The Hunt for Trophy Calico Bass
On a cold and lonely launch ramp my Edgewater center console slid off the trailer and, following a quick rinse, we were soon underway, passing dozens of dockside condominiums festooned with Christmas lights. Within minutes we arrived at our first spot and, trolling motor purring, we began our session. Under a low glow emanating from our nation’s busiest harbor, my fishing partner fired loop after loop, slowly bouncing his mouse-sized fly down the face of a rugged, subsurface outcropping we lovingly call “The Wall.” Suddenly I heard him grunt loudly as he held on with all he had, trying his best to muscle the tip of his now lunging 10-weight out of the inky black flow. A newcomer, he did a great job, never giving an inch. But neither did whatever was yanking hard on the other end. A brutal seconds-long tug-of-war, something had to give, and it was his now busted and shredded leader. As he stared blankly into my headlamp I nodded to him and said, “Dave, welcome to calico bass fishing!”
BAD BOYS, BAD BOYS
Kelp bass (Paralabrax clathratus), known as calico bass to us impassioned fly anglers, range from Point Conception to Baja California’s famed northern coast. Inhabiting a rich tapestry of island or coastal kelp-covered rock as well as man-made oil platforms and concrete rubble reefs, this beautifully speckled species will feed on anything that will fit in its mouth, including its own kind. Despite their aggressive eating habits, they grow very slowly, reaching only 12 inches in 5-7 years. As broadcast spawners, they stay near their birthplace once water temperatures hit 65 degrees in spring. They can grow large, with the IGFA All Tackle World Record at 14 pounds 7 ounces and the largest fly-caught bass at 9 pounds 4 ounces, a female likely over 30 years old.
Like its freshwater relatives, it is an ambush predator that is perfectly suited for its hostile saltwater environment with its large vacuum mouth, heavily scaled spotted and bronzed fuselage, and a powerfully broad caudal fin. Lipping your catch isn’t an issue as they do not have slicing teeth per se, but after a solid night of angling it is not uncommon to suffer from a serious case of “bass thumb.”
BEACHES BREAKWALLS AND ISLANDS
Living in Southern California, we are fortunate to have a large variety of natural coastal environments, including San Clemente and Santa Catalina Islands. Tens of thousands of calico bass call them home. Interestingly, some of our best fishing can be found in Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbors, only a minute’s drive from the chaos of busy metropolitan Los Angeles. Providing protection from enemy submarines during World War II, the surrounding breakwater now creates a sanctuary for cargo ships while defining the harbor limits. Constructed in the 1940s of immense granite boulders, it is over eight miles long and carpeted with underwater cracks, crevices, and caves, all offering perfect habitat and an all-you-can-eat buffet for our target species. Lobster divers tell me that the largest of calico bass are backed way into these spaces, peeking out, just waiting to dart out and pummel a hapless mouthful that may cruise or crawl by. Located in slightly shallower water, there are also numerous man-made oil islands, piers, and docks, all of which hold gangs of these pugnacious bass.
FOAM IS HOME
While these extensive aggregations of rock offer miles and miles of significant habitat in and of themselves, it is the “spot within these spots” that are the subtle difference makers. Using our boat’s depth sonar, we seek out smaller irregular mounds, stepped edges, and tapering points, many of which are much too small to appear on your chart plotter’s preloaded software. Generated seasonally by powerful Alaskan storms or Mexican hurricane surges, we pay special attention to our electronics, recording differences in bottom terrain and how they fish, as some of them will fish well with an uphill (westbound) current while others fish best flowing in the opposite direction. Even in slack tide conditions, wind-driven currents can create just the right amount of movement to trigger calico bass activity. Kelp will be leaning in the direction the current is flowing. We often seek the foamiest most turbulent section of water, as that will be where bass will aggressively seek prey. Remember that foam line in your favorite trout stream? Yeah, it’s the same out there. There is a good chance that the water there will also be discolored, which will only add to our fly’s deception.
Safe and effective access to this fishery requires seaworthy center consoles or bay boats equipped with bow-mounted trolling motors, which provide a suitable platform for fly fishing. Wind, surge, and swell, as well as bow wakes created by passing water taxis and crew boats, are all part of the game, making a stable vessel with ample freeboard and sturdy railings a necessity. Deck lights, headlamps, and non-slip footwear are essential gear for navigating a wet deck safely.
EXTRA HEAVY PLEASE
Most serious fly anglers deploy nine to ten-weight outfits that begin with fast action rods powerful enough to stop a big bass yet lightweight so that you can launch hundreds of searching casts with bulky flies attached to heavy, fast-sinking integrated fly lines. Also doubling for offshore duty, I’ve not found a better outfit than my Orvis Helios 10 weight 8’ 5” fly rod with Galvan Grip 10 fly reel filled with Scientific Anglers Sonar Titan Deep 3 / 5 / 7. An 8’ leader of straight 30# fluorocarbon with a loop knot completes the outfit.
Fan cast a piece of structure to determine where they are positioned even though they do show a distinct preference for positioning on the up current side of structure where upwelling drives food towards them. A variety of structure-bumping retrieves ensure that you are fishing where the big ones live. Many of your grabs will occur on the sink between strips. A strip-pause-strip style seems to work best. The colder the weather, the slower the retrieve.
Keeping your rod tip low and aimed down your fly line will help create a straight path to your presentation which will allow you to feel everything from a subtle “tick,” a rubbery pressure bite, or an aggressive slam. Keep constant pressure, stripping hard until you feel the weight of the fish. Once hooked up keep your rod low as you pump and strip, always keeping the bend in the lower third or “power” section of our fly rod.
Consistent with our mantra “play with them IN the boat,” we forego weaker IGFA-compliant leaders and use a straight 8’ section of 30# test Scientific Anglers Absolute fluorocarbon. This stuff is strong and tough! With great knot and tensile strength it may be stronger than that old 35# core fly line. Abrasion resistance will be critical to your success when wrestling that bull calico bass from its lair, so softer monofilament is no bueno. At first glance, the combination of a powerful 10-weight rod and 30# leader may seem like overkill, but remember you are preparing for that calico or sand bass of a lifetime.
HAIR PLASTIC AND STEEL
My first exposure to calico bass began in the early 1970s, bobbing around in a small tin boat powered by a smoky Johnson. Chucking soft bottom-bouncing plastics like Mister Twisters, Sassy Shads, and Twin-Tailed Grubs, we caught lots of bass. Decades later, those early lessons in depth control, bait size, and coloration continue to shape how we target calico bass with a fly today.
Calico bass, ambush feeders, lurk in the shadows or murky flows to attack baitfish schools, pelagic red crabs, or crack-dwelling cephalopods. Their diverse diet calls for a wide range of fly patterns, mostly weighted, to cover the water column effectively. Heavy Gamakatsu 60-degree Flat Eye jig hooks (size 3/0) paired with ultra-heavy 80# mono ‘V’ weed guards are popular for avoiding snags. Don’t worry—these bass are tough and have no trouble crushing those weed guards on the strike.
Often working the depths in complete darkness, your fly’s overall footprint is essential to its success. Sink rate, silhouette, color, and vibration are all important variables to consider. While dumbbell eyes work for smaller patterns, our most popular weighting system is Flymen Fishing Company’s Fish Skull Sculpin Helmet Head. It comes in a few sizes and I further enhance its effectiveness by powder coating (ProTec) each one to complement body material colors. Materials in warmer earth tones of brown, oranges, and reds are very effective, while bright chartreuse or pinks can sometimes trigger a few extra bites. That said, an all-black bug can produce amazing results on a new moon.
Bulky yet water-shedding bodies of synthetic fibers by SF Blend or Enrico Puglisi combined with wiggly silicone legs and magnum rabbit strip tails create an enticing offering while improving castability.
For optimum movement and sink rate, use a loop knot of your preference. Conversely, using a Trilene Knot or similar “fixed” connection can help slow your fly’s descent, thus keeping your fly in the “zone” a bit longer. In slack current or cold water conditions, slowing the speed at which your presentation sinks can make all the difference.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
Hooking and landing trophy calico bass is serious business. What they lack in size they make up for in serious pulling power. Every season we get absolutely destroyed by bass that we simply cannot stop. If you’ve yanked on big Amazonian peacock bass or cabrilla in Baja, Mexico, you understand. Like those species, the thrusting torque generated by the calico’s broad square tail is unbelievable. Middle of the night, standing on a pitching deck, you are absolutely ruined as your slippery fly line is ripped from your cold wet grip, your rod almost wrenched from your hands. Without giving an inch, they have to be horsed through and away from their rock lairs, throngs of heavy kelp, and clusters of jagged barnacles. Line piled in your stripping bucket, there is absolutely no time to put them “on the reel.” Whether a rod-jerking slam, subtle tick, or rubbery pressure bite, a swift long strip combined with a hard opposing scissor strike will move fly line and help you come tight and sink the barb. A sixty-foot cast into 30 feet of water, all these hard pullers have to do is dive straight down and you’re screwed. After landing even a smallish one, oftentimes your leader is absolutely shredded.
STRIP PAUSE BOOM
Purposeful boat positioning when working a piece of structure is everything. Offering very little presentation control, many prefer to just let their flies trail along with the drifting boat as dictated by the day’s wind. A more controlled, productive option is to aim your vessel into the wind, moving forward very slowly while casting. Once a catch is made maintain your boat’s position with a GPS-equipped “anchor lock” trolling motor such as that manufactured by Minnkota. Doing so will allow you to now carefully dissect holding water.
Not unlike working a streamer deep in a river, I prefer an up-and-across presentation, letting the fly swing with an occasional twitch and pause, then adjusting for current as required to get your fly to the required depth. I routinely use the countdown method to effectively cover the water column. Whether casting upcurrent, perpendicular, parallel, or downcurrent to the underwater structure, it’s all about angles and repeatability.
Knowing the depth at which strikes occur is crucial for success. Are the bass suspended up in the water column or holding tight to structure? Are they responding to a dead-drifted crab pattern or an aggressively stripped streamer? Don’t be afraid to experiment with different looks. Having each angler use different patterns and sink rates can help determine the flavor of the day.
Calico bass are notorious for eating your fly while coming at you before returning to structure. From the moment the fly lands on the water and begins its descent or is pulled off the edge of a kelp mat, always be in contact with your presentation with the fly line and rod pointed straight toward the fly. It begins by not releasing your fly line from your line hand during the cast. On a recent trip, I watched as my boatmate missed numerous bites without even knowing it. Making the cast, he would release the fly line from his line hand and, before he could grab it for the first strip, the line would flick as the fish hit the fly on impact then spit it. Holding your line will allow you to detect even the most subtle of takes but as importantly, will afford you the best opportunity to direct the fish away from cover with a good hook set. This is a game of inches, so any slack in your presentation only favors the fish. Other times,they will attack the fly while swimming toward you, introducing slack and imparting a certain “loss of feel.” This is usually detected when you go to strip the fly, and the weight of the fly is no longer there. When this happens, quickly take a long strip while sweeping the rod in the opposite direction from your line hand. The idea is to move lots of line. I’ve tried utilizing only the “strip strike” method so popular with flats fishing but it just does not move enough line to drive that hook into the fish’s mouth.
At other times, the grab will come in the form of only a “tick” regardless of the size of the fish. Many wrongly assume that, because of their size, big bass always aggressively strike at their food sources. That is simply not the case. So what is that tick that we feel through the rod and into our line hand?
Captain Danny Kadota, IGFA Largemouth Bass World Record holder, offers a plausible explanation: The “tick” is likely the bait or lure being inhaled and hitting the back of the bass’s throat. He notes that the strike’s intensity often correlates with the prey’s size and type—dispatching a fast-swimming mackerel requires more effort than snagging a hapless drifting pelagic crab. The takeaway? When fishing for calico bass, be ready for anything—from subtle taps to rod-stealing strikes—using everything from giant streamers to tiny shrimp flies.
MOMENT OF TRUTH
Recovering from that earlier beatdown, Dave recovered with a couple of stunning captures later that evening. We were prepared with a fish-friendly rubber net, a flash-ready preset camera, and a giant smile; the moments were captured and fish returned in a few seconds. As mentioned, these are ultra-slow-growing resident species and need to be protected. Can you imagine how old that trophy brood stock female must be? 30-40 years? What must a fish of that stature have endured to have achieved such proportions? These are the very fish whose genes we need to perpetuate, right? Please don’t be that guy that kills one simply for a record. Instead, let’s all do our part and protect our precious resources. Who knows, doing so just may allow you to enjoy a wonderful evening on the water after tucking in your vacationing family at nearby Disneyland.
In closing, we are extremely fortunate to have this wonderful fly fishing opportunity here in Southern California all while being served by some of the industry’s finest fly shops. Please patronize Bob Marriott’s Fly Fishing Store in Fullerton, Fishermen’s Spot in Van Nuys, and Orvis in Pasadena. I have personally worked with all three of them and can attest that they are all very knowledgeable, friendly, and capable of serving your exacting fly fishing needs, from fly fishing gear to local charter trips to fly tying lessons.
