this method. Using a bobber is close to drift lining but it is not the same since your bait is being held in place in the water, at one level. Though your line can drift anyway it wants, it cannot drift down which is key element in drift lining.

Drift lining is used to fish for all the rest of the fish out there besides bottom feeders though you can occasionally hook one. In drift lining, you cast your bait into the water and let it drift where ever it may go. As it sinks to the bottom, your bait can attract any fish at an water level. In the ocean, you often have Smelt sitting just below the surface, with Mackerel beneath or mixed in with them. As your bait drifts lower, it can attract Perch and Bass. If it hits bottom and you are content to let it sit there for a while, you can pick up a bottom feeder but since you are using light tackle, you have to hope it is not too big.

One day while I was fishing at Stearns Wharf, the Smelt that are usually around had moved off to another area which allowed me to catch 33 Mackerel in a few hours. One time, my bait made it through the horde of Mackerel that were lurking about and my line drifted closed to the pilings just beneath my feet. Suddenly, I got a hit that I knew was not that of a Mackerel, it was stronger, but slower and after a pretty fierce battle, I reeled in a nice size Calico Bass. Until that time, I didn’t know there were bass under the wharf. So I started fishing for them. Six more times my bait made it through the school of Mackerel and I ended up with 7 Calico Bass on the day. A total of 40 fish in about 3 ½ hours. I was very busy and I owe it all to the drift lining method.

As I said at the start, though, fishing this way can be a real challenge due to the following reasons:

First, you have to be aware of where your line is at all times, especially if fishing in a area where others are also fishing since you do not want to cross their lines. This means paying close attention to what you are doing.
Second, since you should be using the lightest tackle you dare use, you will feel every little nibble and the temptation will be to yank your line up on each one but as I wrote about in a previous blog, grandpa always said that patience is the best bait. This is what he was referring to. If you are an experienced fisherman, you most likely know a hit from a nibble but when drift lining, the nibbles can multiply greatly so you have to be patient. When a real hit occurs you’ll know. The same is even truer for beginning fisherman and it is something you will learn over time so don’t give up on the method.
Third, I always recommend that you keep your pole in your hands at all times when drift lining and you have bait in the water. The reason is that since you are using light tackle, it would not be that much of a challenge for a good-sized Calico Bass or speeding Mackerel to pull your rig into the water and since you are looking for hits as soon as they happen, you need to be ready to set your hook at any time which you can’t do if you are not holding your pole in your hands.
Fourth, since your bait starts at the surface and drifts downward, it will eventually hit bottom where you can leave it if you wish, but since you may have another pole baited for bottom feeders it is a good idea to keep your drift line moving which means a full day of reeling in and casting out. I like this because it keeps me busy and because I like to have bait in the water at all levels of water as much as possible.
Fifth, wind can really affect fishing this way. When the wind is blowing so hard that you are having trouble keeping your bait in the water, you can add a small weight to compensate for it. If you choose not to use one, you have to be just that much more vigilant about watching where your line is at any given time.

So, that is the drift lining method. I have caught thousands of fish this way even when others around me were being shut out. Though I have told and shown many fishermen this method, I have not seen that many actually use it because of the attention needed to be successful when using this method.

Stearns Wharf II: Shark, bass, and mackerel, oh my!

After my last fishing adventure at Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara, CA where I caught 40 fish in 4 hours, I just had to go back to see if that was the norm or if I had just caught the area on a good day. So, I went back today and though I only caught 14 fish in about 3 ½ hours, the Tiger Shark’s size and weight made up for a lot of that time.

Because of the wharf’s restriction on overhead casting, I took my Shakespeare Contender reel & 8-foot Shimano FX 2803 rod since I knew I could cast some distance with it even underhanded. It is equipped with moss green 30lb test Spider Wire line so essentially the rig is better suited for freshwater but then I like to fish with light gear, so the fish have a chance. That is why, in my mind, it is called sport fishing.

I arrived at the wharf around 7 AM and was surprised that there were no other fishermen out there. After about ½ hour of fishing as the Shakespeare’s line sat on the ocean floor with a large hook baited with a big chunk of Mackerel, I started catching fish on my ultra-light rig. I didn’t have the continuous action like I had last week, but I stayed busy, eventually catching 7 Mackerel and 3 Calico Bass; but more on them later.

A local resident, with his kids and mother and father, saw me catch my biggest Mackerel and, as I do with all kids, I showed them the fish and told them about it. That is when the father told me that I had a fish on my other line. I turned to see my Shimano FX 2803 bent nearly in half while the drag on my Shakespeare Contender reel hummed as it let out line. Once more I thanked my grandfather for telling me repeatedly to always secure my pole. If I had not done that, my rig would have been lost. So, I put the Mackerel down and took my rig out of its holder. That is when I knew I had a VERY big fish.

The way that the fish was fighting, I knew it was a shark as opposed to a Bat Ray or Halibut, the only question was what kind of shark did I have on the line? It pulled me down from one side of wharf to another which was good for me since that side was in open water away from the wharf’s pilings. As I battled it, a large group of tourists gathered and several people asked me what I had caught, I could only tell them that I thought it was a shark and that if my line held, we would know what kind it was. At first, I thought it might be a Shovel nose shark but the more I fought it, the more I thought that is was some other species. When the Tiger Shark finally broke the surface, people got real excited, including me. One lady was recording the battle, and everyone was taking pictures of the fish. Fortunately, the local man had a boat in the harbor and was an experienced fisherman, so I asked him to get my gaff out of my bucket. He had never used a pier gaff before, so he took the pole while I manned the gaff. He was amazed at how strong the shark was. We both figured it to be well over 5-foot-long and in the 150+ pound weight range.

After a few tries, I managed to hook the shark’s tail and at that point, the beast was played out. I fully intended to bring the shark on to the wharf but once it left the buoyancy of the ocean water, I realized just how much it must have weighed. Even with the help of the local fisherman, we could barely budge it and since I was going to put it back in the ocean anyway, I decided to just cut my line and let it go after I took a few pictures. I managed to work the gaff free then took out my knife while looking at the great fish that I had fought for the last 20 minutes or so, it looked totally exhausted as was I. I told all the tourists to take their pictures and when they had finished, I cut my line to much applause from the audience who watched it swim away.

Meanwhile, a Seagull ate the large Mackerel I caught and put down while I was fighting the Tiger Shark which I thought was tacky. For the rest of the morning, when it came near me, I scared the hell out of it by yelling “Thanksgiving” at it which made the tourists think I was insane and got a few laughs.

My last catch of the day was a Calico Bass which I was sure would be my dinner today but it measured 13 inches long, one-inch shy of the legal limit.

Still, it put up a hell of a fight on my ultra-light just like the shark did on my heavier gear.

Stearn’s Wharf I: What a MORNING!

When I moved from Phoenix, AZ to Santa Barbara, CA in 1979, Stearn’s Wharf was not open to the public. It was closed due to a huge fire that roared through it in 1973. It finally reopened in 1981 but by that time, the Goleta Pier was my fishing spot of choice so I never fished off the wharf before I moved to Ventura, CA in 1984.

Over the decades since then, the wharf has been open and closed due to another fire, storms, etc. and I heard mixed reviews about the fishing prospects. Some said it was fantastic and others said it was pathetic so today I decided to try it and see which side was telling the truth while knowing that BOTH sides could be right, depending on the weather, the skill of the fisherman, having the right outfit, and other factors.

Despite having been to the wharf’s website, I was still a little fuzzy about what it would cost me to park on it though that didn’t really matter since I was going to fish off of it for whatever it would cost me. I knew that the wharf opened at 7 AM and that the first 1 ½ of parking was free and that after that is was $2.50 an hour. So, I figured I’d just go in, fish for $5.00 worth of time just to see what was what. However, when I arrived at 7:15 AM, the gate was up and the ticket machine was not functioning, so I drove in while deciding to deal with any questions when I left.

My line was in the water for, at the most, 15 minutes when I caught my first Calico Bass. This is fish that you do not find around my home base, the Ventura Pier, and even though it was 4 inches short of the legal limit, I was thrilled since I figured that where there was one, there would be more and I was right. I caught 6 more Calicos in 4 hours but all were under the legal limit so ALL of them went back into the ocean.. After I caught the 5^th one, I had the feeling that the same fish kept biting over and over again. Especially since this one winked at me…

When I was not catching Calico Bass, I was catching Mackerel as fast as I could bait up and put my line in the water. I actually lost count of how many I reeled in, but I know that I caught at least 27 of them with more after that, how many, I don’t know but I know it had to be at least 6 more, so let’s call it 33 Mackerel for the MORNING since I only fished for 4 hours. When I first started catching them, I kept a few for bait then began to give them to other fishermen for bait but it wasn’t long before everyone had plenty of bait so I started throwing them back in while telling them to send me a halibut. Not one of the ungrateful little buggers did as I asked them and I wound up getting no bites on my ocean bottom line. The closest I got to a big fish was gaffing up a Shovel Nose shark for a fellow fisherman. He’d caught it on the Mackerel I gave him.

I visited the Stearn’s Wharf Bait & Tackle to buy some salted Anchovies and was disappointed that they didn’t have a “Shut Up & Fish” t-shirt in a medium but I will check to see if they have any in stock the next time I visit the wharf because after today, I will definitely be back.

As I was leaving, fully expecting to have to argue my way into a smaller parking fee, I was surprised that my visit would not cost me anything since the city realized that the ticket machine had been malfunctioning that morning.

The nice lady attendant, just waved me out.