Ep. 134: Daniel, Charly & Luke on Wide-Open Calico Bite & the San Clemente Overnight

Hosts: Daniel Dahlin ([FISH]rx), El Charly, Luke Dean (Bait Slingers / Artemis Charters)

Episode 134, recorded live on June 16, 2026, covers a sponsored overnight aboard the Toronado to San Clemente Island. The calico bass San Clemente bite stayed wide open on the 8-inch and 6-inch Slug, even while most of the boat fly-lined live bait for yellowtail. This one breaks down why the artificial bite never fell off, how to read a strike by what’s left of your bait, and what changes when you’re rigging for a 20 to 30 lb fish instead of an inshore spotty.

In This Episode

• Why the break wall’s kelp has thinned out this week and what that’s done to bait size: smaller paddle tails and craws are out-fishing the bigger stuff right now
• Ghost shrimp has been the hot color on the wall, and the HDX craw in that color has been getting torn up
• The 8-inch Slug in Oreo Dust stayed bit at San Clemente even with most of the boat fly-lining live bait
• How to tell a yellowtail strike from a calico strike just by looking at what’s left of your bait
• Why pinning a live bait through the nose changed everything for hookups on this trip
• The case for casting bait away from the boat instead of dropping it straight down
• Why a 300 reel needs a full spool of braid before a long-range run, and what happens when it isn’t
• RX Spike (2.5″ and 3″) is restocking on the site this week, and Oreo Dust just joined the Skeleton Craw lineup for the first time

The Calico Bass San Clemente Bite Stayed Wide Open

Before the overnight even started, the break wall report set the tone. Luke noted that recent swells have stripped a good amount of kelp off the wall, and the bite has been shifting between paddle tails and smaller profiles rather than locking into one pattern. Smaller baits have been out-producing the bigger stuff lately. That same “don’t get locked in” approach carried straight into the San Clemente trip.

Once the Toronado got out to the island, most of the boat worked live bait on the fly line for yellowtail. Daniel ran the 8-inch Slug in Oreo Dust, a color he originally picked for calico that’s also produced yellowtail. Burned back on a half-ounce head with the hook set far forward in the bait, it built a long, loose S-movement through six inches of unweighted tail. Daniel described the action as nearly identical to the live bait running next to it. The 6-inch Slug got bit just as consistently for other anglers on the boat, and Charly worked a bladed jig in the spottie color through the same stretch, burning it back and working the pause, connecting just as steadily. The artificial bite never fell off the whole trip, which is exactly why nobody felt the need to switch.

Reading a Bite by What’s Left of the Bait

One of the more useful things in this episode has nothing to do with what bait to throw. It’s how to read what already bit you. A yellowtail bite typically comes back with the bait smashed flat, like it had been stepped on. A calico bite shreds the bait, leaving it looking like it was dragged across 80-grit sandpaper, sometimes with the skin peeled clean off. A bonita bites clean through, leaving visible teeth marks. And if a bait comes back bent sharply in half right behind the hook with no teeth marks, that’s a seal, not a fish. Daniel and Luke both confirmed this pattern independently over the course of the trip, which makes it reliable enough to actually use the next time you’re trying to figure out what just worked your bait without seeing the take.

Why You Pin Live Bait From the Nose, Not the Back

For anyone planning their own overnight, the live bait section is worth slowing down on. Charly hadn’t fly-lined much going into the trip and found that hook placement changed everything: pinning the bait through the nose got him bit consistently, while pinning through the back or the butt didn’t produce. The other adjustment that mattered was distance. Boat-shy yellowtail bit far better on baits pitched away from the boat than on baits dropped straight down, and bites that came close to the boat tended not to connect. The last piece is timing. A stressed bait that runs hard, has something close to a heart attack, and dies stops getting bit, so the standard move on the boat was simply to reel it in and put on a fresh one rather than soak a dying bait.

Spooling Up Before a Long-Range Run

A few people on the boat learned the hard way that a 300-class reel loaded with heavier line doesn’t hold as much capacity as it looks like it should. A 300 spooled with 40 lb braid should have enough capacity for a yellowtail run, but a couple of reels on this trip were sitting at well under half a spool, which is enough to lose a fish if it makes any kind of real run. The fix is simple: spool all the way up before a long-range trip, not just enough to get by. On the leader side, the crew ran roughly 10 feet of fluorocarbon on everything, tied with an FG knot, and bumped up to 25 and 30 lb test as the trip went on after losing fish to the reef on lighter line.

Why This Episode Matters

This episode is a good example of why [FISH]rx sponsors trips like the Toronado overnight instead of just selling product. The artificial bite holding up against a boat full of live bait gives Daniel real, current proof that the Slug works outside the inshore harbors and back bays most of the catalog gets built around. Bite-identification systems like the one in this episode are exactly the kind of specific, repeatable knowledge that eventually finds its way into a Field Notes guide on travel fishing or chartering.

It’s also a reminder that not every useful piece of information comes from a planned technique breakdown. The hook-placement lesson on live bait, the reel-capacity mistake, and the bite-ID system all came out of a chaotic, fun overnight, not a structured how-to segment, and that’s exactly the kind of real-world data this show exists to capture.

Watch the full episode on the Time On The Water YouTube channel. New episodes every Tuesday at 6 PM.