....With all of the books, maps and other resources available today, finding the structure is not the difficult part, but the problem comes once you have located it. After you have located the structure you are faced with two decisions, how best to fish the structure and when to fish it. Every spot has its own “Window of Opportunity”. In other words, a spot will normally produce best when all of the conditions required to trigger the fish to feed come together for that specific period of time. There are many factors that will dictate if a spot is going to bite. When I fish at night, I determine where I am going to fish based on tidal movement, current and visibility.
....When fishing at night I like fishing structure that is located in 70 to 100 feet of water in the winter months, but in the summer months, I will shift my attention anywhere from rocks (boilers) in the surf to structure located in 70 feet of water. In the winter months I have had some wide open bass bites when the water temperature has been in the mid to high 50s, but the bass are more likely to eat live bait than artificial lures.
....However, when the water temperature climbs to 60 to 64 and higher that is when the bass become more aggressive and good top water and swimbait bites are not uncommon.
Wayne 'The Train' displays this 7+lb. Sandbass, which was caught on a hard bottom/Sand edge.
....When searching for toad sandbass I will begin looking for structure consisting of hard bottom and sand. There are areas south of the Long Beach Harbor that you can make ¼ to ½ mile drifts along these edges and catch some big sandbass. I have found the most productive calico spots at night are structure that are in close proximity to secondary structure such as kelp and rocks. For instance, there are many hard bottom spots and “missed loads” (accidentally dropped quarry rocks) a very short distance from the breakwall and these areas can produce very well at night on an outgoing tide.
....The bass will move into the wall to feed on the incoming tide and move back out to the deeper structure on the outgoing. Case in point, February 1993, full moon night, 7.0 high tide at 4:00 p.m. and dropping to -2 at approximately 12:00 a.m. My good fishing buddy Wayne Eckenrode and I were enjoying a good calico bass bite on the wall with plenty of the 2 to 4 pounds fish and around 11:00 p.m. the bite shut off. We were fishing a small ridge that runs from wall and tapers to a hard rock bottom out to over 50 feet of water. The fish were tight against the wall and as the tide receded so did the bass. At slack tide we motor around looking at other spots and returned to the ridge around 1:30 a.m. and got set up. We were throwing live mackerel on 30 pound line and the bass started to build and finally around 3:30 a.m. the big boys arrived. Wayne was the first to get bit and landed a nice calico bass and within a 45 minute window we had 11 bass ranging from 6 to just over 10 pounds. From our experience of fishing bass at night, we knew these fish would move along the spine of the ridge and out to the deeper structure during the outgoing tide. The key was to have the anchor set during the slack tide and wait for the fish on the wall to reload the deeper structure spot.
....I believe if we would have arrived any later and tried setting the anchor (we had to reset the anchor 3 times before the boat laid in the correct position) we would have spooked the fish and may have not experienced calico bass fishing at its finest.
Big Fish Spot: Lost count of how many fish over 8lbs. we've caught here.
....There are hundreds of spots to fish at night for calicos, but nighttime calico bass fishing starts for me on the West end of the Horseshoe, since there is a lot of good solid structure spots and it is only a short run up to the Point Vicente area if the bite does not materialize on the Shoe. During the winter months when you have a few days of stable weather and there are good tide swings after 12:00 a.m. that is when I will begin searching for the trophy bass. When metering structure it is not uncommon not to meter any bass on or near the structure, but you soon find out after your first few casts that there are fish at home.
....The reason for this there may only be one or two big fish on a specific piece of structure, and it is almost impossible to mark them on your meter because they are hugging tight to the bottom. However, there is one thing that can make these bigger bass move off of the bottom and suspend and making those beautiful inverted “Vs” on your meter and that is current. You will notice that once the current starts to move a spot that appeared to be dead will suddenly come to life. The bass will raise and suspend over the structure, down current or even up current from the spot, which makes it easier to mark them on your meter and to know where to set your anchor or start your drift.
....I can not stress enough the dynamic contrast of fishing at night versus the daytime. During the day you are able to spot the dark spots from a safe distance, but these submerged boilers can quickly become your worst nightmare at night. At night, kelp, rocks and waves come out from nowhere. Case in point, approximately 25 years ago I was fishing with fishing buddy Wayne one night. We were fishing the inside reef at Point Fermin and on this particular night there was a large swell with a light wind gently pushing the swell over the top of the reef . We were fishing live mackerel and herring on 30 pound outfits. The calico bass fishing was phenomenal and every cast with live bait produced a calico over 5 pounds. As we made our last cast to the reef before repositioning the boat from out of the darkness a wave peaked, broke and crashed on top of my boat 14 foot aluminum boat. I was fishing on the front deck and running the trolling motor when we were struck by the wave and the force of the water knocked me off the front deck and into the water. Thank God I had my life jacket on and the only thing that happen to me was a bruised ego and wet cloths. SO BE CAREFUL!!
....Good tidal movement plays a major role in catching bass at night. We are all very familiar with the fishing calendars that predict good, fair and poor fishing days. These predications are based on phases of the moon and while the value of this information is debatable I believe moon phases do play a valuable role in calico bass fishing. I like fishing on nights where there are higher than normal tides that peak around 12:00 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. These types of tides normally occur during a new moon and full moon when there is more of a gravitational pull on the earth. I have had some great top water bites up the line near Portuguese Point and Marineland Reef on clear full moon nights. My experience has shown that I have caught more calicos over 8 pounds on clear nights and on outgoing tides. In addition, time is a factor. I have caught most of my bigger bass during the period between 12:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. , but don't rule out gray light for another golden opportunity to catch trophy bass. As you can see, there is a very small window that I have caught the majority of my larger fish. I like arriving at a spot during “Slack” tide or soon after so I can get set up on the spot and wait for the tide to reverse itself. More times than not the fish will begin feeding soon after the tide changes and you need to be in the best possible position and ready to go. Remember, tide is one factor and current is just as important. It is possible to have a strong current during slack tide and have the fish go on the chew. So, I like good tide swings with current.
