My new fishing buddy Cody and I hooked up today for some inshore fishing out of SB harbor on his boat the hotlips. It was one hell of a day out there today and after 14 hours of fishing I'm pretty whipped, so this may be a bit incoherent, apologies in advance.

Conditions: Beautiful! Overcast and calm until 2pm. Baitfish everywhere. All the bait you cared to make all day long, and we probably made 300 pieces by the end of the day lol. Water was very clear, 20-25 foot vis. I saw bottom in 23 feet.

We ran up north to some places Cody likes, he's been fishing up north a lot this year. When we get to the spot there was bait flying everywhere, birds and seals working, and bass boiling in the kelp. It was like sensory overload, we were both wiggin out.

Right away it's calico bass on the flyline with 1/4oz sliders. Just straight quality bass from 2 and 3/4 to 4 and 1/2 pounds for the first few hours. We caught about a dozen. Cody caught a fat barracuda on a dead squid. We saw HUGE seabass under the boat on two occasions. Bombers, like 25-40lbers.

As the day went on we moved around quite a few times, but we wound up back on our morning spots after a while. Cody got ripped twice by huge fish, 99% sure they were the big seabass. One broke him off on 30 and the other one pulled the hook. I got a bite in that flurry that ripped me but I didn't connect. We were super bummed not to get one of the big sea biscuits!

Around noon the big bass came out to play, it was crazy. The last 9 fish we caught were all over 5lbs! Best calico bite I've ever been on. I got one about 7lbs and Cody got a toad on a dropper loop that was 8+. That fish whipped his butt good on a 900L with 40lb, he thought it was a huge halibut or seabass. We were stoked.

We were going to go home but Cody wanted sea biscuit bad so we hit some kelps on the way back. First one he gets ripped and nails a legal seabass! Stoked again. We poked our way down the line getting a few more bass. I popped a beautiful yellow colored 3.5lber at Leadbetter on a Tady 45 to cap the day.

It was super knarly day. Came home reeking like fish, covered in scales and fish goo. Rad. I caught all my fish on my Okuma 7'11" XH with the Induron 400, 80lb Triple Fish braid main line and 25lb Triple Fish Fluorocarbon leader. Great setup for pulling those big bass out of the kelp, I really liked it. If you fished 15 or even 20 today on these fish you were TOAST. By end of the day we put about 30 calicos on the boat, releasing the majority, Cody kept a few smaller guys along with the biscuit and barracuda for the grill :)

Cody - Seabass
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/7_10_07_cody_seabass.jpg

Cody - big boy calico!
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/7_10_07_cody_bigbass.jpg

Cody - barracuda
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/7_10_07_cody_barracuda.jpg

Me - another big boy calico
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/7_10_07_rob_bigbass.jpg

Big bass I caught, about 6lbs, too lazy to hold it for pic
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/7_10_07_rob_6lber.jpg

Cody with a typical bass
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/7_10_07_cody_bass.jpg

Cody - 5lber
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/7_10_07_cody_5lber.jpg

Me - more nice quality
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/7_10_07_rob_5lber.jpg