These days, it's pretty tough to catch a legal calico even if your life depended on it. May experiences come from fishing on the 3/4 day boats off of Long Beach. Recently (August 2000), I went on a chartered boat off from Port Hueneme. We went over to the Channel Islands (It was an overnight trip). I was asleep, so I don't know where we went. When we were there, we dunked our anchovies and sardines, and within a minute, we had all hooked up 14 inch keeper calico bass! Some people, now, were taking the bait down a little more to go for some sandies. All the people attempting this ended up with FAT ones. I tried artificials and they worked very well. Then I decided to drift a squid with my bass rod in hope for a bull calico. Within 5 minutes, I had hooked up something big. It was gaffed (barely) and it turned out to be a 45 pound white sea bass! This was an extremely fun event, and a great opportunity to stock up on our fish. The calicos over 15 were released (of course). I'd like to use up these few lines to say ,"please, pleeease, release those unusually large fish and don't take more fish than you can eat within a couple of months. Also, follow the limits put on all fish."