Leapin'? I'm sure you've caught a few toads. How 'bout you other guys? Here's my best.

It was caught on a 2.5 day kayak fishing trip to San Clemente Island that I took with Jim Sammons and a couple of other friends. The captain (of a 36' Bertram - nice!) is a friend of Jim's and he took 4 of us out there with one of his buddies for a couple days of fishing and kicking back. The captain and his friend would fish out of their zodiac while we worked the boiler rocks from our kayaks. We all caught a good number of 4-6# fish and the captain landed one that was likely over 10#. He said it was his biggest calico ever. Mine weighed in at about 8#. I didn't measure the fish. Wasn't all that long, but boy was it a fattie!

I hooked the fish on a sardine in about 6' of water and it immediately wrapped itself in the nearest kelp stringer. I paddled over and could see the fish's tail sticking out of the weeds about 3' down. I worked the fish out and then got a bunch of picutures of it before sending it on its way. I love the colors on those boiler rock fish. Dark brown/bronze backs and orange bellies... Awesome fish.

All the calicos I caught that trip were in less than 10' of water and at least half were in less than 5' of water. What a fun way to fish. Definitely a fish of a lifetime.
http://www.leonadivide.com/fish/SCI_calico.JPG

And here's a shot of the sunrise on the second morning we were out there. Absolutely amazing.

TL,
Adam

http://www.leonadivide.com/fish/SCI%20003.jpg