Just got in from Cedros Island trip over the weekend and here's a quick report from a trip that is as good as it has been billed by readers. It was my first trip. It won't be my last, I hope.

We had amazing fishing and an outstanding trip with wide-open yellowtail fishing a mile to two from the Cedros harbor on iron, butterfly jigs, little mackies... you name it. It was the best yellowtail fishing I've experienced and the other 12 guys on the WON-sponsored 4-day trip all agreed it was their best-ever yellowtail and calico fishing.

Yellows 15 to 30 pounds just ripping apart squid and another bait out there as you'd throw surface iron into pileups of slashing yellowtail around the pangas. The only question was whether your stamina could hold up.

Making mackerel just a mile away was easy and then you'd drift across kelp drop into holes in kelp with 80-lb braid and short top shot of 40 to 60-pound Seaguar Flurocarbon and 3/0 Lazersharp hooks...and POW, a 4- to 10-pound bass on each drop. The heavy line is needed to fight them quickly, get them through the kelp and release them quickly. At times the huge bass would come up in schools. All released but two that were bleeding.

Best calico fishing on bait at a time when conditions were not prime with wind and plastics (surface slugs and swimbaits) did not work well, which was strange after many reports of great action. Usually it's phenomenal on plastics, but little macks were instant.  

Here's a photo of Mark Snitow of Havasu with a toad, his biggest calico ever. It was estimated at between 8 to 10 pounds.

Great operators with Cedros Outdoor Adventures, Jose Sanchez and his wife Melanie handled all details, as the hotel was very nice, perfect old Baja and clean. Could not have asked for a better trip, better weather and a nicer group of anglers. Look for the story in the next issue of WON.

For details on the operation, see www.cedrosoutdooradventures.com

Pat McDonell, Editor, WON