hey everyone,
do you know which month will the bonito bite start to heat up?
i think it was early winter, i forgot.

thanx,
aaron d.

Boneheads sure don't tear it up like they used to- heard reports of some toad 10-12+ pounders at the 43 a couple of weeks ago. I love those guys! Hopefully they will rebound like the baccaruda and others, but the commercials could have really killed the drill for this great fish, they get slaughtered all over the Pacific. What happened to the good old days of catching the crap out of nice bonies at every harbor and pier in the southland? I grew up with that stuff, still love 'em- Cross your fingers!

No Kidding...probably one of the most fun fish on light tackle...Used to be able to catch those things like there was no tomorrow...I haven't seen a good bite for years though..

some bonito are starting to show up at catalina. i went on a 3/4 trip on wednesday and caught a couple. they were about 3 pounds

Bonito seem to really fluctuate in their numbers from year to year. I remember them being wide open at the Santa Barbara pier over 10 years ago. They've never been back since. It's wierd. Two years ago I caught three huge bonito at Catalina mixed in with Yellows. They were 8-10lbs. That was fun. They are around and they'll come back again some day.

cause last year i was fishing balboa pier, and people were stil bouncing good size bonitos on the pier. just that i forgot what month they were hitting?

thanx,
aaron

LAST EDITED ON Jun-15-01 AT 10:00 PM (PST)

Aaron, the bonies off Newps last year weren't the bones of old- lots of little guys, but you used to be able to rope 6-8 pound+ bonito off all the piers, San Clemente, Aliso, Balboa, Newport, etc.- King Harbor in Redondo used to be legendary- I hope they come back, I'm willing to sacrifice the old MR twinnie if that's what it takes!

I still remember the first Bonito I ever caught. About 20 years ago I was fishing with an old wimpy zebco pole at Aliso pier with a buddy. Casted out an anchovy on a tiny hook (with bobber on line), and it got slammed...ripped the hook in half. So I tied on a bigger hook, casted in the same spot, hooked and fought the bonito when my drag broke. My buddy hand lined it onto the pier and I got it! Although it was a small bonie...I was stoked!

The best Bonito fishing usually starts to materialize in October and just keeps getting better into November but then tails off quickly.

We used to have fantastic Bonito fishing and now it is only a mere memory with a small run and a few small fish caught at the given time. What a tragedy!! This is the fish that got me hooked on fishing when I was a boy and I miss having them around in the numbers like we used to enjoy them. They have started to appear on the scene again but they are under too much pressure from the Mexico seiners. It has nothing to do with El Nino or other variables. The biggest contributor was the intense harvesting of them a decade ago but they are starting to make a reasonable comeback.

As Bassnet mentioned these are relatively small fish in comparison to the fish you could count on seeing 10-20 years ago. Here is a pic of a typical small Bonito we caught 2 summers ago and the few Bonito we caught last summer were a bit bigger.

http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshots/MomentOfFame/l5754.jpg

Bluerunner

guys were roping big bones, 15+, early this year at the 43- don't know where they went, but I think it's cyclical, like the barries- one of these years we'll get slammed by the big bones. Not off the piers like days of old. But they will be out there.

The bonito run in cycles. I used to think it was due to commercial over-fishing also but that's only a small part. I met with the fish Marine Biologist at U.C.S.B. to talk about tagging and we got off on a few tangents. Bonito was one of the tangents. He got a couple of books and showed me how they have been running in cycles since the late 1800's. There was a lull like we have had for the past 15 years in the late 30's and 40's (if I remember correctly). So if history shows us anything they will be back - commercial fishing or not.

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.