Benitos Island

Benitos is a beautiful and rugged volcanic set of small islands situated north east of Cedros. We woke to find small nocturnal seabirds roosting all over the boat and hiding under the kayaks. What a cool feeling to be in a place so remote that the birds have no fear of man. The crew picked them up and set them loose.

I was anxious to get to the skiffs and sample what several people told me is the best calico fishing for numbers of 5+ calico anywhere. But first we fished the big boat for the morning run, picking small bass in deep water and looking around for condition. We found some surface action on a windy point and caught some nice bonita, tiny barracuda, and one 20lb yellow that Nico hung on a yo-yo jig. 

For the mid-morning skiff run we fished with Cal and worked some deep kelp where he had just had a great flurry with Pete and Rob on 5-7lb bass. Pete said he had a wolf pack of 20 big calicos on his bait all taking shots at it. We didn't relocate those fish but Nico did hook a yellow trolling a Big Hammer through the big boat's chum line (it got to the rocks and broke off). The yellows at Benitos were 20 pounders.

From there we headed to a little spot called buoy cove where Pete had caught his (until this trip) personal best calico off a boiler. We hit that boiler and had the best run of big bass of our entire trip, landing a half-dozen bass from 5 to 6+ pounds in about 20 minutes. I had a real good one hooked in the white wash but it pulled off. Wish I could have seen that one. This was the most exciting heart-pounding calico fishing of the trip for me. When you cast your Hammer two feet from the boiler and know that in a few cranks a big checkerboard is going to smash it - that's fun. These bass were dark black/orange like the rocks they lived in, and when they hit your Big Hammer - there was no question.

We wrapped up the action with Cal poking around the deep kelp and stumbled in to a foamer of 7-9lb bonita which resulted in an instant triple hookup on iron. Good entertainment there to cap off our skiff run. The other skiffs had a few yellows and reported generally slow calico fishing - but great quality on the ones that did bite.

After that skiff run it was back to the big boat for a tour of the island to look for condition. We stopped once on The Boiler (an offshore rock) but didn't find anybody home. Capt. Joe decided to head back to Cedros in the afternoon since the condition at Benitos wasn't producing the bass fishing he was hoping for. We stopped offshore at Cedros at sunset but the yellows didn't go. I still thought it was a great day.

Nico and I tried some night fishing at Cedros that night but didn't find any nibblers. We were hoping for a big grouper but gave up and went to bed after half an hour.

Salt mining at Cedros Island

Hamachi appetizer - delicious!