“Lookit… they are SO cute!” yelled a little girl walking along a dock in the Santa Barbara Harbor on her way to a WaveWalker Charter trip to catch some fish and see some whales and dolphins.
She was pointing to a school of baby calico bass hovering around a dock piling as they tried to stay hidden from predators and tried simultaneously to find something even smaller to eat (they are predators, too).
The harbor has thousands of them, a true sight to behold, and we’ve got Ma Nature to thank. After many years of a cold water regime, she brought us a prolonged El Niño cycle, and the past couple of years have been very good recruitment years for fish — such as calico bass — that reproduce with more gusto in warmer water.
The state insists on calling them “kelp bass,” but the rest of us call them calico bass because they don’t just hang around kelp, they are kinda calico colored and that’s what we’ve called them pretty much forever.
Even the big ones (a big one is over 7 pounds, and I’ve seen them up to the mid-teens) are beautiful fish, and the babies are just downright adorable.
Their pretty coloration, which earns them the nickname “sportcoat,” actually has a totally practical side: they blend in magnificently with fronds of kelp and with near-surface rocks covered with growth.
The natural camouflage hides them from sea lions and bigger fish, and it also helps them hide in wait for small fish that don’t see them and wander close enough to be eaten.
Out on fishing trips this season my crew and I have marveled at how many young calicos there are and of different class years all up and down our coast. We are witnessing a massive bump up in the population of these relatively protected fish, which cannot be taken commercially.
Sportfishers can keep up to five, and each one must be bigger than 14 inches in length. The bag limit was recently reduced from 10 calico bass, and the minimum size was increased to 14 inches from 12 inches.
Considering how slow these popular fish grow, it is interesting to consider that there are calicos along the coast which are currently sublegal in size but were of legal size before the regulation change.
One other interesting fact is that they are one of the only true bass along our coast, sharing that distinction with sand bass and spotted bay bass. The term bass is heavily overused on fish that are not bass at all, such as white seabass, giant black seabass, johnny bass, sugar bass and many others.
When you have a chance to be over the water this season, be sure to gaze down and see if you can spot some baby calico bass. I’m sure you’ll feel just as excited as that little girl who spotted some on her way down the dock.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
