Hi All,
Hunting for fish can be a thrill. That is the case with Atlantic Bonito. The Atlantic Bonito is often confused with the False Albacore (a.k.a. Little Tunny). To make matters even more confusing, the False Albacore is called the bonita in places like Florida.
Bonito are pelagic. They eat mackerel, menhaden, alewives, silversides, and other fishes, as well as squid and shrimp. A Bonito's maximum size is 36" in length and a weight of about 27 pounds. The best way to locate them is via trolling, which we will concentrate on in this article.
To successfully troll for Bonito, you need the correct type of lures. The best lures to attract these speedsters into the spread are Clark Spoons (which imitate squid - sizes 0 to 2 will work) and Japanese Feathers, the color of which does make a difference at times (with popular colors that are working this year being green, green/white, green/yellow, red, and red/white, to name a few). I often employ a 4 to 8 oz. drail 6 to 8 ft. ahead of the Clark Spoon or feather to get the lure below the surface. Please note that some people substitute a planer for the drail. I find that either technique works and is more of a personal preference.
I use conventional outfits consisting of a Shimano Tekota 500 spooled with 50 lb. Power Pro braid mounted on a Shimano 6'6" Compre rod for each rod in this spread. The lighter the better the fight after the hookup. My spread consists of 5 rods. One rod down the center is WWB ("way, way back") with a green Boone bird in front of a Green Machine (sometimes I "beef up" that rod/reel combo). I have a rod holder on each side of the transom. A rod setup goes in each of those rodholders with a natural cedar plug lure (I like Cedar plugs because they are proven winners with many species but you can certainly replace these with more Clark Spoons and/or feathers) attached via an Aftco release clip to the transom. The lines are "flatlined" right in the prop wash. I then deploy a setup on both the port and starboard rodholders just fore of my transom rodholders. I sometimes use "outrodders" for this. The terminal tackle typically consists of an 8 oz. drail to the mainline via a good offshore snap swivel. The other end of the drail is attached via 6-8 ft. of 40 lb. fluorocarbon to the Clark spoon or feather. Those lures are placed between the 2-3 waves in the wake and fine tuned as the day progresses.
There are many boat handling techniques used to "raise" the fish. I find that a speed of 7 knots is optimal for my boat. This may vary depending on the boats hull and sea conditions. One can employ dropping the lures by stopping and then accelerating; zig-zag patterns; or many other techniques. I find that I do best fishing dropoffs at the Barnegat Ridges and the Manasquan Ridge. The sea conditions, especially the direction of the current, determines the direction that I troll in. I also troll areas with schools of bunker and structure, such as the Axel Carleson and Sea Girt Reefs.
Once a hookup occurs, continue to operate the boat as more strikes may come. Make sure to record the area on your Chartplotter and continue to run back over that area on the troll, or quickly setup a chumslick and start to jig them up. Jigging will be covered in a future article.
So, go out and get some Clark Spoons and an assortment of feathers. Go to your nearest Ridge or Lump and start a 7 knot troll and get ready to fight a formidible, inshore pelagic that tastes good too!
Good catching,
Capt. Ed
