He called Thursday afternoon to say he fished that morning  and the bite was wide open on small calicos off La Jolla. “Let’s meet at Dana Landing at 6:30,” he said.

A choppy swell ran down the entrance to Mission Bay, but by the time we got to the south La Jolla kelp Jimmy was actually hoping for some wind to push us through the kelp loaded with birds, both diving and sitting. His first few casts with a 7-inch Berkley camo Jerk Shad produced a few bass, but just as soon small barries moved in. It took a move right into the kelp to get more action, but that came when a switch to WAR heads got a couple of the baits close to the bottom.

The WAR Head with a Berkley Gulp! 7-inch Jerk Shad got deep for this calico bass for Jimmy Decker.

But then the breeze kicked in out of the west and the best bet was the jerk shad fished on Owner’s Sled Head. This Owner jig head has their patented Twist-Lock screw at the base of the bullet-shaped head and an oversized hook that buries just perfectly into the Gulp! in a weedless presentation that let Decker, Hoose and this reporter cast in any direction without regard to the kelp.

In fact, it was best to disregard the open lanes and fish the Jerk Shad over kelp into the open pockets. Either dropping the bait on the sink or giving it  the “tap, tap, tap” that Decker recommended not only produced a lot of bites, but produced plenty of followers, too.

“The only thing you don’t want to do is just wind it straight in,” said Decker of the Jerk Shad technique.

While the calicos were willing to slurp the bait as it slid off the kelp, they were not willing to romp on the surface iron or blow up on the big MC Slug. The water was up to 63 degrees in areas, but they just weren’t really ready to rock and roll, I guess.

I do know that when we found the schools of bass, double hook-ups were not uncommon and it was “like fishing in an aquarium,” as Decker put it, the way you could look down into holes in the kelp and see the snouts of calicos poking out of the strands.

The best bet for lots of action was the Gulp! Jerk Shad fished weedless with the Owner Sled Head jig head. The fish would hit when the bait was pulled over the kelp or twitched in open water.

But the best action was up top, when the fired-up calicos would get a scent of the Gulp! and then get all ticked off when their up-top attack only ended up hanging them on the tip of a sharp Owner hook. We all agreed we couldn’t be fishing the way we were if not for rigging the Gulp! Jerk Shads weedless on the Owner Sled Heads.

The best part was the “surprise” attacks, like when I was pulling a cast out of the water and one of the better calicos of the day came halfway out of the water to try and eat the Jerk Shad. The fish suspended, wondering where its meal went, just a couple feet off the boat, and the reappearance of  the lure meant a hooked calico in no time.

Rich Holland pulled a few of the better fish of the morning in using the Jerk Shad/Sled Head combo and letting it drop into the holes in the kelp.

The fish were definitely schooled up on the inside edges and no sooner than you thought the bite was done for the morning than we would find another batch of biters. Lots of pencil barracuda – a great sign for the newly dawning season – were in the mix, but if you kept the baits mostly in the kelp you mostly caught bass. Too soon it was almost 11 a.m. and we had to pack it up and head for the Fred Hall Show.

Still it was a great morning of catching with some old friends and just as we entered the harbor the wind came up strong, too late to bother us. All that was left to do was to head for the show with big smiles on our faces.