Fishing Reefs for Calico Bass

Reefs are offshore rockpiles or rocky highspots. If the rocks break the surface they are boiler rocks, if they are found underwater and do not break the surface they are called reefs. Reefs can also be man made, the Calif Dept of Fish and Game has tried many different materials to make reefs. They have used old car and truck tires, ( they are light and strong currents pushed them away ) trolley car bodies / car bodies ( they quickly rusted away ) and the reef material of choice, giant rocks quarried at Catalina Island and barged across the channel and placed in strategic positions on the sea floor, usually in forty to eighty feet of water.

Instead of making one large reef the DFG makes several smaller ones (five and twenty in number to spread fishing pressure over a larger area ) They made many reefs in Santa Monica Bay whose bottom was mainly miles and miles of sand and mud, not very conducive to giving bass, sculpin, sheep head, rock bass, sand bass, lobsters, octopus and multitudes of other fish, mollusks and crustaceans places to live and spawn, and give the hatchlings places to hide so they are not all eaten before they are one year old. After building many reefs on the floor of the bay, it is now alive with thousands of fish where once was just mud bottoms with few fish.

There are many ways to fish these underwater rock piles, my favorite is anchoring upcurrent of them, throwing out some chum, live and chunked sardines / anchovies and wait until the fish come up the chum slick and away from the rocks. Once the fish are away from the rocks and up in the water column you can fish them with light gear and have a blast. Depending on the size of the fish I see in the chum, I will use anywhere from six to ten pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon mono fished on light to medium action spinning tackle, consisting of a six to seven and a half foot rod with a Shimano bait runner reel ( small size ).

I carry spare spools for the reels with fifteen and twenty pound line in case the big ones come out to play. I use spinning reels most of the time when fishing live sardines or anchovies, as you can cast them quite far without backlashes, so common to baitcasting reels and novice fishermen. When I fish big baits I use a baitcasting outfit loaded with twenty to forty pound test mono, if the water is clear or the fish are spooky I will tie a eight foot fluorocarbon leader in the same pound test on the end of the line. Not since using straight fluorocarbon as it is very costly in the larger line sizes, and the fish is looking at the bait not eight feet up the line.

Getting the boat positioned properly is half the battle, if the boat is not directly up current / up wind the chum will not go back to the reef and you are wasting your time / chum / money. Sometimes you have to reposition the boat several times during the day due to changing currents or wind direction. Don't be lazy if your boat swings out of the optimal position your catch will go way down. I take a soda bottle and wrap it with used mono I have removed from one of my reels and tie a six ounce sinker to the end, this makes a great marker, just drop it over the side and the line unwinds and when the sinker hits the bottom the front of the bottle will point into the current. This will help you figure out where to drop the anchor.

I have six premade for forty, sixty and eighty foot depths and mark them with a water proof magic marker. Once the boat is anchored just up wind of the reef, I start chumming with chunk baits and when I see bass move up the chum line towards the surface I will start throwing some live chum into the mix. Chunk chum should be about one inch long, I keep some stainless steel shearshandy to facilitate cutting the chunks and on the way to the fishing area I have someone cut about a third of the bait into chunks and put it into a pail. A steady stream of chum keeps the fish going strong. I use a ratio of one live bait to ten chunks, each thrown at about six pcs. per minute.

If the fishing is hot I will throw a small handful of chunks once every two minutes or so followed by three or four live baits. Once the fish are in a biting mood I will switch to a swimbait fished on a twenty pound outfit. It is cast out past the working fish and allowed to sink on a tight line through the fish, if I am getting many hits on the swimbait I will change to a larger and then larger bait still.

When the bass are full on is the time to throw the "dinosaur" ( twelve inch swimbait ) because the bass are now in a magical state of competition and caution is thrown to the wind, its "feeding frenzy time"!! During these rare feeding frenzies you may catch several of the biggest bass you will see all year. Please respect these giant slow growing and rare bass, quickly take a picture and release this magnificent creature to live and fight another day. I always have a camera close by and at the ready as I don't want to keep these incredible treasures out of the water for more than one minute. Always use a large landing net with these big babies, never use a gaff!! When you get one of these big girls, ( all large bass are females, a twelve inch male produces enough sperm to fertilize several large females ) tell someone to get the camera ready so pictures can be taken as soon as the fish comes on board and time out of the water is kept to a minimum.

Please release all bass over four pounds as they are already six to eight years old and are the prime spawners, futures generations of fish and fishermen depend on it!!!!