Winter brings with it a fun, unique style of calico

and sand bass fishing: fishing in the dark with a 

leadhead and squid. 

Do you like catching these?  

And maybe having a shot at one of these? 

Problem is that it’s tough to find a sportboat to fish at night from this time of year. If you have a skiff — or access to a skiff — you’re golden. You can take advantage of winter weather windows to fish night bass, hope for a seabass and maybe hoop up some lobsters in between. The package is an overlooked part of private boating. One that can be done both along the coast and out at the islands.

The New del Mar does weekend night bass trips out of Marina del Rey Sportfishing, but other than fishing the Santa Monica Bay (for mostly sand bass), there’s not many options for the sportboat crowd, aside from jumping on the six-pack Options. The Pierpoint Landing based six-pack is running — or trying to run, based on weather and reservations — over the weekends in January and February. White seabass and shots at winter exotics at Catalina or Clemente are the main play, but winter calico bass fishing is what keeps the game rolling — especially at night.

“We’re targeting the exotics, but anytime we anchor up at night adjacent to the kelp and structure the bass fishing is always a good bet,” said Options skipper Tino Valantine when we were talking about fishing night bass in the dead of winter.

For whatever reason, the bass bite better at night in the winter. It’s a really fun style of fishing: using leadheads and squid on heavy gear hoping for a white seabass, but pulling on big, quality bass throughout the dead of night.

“With calico bass, for whatever reason, they go all nocturnal in the winter and bite at least twice as good in the dark,” says Valantine. “It’s like it’s so cold that they don’t want to expel a lot of energy. You have to put the bait right in front of their face.”

That bait is always squid — be it live, fresh dead, or frozen — fished on heavy tackle. (Fish fin bait, catch next to nothing.)

“I like leadheads for fishing the structure,” says Valantine, who prefers to switch over to a half-ounce slider to a big hook once the sun comes up and seabass are the target. “I like the leadhead because you can really work through the structure with it, being real methodical. But don’t expect a 100 mile-an-hour run when you get bit, like fishing finbait. It’s more of a thump, or just deadweight, or a slow, steady run off. I wind and swing right when I realize I’m bit. With winter bass fishing with squid, I don’t let them eat it for five seconds or whatever like when fishing big fin bait.”

Part of the big draw to night bass fishing is that the quality of the fish is often incredible. A couple of weeks ago a trip with Gene “Geno Machino” Wessel and  Timmy and Cory Husband on the Husbands’ big Parker showed the merits of fishing bass at night. We all caught and released around half limits of 2- to 4-pound calicos in the dark while soaking it out for white seabass in the dark at Catalina. Once the sun came up, we didn’t catch another legal. A lot of people are quick to point out there are not any big bass at Catalina, but there are. It’s just that this time of year fishing squid at night is the best way to get them. So where do they go during the day?

“I’m not sure why you get 3- to 6-pound bass in the dark and never get a single short, and then you only get 11 inchersonce the sun gets up,” says Valantine. “It’s just a theory, but maybe those small bass are hunkered down at night because they are worried about predators. The bigger bass don’t have to worry about it as much.”

In the spring and summer it’s tough to keep small bass off the hooks — both day and night — but that’s also when there’s a lot of other feed (as in any small fish from mackerel to perch) in the water column.

When it comes to winter bass fishing in the dark, the “finesse” bass fishing of summer is out the window. There’s no need for light line and flylining an anchovy or sardine perfectly. Winter bass is all about using heavy gear to rip them out of the structure, and also be ready if you get bit by a white seabass. (Writer’s Note: I use the same rig in the dark as I use during the day: 65-pound braid to four feet or less of 50- or 60-pound fluorocarbon. I fish a small lever drag reel with no drag at strike. If I get bit by a seabass—or juked by a bat ray—I can quickly back off with the drag and let him run.)

Valantine likes to fish heavy tackle at night. But he likes straight mono: “I like 30-pound minimum; 40-pound is better,” he says. “I fish a leadhead with a big hook; 6/0 minimum. Bass — and seabass — are not hook or line shy at night. I just ball the squid up so it covers the hook.

“They just love to eat that booger on a hook.”