Fished off Carrington Point on the Calico Hunter II with Larry and his friend Leo. Most of the fish came when we started at around 60 feet and drifted into 120. All fish were caught on various Big Hammers and large curl tail grubs - some tipped with squid and some smeared with Pro-Cure. My fish were all caught on 5 inch Big Hammers on 1.5 oz. heads. I added 1.5 - 2 oz. egg sinkers as the wind/current picked up. My color of the day was #52 - Red Calico Hunter.


Big Hammer - Red Calico Hunter

We only fished for a couple hours due to the weather and some sea sickness. The totals were many many shorts lings and two legals. Several nice Reds (4 - 5 lb. range), lots of other rockfish (Chuckleheads, Blue Bass, etc.). Leo also caught a couple nice calicos (released).

http://www.mindspring.com/~petenjen/images/020302a1.jpg http://www.mindspring.com/~petenjen/images/020302a2.jpg http://www.mindspring.com/~petenjen/images/020302a3.jpg

http://www.mindspring.com/~petenjen/images/020302b.jpg
Leo after the bumpy ride home

Looks like a lot of fun (except the seasick part). Those big reds are a blast in shallow water. Looks like somebody may have vamited :-)

Thanks for the report, Pete.

I like your idea of adding an egg sinker when you need more weight (I have done the same with a red bead between the egg sinker and the leadhead) but what do you think of Captain Dave Bacon's technique of removing the hook from a Hopkins lure and attaching the leadhead to the Hopkins lure for weight and flash?

The addition of the Hopkins lure to the leadhead is for jigging lings and rockfish, but what do you think of using this technique, with a much lighter Hopkins lure, as an addition to a leadhead for calico/sandbass fishing? I am concerned that the split ring might reduce the swimbait action, so maybe all connections should be tied instead, but this results in a lot of knots to be tied. I might try this next time out.



Bob

What about just rigging the hopkins spoon w/o any connections, so that it can slide like an egg sinker, or tying a dropper loop with the spoon on the loop?

** tight lines make all my troubles go away **

Thanks; these are good ideas and I will try them.

Bob

The Hopkins spoon acting as the weight on a dropper loop sounds pretty good, I might try that sometime. I don't know if I would use it as a slider though. I think it would tangle the line too often. JMO. I've had torpedoes put on the line that way so that they slide and it seems the line is more apt to tangle around the torpedoe or in this case, the spoon. What does seem to work pretty well for me when fishing dropper loops is using a chrome torpedoe tipped with a treble hook. It can be used as a reverse dropper or standard dropper loop rig. The flash of the chrome seems to entice the fish into biting, especially at night. Works real well for Catalina Calicos and even the butts have hit it. Now I haven't tried this technique with swimbaits but it works nicely with the live bait or fresh dead variety.

P.S. By the way, dball, your bears and my Bruins square off in the first round of the Pac10 tourney. Good luck, should be a good one.


GO BRUINS....GO RAMS....GO FISHING....!!!!
FLOWING THROUGH MY VEINS!!!!

GO BRUINS....GO RAMS....GO FISHING....!!!!
FLOWING THROUGH MY VEINS!!!!

When is the first game? I can't seem to find the schedule.

** tight lines make all my troubles go away **

9:00 p.m. Thursday. Its the last game. FSN.

I'm pulling for the bears. However, UA vs ucla at the Staples would be a good game to watch...

Go CATS!!!

Hey CATS92, would it be safe to say you're pulling for the Bears for fear of my Bruins possibly meeting up with your Cats? lol. Just Kidding, but you do understand I HAD to respond with something. But really. Is that it?;-)

GO BRUINS....GO RAMS....GO FISHING....!!!!
FLOWING THROUGH MY VEINS!!!!
GO BRUINS....GO RAMS....GO FISHING....!!!!
FLOWING THROUGH MY VEINS!!!!

GO BRUINS....GO RAMS....GO FISHING....!!!!
FLOWING THROUGH MY VEINS!!!!

As a Bruin alum, it's hard for me to say this but... losing to Cal first round would be the best thing that could happen to UCLA b-ball. It would probably mean no invitation to the NCAA tourney and hopefully, hopefully the long overdue dismissal of Steve Lavin. Lavin talks a good game and is pretty slick but his coaching skills are some of the worst I have seen on the college level.