Bonita?

[js0778]

What type of setup do I need to troll or cast for bonita? (Rod/Reel/Line/Lure?)

Setup as far as rod/reel? You dont need anything heavy, 12-30lb. tackle is fine.

[Ice Cream Man]

I use light tackle ( same rods & reels I use for Flounders ) tie on a Smallest Yozuri Deep Divers - trolled at 4 - 5 mph. Heavy tackle ( live bait King rods ) for Small Clark Spoons - 25 feet of 30# mono trolled behind a # 1 & #2 planers. Always have a Pink Maria Jig (21 grams) for jigging & throwing at fish busting on the surface. Most importantly DO NOT run thru a school, they will sound & you might as well go home. Work the edges of the school, if other boats are catching them trolling get in & stay in line. Good luck............ICM

[cabowabo36]

when they are busting on top i like to use my 12-15lb. test line on a nice 7ft. med action rod, they put up a fierce fight. my favorit lure for them are the crippled herring, love em. jig them, cast them, or troll them with my downriggers. for jigging, you can use the same as casting but if there down deep i like to use a 20-30 lb. test conventional 6-7ft. med. rod. make sure you use mom or flouro carbon leader as like tuna, they have a very keen eye sight, they really fun when they school up and they come inshore 0-5 miles offshore, for trolling the same thing, downriggers work well with a metal lure that spins and flashes, not to big though, same goes for casting, jigging. gators, crippled herring,deadly dicks. any think shiny will do fine, good luck!!!!

[thunderdog]

I use 7' medium action spinning rod and 15lb. test. 30 lb. flourocarbon leader and a penn 4500. i find that the 5" yozuri crystal minnows work or the #2 or #3 deadly dick works fine.

[SeaBoss Kid]

I have had luck trolling Clark spoons wayyyyyyy back behind the boat. Troll around the school and turn to drag through the middle and hold on. I have caught then trolling for dolphin with Hoo's. With all that said..... I had a friend the last time out that insisted that there was no way that a bonita could not be good to eat. He bled the biggest one and put it on ice. We got back and he cleaned it, got rid of the red meat and got some nice fillets. He left me some, which I was going to use for bait( I didn't want to insult him). He called me several hours later raving about how good it was cooked in sesame oil. Well, I tried it and he was right, it was awesome... Good luck.

[picua]

For Trolling: 7' Ugly Sticks 12-20 with shimano charter special spooled with 15# and the line winder removed.
For Casting: 7' 8-17 rod that can throw and 1 ounce lure, and 12 pound line reel.

All lures mentioned above work fine. One i use that seems to work is a daisy chainof four of 3" white tube lures like the ones you use to fit on jigs, the one on the end with a 3/0 hook. space the plastics around 6 inches apart.

[The Catahoula]

SeaBoss Kid - 4/10/2007 5:26 AM

I have had luck trolling Clark spoons wayyyyyyy back behind the boat. Troll around the school and turn to drag through the middle and hold on. I have caught then trolling for dolphin with Hoo's. With all that said..... I had a friend the last time out that insisted that there was no way that a bonita could not be good to eat. He bled the biggest one and put it on ice. We got back and he cleaned it, got rid of the red meat and got some nice fillets. He left me some, which I was going to use for bait( I didn't want to insult him). He called me several hours later raving about how good it was cooked in sesame oil. Well, I tried it and he was right, it was awesome... Good luck.

Absolutely! Most people consider them trash, but if you immediately clean and get em on ice, it's delicious! Cook it just like you mentioned in tinfoil, over a grill, and the exact day you caught it. You can't keep those fillets for later!

[Ice Cream Man]

BonitO with an O have teeth & you can eat - They have straight racing stripes along it's side.
BonitA with an A are False Albies - Not good to eat - squiggly stripes on it's side - good strip bait
Both fun to catch on light tackle. Commonly mistaken for the same fish - are we clear on that now!
........ICM

[spooled up]

Funny, BonitOs are my favorite to eat, while BonitAs are my least. Some of those bigger Bonita/false albacore can really put up a fight. We have found schools off jersey with 12-15lb fish being the avg. They were taking down 9-12" lures and making decent runs with 12-13lbs of drag. The first few we even thought were decent bluefin. That being said, I would think for the bigger brutes 15-20lb line would be most appropriate. For the smaller guys, 12lb line would be very sporting. Keep in mind however that the quicker you can get them to the boat, the more of a chance they stand at surviving!

Trolling Lures- 6" zuker feathers, Clarke spoons, cedar plugs, Mini Green Machines. (Sometimes they are on squid and sometimes they are on minnows, switch the spread appropriately when you figure out which.)

Casting- Deadly Dick spoon, Need L eel, Brandy Minnow...basically anything really shiny and low profile that can be retrieved fast!

[Ice Cream Man]

Use a net if your going to release them. A head first release, similar to spiking a football is the best way to get them back in water............ICM

[ccat]

actually if you bleed the smaller false albacores and cut out the bloodline,marinate and grill they are pretty good. Make really good tuna salad

[jake in jupiter]

if they are bonita and you need some strip bait, bust out the 4lb tackle and have a blast

[krisis7]

Anyone have Pics of Bonitos and Bonitas

[Permission]

this is an "ALBIE" False Albacore, Little Tunny, etc, not a bonito, or Bonita.
AND, a BIG ONE!!!!! +/- 22 LBS?

[spooled up]

Nice fish, I bet that was a decent battle. Did you hook him trolling for Bluefin? Usually the biggest ones I run into are 15-40miles out. I think the world record was caught recently in a New Jersey canyon.

[Ben78]

I enjoy chasing Bonita too (we call em Mack Tuna in Australia though)

Caught this one on a live slimy mackeral last week (blue mackerel?) fishing for spotted mackeral



Gear was a 12kg Berkley Saltwater Dropshot, Reel was a Penn Affinity 4000 and the line was 15lb braid. At the endof the first run I had about 300yd line out. With macks the biggest isssue is line capacity for that first run, once you get through that the fish is as good as yours. I have hooked one about this size on 4lb gear but even chasing in the boat I couldn't go fast enough to keep up and had to break it off to keep from being spooled.

Oh yeah, and since it was asked, these are Bonito (Australian), I think there is a few different species getting around...



Bonito is the bottom fish and are tasty as, kinda like chicken I guess, other two are Snapper (Australia/New Zealand, Red Sea Bream elsewhere I think...)

[bonefish]

Ice Cream Man - 4/13/2007 4:59 AM

BonitO with an O have teeth & you can eat - They have straight racing stripes along it's side.
BonitA with an A are False Albies - Not good to eat - squiggly stripes on it's side - good strip bait
Both fun to catch on light tackle. Commonly mistaken for the same fish - are we clear on that now!
........ICM

BonitO are in the tuna family, dark red bloody meat. BonitA are attractive latin women, not a fish species.

[spooled up]

Bonito do not have dark red bloody meat. False Albacore do.

[HullSlap]

If you call the fish in this picture "false Albacore" in my neck of the woods people won't know what the hell you're talking about. On the southwest coast of Florida those are Bonita (like the fine senoritas on the beach) sometimes Bonito. Names like False Albacore and Little Tunny just don't seem to stick around here. Call 'em what you want but ultimately they're a blast on light tackle! I catch most while trolling for mackerel with a small spoon on 10 lb. PowerPro on a Shimano Stradic 4000 and light spinning rod. 5 knots seems to be the magic speed.