For a while now, Skyler and I have been talking about fishing the island at night. We always feel that our trips out there aren’t ever really long enough…by the time the island wakes up, it’s time to head home. 

Weather looked fair so we pulled the trigger. Friday around noon, I dipped out of work, and we were in the harbor by 1:30pm. At the mouth of harbor, we ran into with some dense fog. Only having little visibility we took our time navigating the waters. Luckily for us the the fog ended about 10 miles out. We were met with flat calm seas for the next 50+ miles all the way to San Clemente Island. 

We arrived at SCI 3:30pm. The first thing we saw was Benny Florentino and his newly wrapped boat on the water! That thing is pretty. He gave us the low down on the bite. Talks of big yellows and some nice calico fishing in the area. We were pumped. 

We did our best looking for conditions and thinking of a plan of what we were going to do for the night. The fishing started off slow and we were mainly fishing the 7” Pickle Kick. As soon as the sun started to set, the bite began. The water temps varied from 67-69 degrees depending on where we were on the island. Our best bite of the trip was by far during the dusk hours. By the time it was pitch black out we had to switch it up. The calicos seemed to be at the bottom. I then opted for 2oz tungsten weight in front of my weedless Pickle Kicker. Skyler was using Warbaits 2oz swimbait head paired them with various trailers. Mostly swimbaits from Pearl and RodgeGarage. The bite was not wide open, but a slow and steady pick through the night. 

The anticipation of hooking a giant kept us awake. We did not bring any amenities for sleeping. Just coffee and our AFTCO weather gear to keep us warm. We figured why bother sleeping when we can fish all night. And we did just that. 

Morning came faster than expected. Happy to get back to some upper water column action. We traveled down the front side looking for yellowtail. Lately we’ve been getting the to eat the Pickle Kick. Unfortunately, this trip they were uncooperative. We did run into Jimmy Decker though! That was cool! 

Back to the west end to look for some more piggies. From about noon to 1:30 it was a steady pick at the calicos once again. Had a couple chances at some yellows. We only landed one small guy. Then, what felt like all of a sudden, the calicos stopped chewing. It’s now about 2:30pm. We planned to make it a full 24hrs at the island but it was hard to keep your eyes open now that we’d been awake for over to 30 hrs. And when it’s not biting, let me tell you how hard it is to stay up! There was also another problem. We knew there would be a fog bank waiting for us close to home. We made the decision to leave early so we wouldn’t be driving in fog at night. The ride home was nice. 40+ mph all the way to the fog. Luckily for us the visibly in the fog was rather good. We were able to see far enough to feel comfortable driving 35mph the rest of the way home. We ended up getting home in 1hr 40mins. Stoked to have good weather and good fishing. We pretty much can’t wait to do it again. 

Randy

Please enjoy some visuals:

Dense. Not so patchy.

Crystal blue persuasion

Capt. Ben Florentino aka Papa F. and his freshly wrapped Ranger 2510.

Golden Hour

First fish in complete darkness. Caught on Warbaits swimjig paired with a Rodge Garage Swimbait.

What’s in your gullet?

Oh a 7” Pickle Kick ‘Gill Bill’!

Bounce..Bounce..Anyone home? Yep.

Have you ever had fresh coffee brewed 65+ miles offshore for you? Game changer!

The pupils on these late night calicos are huge! Round and not your normal daytime tear drop.

Skybone trying to match the calico’s bugged out eyes.

Don’t sleep, on the dark sleeper.

What’s more beautiful than watching your favorite place wake up?

Decker! Said in Decker’s voice.

Yellows on the weedless are awesome!

8 ate 7! Are you serious? This should show how ferocious these calicos are.

94 Clicks, Roached out thumbs. What more could you ask for?

Even after being up 35+ hours by now, we still scrubbed her clean. Take care of her, and she will take care of you.