With the water warming and the Catalina bite heating up, coastal anglers are ready for the advent of the migrating species like barracuda, bonito, bass and yellowtail. Early in the season, all but the bass are suckers for the iron. The bass will warm up to a surface bite when the spawn mode becomes stronger, but that time is coming, too.

Yellowtail in particular will go for the yo-yoed iron jigs, and when they're up top chasing bait, yellows will smash light iron with a good wiggle right on the surface. Whatever make of jig you're using, that wiggle is critical, and it behooves the angler to check how his jig is swimming, to get just the right speed to make the wiggle. The greatest amount of "kick" or side-to-side motion is most often the one that will draw the most strikes.

The three B's are bass, bonito and barracuda. During the peak of spring and early summer fishing they'll all crash on the surface iron, making the method a top source of fun. Jig fishermen get more satisfaction, they say.

More fish are caught on yo-yoed or deep-fished heavy jigs, however. The reason may well be that often the fish won't come all the way up. If the bait is down, the fish will be down as well. To take advantage of the location of the fish, a good jig-thrower has to fish top and bottom.