Dana Point Primer
With the loss of the local kelp beds, there are tremendous quantities of calicos concentrated on most hard bottom spots out of Dana. In my nine trips in the last two weeks, I've caught them on the rock piles to both the north and south. In "normal" years the abundance of kelp can make these spots difficult to fish, however, we can thank last year's red tide and warm water temps for the temporary die off.
It's been a fish-a-bait with "10 fish limits" coming in less than an hour. More importantly, the quality of the fish has been amazing. I honestly can't remember the bite being any better in nearly 50 years of fishing the area: on each of my recent trips we've had numerous fish over 5# and my personal best was topped 4 trips in a row and is now close to 9#. Toss in the odd barricuda, halibut, sand bass and/or short wsb (just barely!) and it's local fishing at its best.
Interestingly, with the great sand bass and barrie bite to the north, relatively few PBers are targeting the checkerboards, which is fine with me. If you want to give it a try, I'll pass along some general info on where to begin.
First, save your fuel. You don't have to go more than 5 miles either direction from the harbor. While calicos are being caught in up to 20 fathoms, the bite is definately to better in water closer to 5-7 fathoms.
To the south spots such as Christmas Tree, Middle Kelp, and the hard bottom spot just outside and south of the pier have all produced quite well. To the north, inside the red bouy at the Point up to the north end of Salt Creek have also been extraordinary.
end an hour using your meter in a likely locale and in very little time you'll have your own set of numbers.
(Before I get "hate mail", virtually all of our calicos are released---my raw thumb is a witness to this fact. I've found that using barbless 3/0 or larger hooks makes this task much easier and we loose very few fish, if any, as a result.)
While plastics and cut squid have all worked, the hot ticket has been flylined sardines on 15# gear. I suspect that the sardines are too big for most of the mackeral giving the larger calicos time to compete for the bait. The chunk squid has been productive however, and would be a good bait for kids and inexperienced anglers.
Personally, I'd sleep in and head out just when most of the "competition" is headed from. Spend a hour metering around likely spots and you'll learn a lot about structure and begin to collect your own "numbers". Sometime between 3 and 4 pm get anchored up and toss a little cut bait over the side and then hang on. The bite has been WFO in the late afternoon early evening.
Just remember to exercise restraint as this resource won't take the pressure.
