By: Ryan Christianson…….
When I was given the opportunity to host the Let’s Talk Hook Up trip to Cedros Adventures, I was beyond excited. I had heard so many stories of the epic calico bass and yellowtail fishing at Cedros that I could barely sleep in the nights leading up to the trip. After preparing two surface iron rods, two bass rods, and a 50lb bait/yoyo rod, and
loading up on MC swimbaits, surface irons, wax wings, sabikis, and bait hooks, I was ready to go. On the morning of departure, the San Diego people met up with the LA people at Fisherman’s Landing at 5:30 in the morning and headed south towards Ensenada.
After a smooth boarder crossing and drive we were in Ensenada where we taken to a nice hotel and served a great breakfast, while we waited for our flight. During our wait we got a tour of Ensenada and had a great lunch. After lunch it was time to head to the airport to wait for the plane, which was returning with a very happy group of anglers from the last trip. From their reports it sounded like it was biting at the island. After a two-hour flight we were on the Island and our gear was loaded and taken to the lodge. Upon arriving at the lodge we all got to pick out our air-conditioned and well-appointed rooms. The rest of the afternoon was spent readying gear and enjoying the scenery. We were served an awesome first dinner and went to bed, dreaming of great fishing!
The first day of fishing greeted us with amazing action on the surface iron. Our boat ended up with 14 yellows from 20-38lbs all of which were on the surface iron. The rest of our group ended up with very similar results. I had the opportunity to use the Shimano Tranx on this trip, and was very impressed with its pulling power and castability. It casted like a Curado and had the pulling power of a Trinidad. In fact, I caught my biggest surface iron fish to date on it and it performed perfectly. As we headed in for the day I could not stop smiling, I had my dream day of surface iron yellowtail fishing!
As we awoke on the second day I was really excited with the prospects of another day of fishing at such an amazing fishery. As we pulled out of the harbor our captain, Lalo, asked us if we wanted to fish for yellows or calicos. My boat partners and I decided we wanted to go calico fishing so we made a left and headed to the north end of the Island, After a nice ride up the lee of the island we arrived at some beautiful looking kelp. Lalo set us up to drift through the mat of the kelp. While drifting through the mat, every pothole meant a fish. To do this I was using a Terrmar, TMC711MH with a Curado 300E with 65lb power pro to 50lb fluorocarbon leader. I was using the 9” MC Viejos Series swimbaits with a 1oz long shanked Warbaits Lead head. The grade of the calico bass amazed me, 2-4 pounders were normal with many larger models mixed in. In a day of calico fishing my two boat partners and I caught and released 158 calico bass. On another boat out of the resort, our friend Bob Fletcher and Louie each caught beautiful white sea bass in the kelp on MC Viejos swimbaits.
On the third day of fishing I really did not know what to expect, after the first two days I didn’t think we could top what we had already seen. We headed out of the harbor and, Lalo told us that we were going to go fish calicos again on the north end of the island. I was stoked because the fishing was so good the day before. Upon our arrival at the north end we were greeted by more awesome fishing, catching and releasing 60 more bass up to 7lbs. We then, decided to go fish yellows on the south end of the island by the salt plant. I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams the events that were going to unfold down there. We arrived and I saw another one of the pangas from our lodge pulling on a double of what appeared to be very large yellowtail. So, we picked up a few pieces of mackerel and began to slow troll. It didn’t take us long to get bit. We slow trolled from around one in the afternoon until four, and landed seven yellowtail between 35 and 44 pounds. I have never in my life seen that quality of yellowtail concentrated in an area so close to shore. We caught these fish right next to the salt plant docks and pilings for the ships and barges that serve the plant. After landing 
seven beautiful yellows we decided to call it a trip and head back to lodge to break down our gear and hear about everybody’s fantastic fishing!
If I had one word to describe my trip to Cedros Adventures, it would be epic. Everything from the time you meet up with the van is handled with amazing professionalism. I cannot say enough about the staff at Cedros Adventures, they are some of the friendliest and accommodating people that I have ever met. They take great pride in making sure that your stay at the lodge is perfect. Everyday when you arrive back at that the Lodge your room is cleaned beautifully with fresh linens and towels. The food is awesome and plentiful. I would highly recommend this trip to anybody who wants to experience some of the greatest yellowtail and calico bass fishing in the world. I will be reliving the epicness of this trip in my mind for a very long time. Join us on our trips in 2015. Check the “Trips” page at www.letstalkhookup.com Contact Cedros Adventures directly at www.cedrosadventures.com
