Favorite Nor Cal fish (Ocean/Bay)

Another poll 

i like hunting for calicos around carmel and monterey but can never get em on a fishing pole. i dont know how to go out fishing for any one type of fish. maybe i should learn how to rig properly. i just kind of drop a lure down and wait for the end of the pole to start freaking out.

oh yeah, when i hook onto bat rays they practically pull me under. they are fun to fight but i dont keep them or anything. their heads look like cat heads to me for some reason.

Living and fishing in monterey the past years i have caught only a few calico's , buts of Johnny bass that look very similar. I have been told that there are no calico's up this far until I show  photo of a nice 5# that got right in front of cannery row. there are here but the water is to cold for them and there not that active, least that's my two cents.

I grow fishing for them in S.D. the best thing is fish traps, live bait (sardines, squid, anchovy, iron)

what a fun bass to fish for! but I hardly ever will keep them. they are slow growers

when the season starts we will have to looking for them, my favorite is to start At point pinos and come all they down to san carlos
Steve/chef

Living and fishing in monterey the past years i have caught only a few calico's , buts of Johnny bass that look very similar. I have been told that there are no calico's up this far until I show  photo of a nice 5# that got right in front of cannery row. there are here but the water is to cold for them and there not that active, least that's my two cents.

I grow fishing for them in S.D. the best thing is fish traps, live bait (sardines, squid, anchovy, iron)

what a fun bass to fish for! but I hardly ever will keep them. they are slow growers

when the season starts we will have to looking for them, my favorite is to start At point pinos and come all they down to san carlos
Steve/chef

Hi Chef,

I have never hooked a calico and have seen tons of Olive rockfish / Johnny Bass. But as a spearfisherman i have seen reefs in monterey and carmel just dotted with calicos large and small. Last year I was freediving in monterey and found one reef with many large size calicos. i got three that day and they were all over 22" each. I think Monterey has a pretty good calico population and i see way more calicos than i do ling cod. Trick is, calicos are much faster. In carmel i know of places where you can spear them in less than 15 feet of water or even from the surface during the spring. They hide in the palm kelp as soon as they know someone is after them.

John

I caught a Calico at Davenport a couple of years ago - wish I had a camera back then but I'm 99% sure it was a Calico.

well, then you will have to point out these reefs were you have seen them

well, then you will have to point out these reefs were you have seen them

man, all i can say is that you are in a prime spot to be getting calicos maybe south of lovers beach a 1/4 mile and out to sea about 1/2 mile.

any good recipes for these fish? 

From kayak only?

Or any kind of fishing?

My votes are different depending on what you're actually looking for.

Be more specific, Mooch! 

any kind of fishing

Very hard to choose. I love all aspects of fishing for different species, for different reasons.

But from shore my picks would be - Sharays, halipers, and lingcod. 

Kayak would be sturgeon, halipers, and rockfish.