Got to fish from a boat today, what a nice change. We fished the kelp off LJ from maybe 7:30 - 12:30. What ever YT / WSB has been going on down there seems to have died with the arrival of the Makos. We picked at the Calicos w/ swimbaits starting the pick. I moved on to my normal fare of Zoom Super Flukes, Jerkits and grubs. The Zooms ruled the day. I had 3 fish (though they were nice) on Hammers and Basstrix, the rest of my 7 legals and 3 or 4 shorts were on Zooms. Best presentation was Flippin' the bait (rigged on a sledhead) into the pockets as we drifted. Thought I was LM fishing, it was fun fishing. BTW, Zooms are one of the few cross-over baits I use for Calicos, while almost everything I use for harbor fishing would be classified as freshwater baits and riggs. In fact, fishing DP partyboats one will see them on a lot of the regulars rod's.

Oh yeah, started the day by christening the Truline that I wrapped way back in Oct. Too bad it was with a slimer, though probably legal. One things for sure, I love that rod. If you want a med/heavy jig stick that can doubleup on bait duty, these are the stuff. If you like glass that is. I can't remember the blank #, but it's the lighter of the two 8' blanks.

Sorry of this post is a little hard to follow, I'm sitting here dead tired, but I can't sleep. Ugh.

Amish Ed
You Can't Catch it again if
it's Dead!

Amish Ed
You can't catch it again if it's dead!

Amish Ed-
Hey I was wondering if you knew anywhere I can rent a Kayak near the Hyatt Islandia. As you may have seen from my other post, I'm going down to fish for tuna, and would love to rent a yak the next day. I fished from that culdesac next to Hyatt last summer and got a half dozen sand bass, and would love to patrol the area in a yak...any suggestions??

hey if you find out the where and how dont forget to post it out, Would love to try the bay on a yak.

I Fish...Therefore I Am

Ed,can you please explain to me what a slede head is.Is it fished weedless or with the hook exposed. I'm dying to try new tecniques for saltwater species.I also do alot of LM fishing and know that there are many useful baits that can be used as crossovers,if you don't mind getting those funny stares from other PBers.

Not sure where the Hyatt is, but San Diego Sailing Center rents yaks (also a great place to buy one). But, Mission Bay is a tough place to fish. Clear, shallow water and lots of boat traffic. It does have it's days though. There's probably someone on SD Bay that rents them. Much better fishing, both for size and numbers.

Trod, a sledhead is simply a jig head w/ an offset worm hook instead of a regular one. Perfect for thinner baits worked in kelp or other heavy cover. I Texskin the bait so snagging isn't too much of an issue. I lost 2 heads in 4 hrs fishing. And that's throwing into kelp so thick that we'd often have to just wait to drift up to the smallest of holes. Just enough to get the bait through. Sometimes even having to jiggle the tip to get the bait to roll off of some strand under the canopy. In fact, I should've had my Diawa w/ the flipping switch, would've saved some wear on the gears.

Calicos seem the hardest to crossover. They are are much pickier on any given day than say spotties, which think themselves LMs. My favorite freshwater baits for calicos are Zoom Superflukes, 4" Berkely Powerpulse worms (smoke/sparkle or watermelon/red flake) and the nearly impossible to find 4" Jerkit. Spooks can be fun too. For spotties; Powerpulse worms, Roboworm Zippers, Zoom Baby Brushhogs, American Angler Brushbugs, and Senkos. The Senkos are reserved for tough bites and tournaments duy to their fragile nature.

My adventures in crossover baits started when Whams became unavailable. Ironically, this happened just as they became popular. So I started hitting bass shops for things that looked different. You think PBers can be brutal. Try being a deckhand and throwing a frickin' zipper. It was my day off, fishing was slow so I started pulling out the 'new' baits. The whole crew started laughing, and kept it up for a long time. When I was pulling fish every other cast, they shut up. Then they used up the whole pack.
I still get laughed at when I return (now i'm stuck in a corporate job), but it's a different type of laugh now. I also know that Helgren's has or had a regular who used spinnerbaits in the kelp with great success. Just start playing around. The right baits will fall into place as you keep trying.

Amish Ed
You Can't Catch it again if
it's Dead!

Amish Ed
You can't catch it again if it's dead!

thanks Ed for all that great info.I can't wait till my next PB excursion.I just happen to have some superflukes in my box.

I know DH in the cattle boats can be harsh in regards to gear, I've been barked at a few times in my choices of rigs. a while ago, I got a small ( i mean small 1.5" diameter) reel from japan, no drag, direct drive daiwa reel, I've been seen some cheap replicas recently here at the states for crappie fishing, never the less, I loaded it with 35# spectra and 30# fluoro top shot mounted on a semi stiff 5' kunan rod, pulled it out twice on the twilights, first time around the deckies laughes so hard at it when they saw me pin a big dine on the circle hook that I thought that the guy on the tanks was going to fall insed with the bait, tossed the firecracker out and 5 minutes later I got bit, 20 something minutes later the jackpot fish was in an 11+ pound scooter, needles to say they stopped laughing, next weekend, same boat, same trip, same rig, same size bait, still some laughs, now the skipper gave out a look of "oh lord, now what" I got bit this time to something more consistent, agood while later after half a thumb gone from pressing on the spool (the only drag on the reel) and a few galons of water that one of the deckhands was pouring on top of my thumb and the reel to cool down, we gout the fish, a 15 pound class yellow tail for jackpot honors, after that they stopped laughing at the "peanut reel"

Also If anybody finds out where to get the jerkits please post the info, been trying to get some more of the small to medium sized ones for the calicoes and sandies, the guy used to sell them everyother sunday at the kobeys swap meet but havent seen him in a while, under certain conditions those little critters have gotten me fish when nothing else worked, rigged on a cottee lead head I've outfished the guys with live bait 6 to 1 a few times.

I Fish...Therefore I Am