Had the pleasure of joining my friend on his boat today out of Dana. We found glassy, overcast conditions when we started at 615 am. There was no current and the tide had just bottomed out. We fished about 10-12 hardbottom spots from out front down to down the coast a few miles. Fish weren't very aggressive in the 56 degree water but we did manage 30 or so legal bass between us with them being about 50/50 calicos-to-sandies. 4 of the calicos went 3-pounds each. We also caught an 18-inch ling. All but one fish were caught on 5 inch Big Hammers on 3/4 to 1.5 oz Fischco heads. Best colors for the hammers were ones with brown and orange in them. We were being short bit a lot, so I tried a smaller 4-inch size but only got one fish on it. The smaller bait didn't trigger the strikes like the 5-inch, so we just had to put up with being short bit a lot between hook ups. Pro Cure cocktail did help with short bites and followers. Done at 1 pm. All fish released.

Fongster, what does the cold water calico bite feel like? Is it just "heaviness" on the line, as if you were snagged in grass or kelp?

That's a great question. While we did have a couple bites that were just heaviness (especially when bit right after freespooling the swimbait back down and then taking up the slack again), most were more of a very subtle tap, or tap-tap like a freshwater plastic worm bite. We also had a few really smack the baits short but just not engulf them--this was the "I'm not really hungry but you enticed me enough to play bite" bite. Those short bites turned our swimbait tails into fuzz. I guess the bottom line is, they bit with a little less conviction than when the water is warm (like 60 and above). When we got bit, it was on a very slow grind close to bottom, dragging the bait on the bottom with a rod sweep, or freespooling it back after 5-15 cranks. Any small tick or tug, and you needed to crank the slack out fast and then swing once the rod loaded up.

EDIT, if you get short bit on a retrieve, immediately freespool it back to try and trigger a rebite. Some fish or group of short biters going after a bait today required as many as 2-4 immediate redrops before the fish or one in the group would eat it enough.