This morning I fished with Dave – and we were lucky to get a big enough window of weather to get out and chase the little speedsters. Dave had caught Bonito before off the coast of Japan – and he told me that they are much the same over there…an elusive, seasonal fish completely dependant upon water temperatures. Really interesting!
We hit the water early and were fishing before 5 – with the North wind chop we decided to cast jigs instead of top-waters…so we could cover water correctly. Well, we didn’t take long to find them – I had a strike within 10 minutes and fought the fish for only a few seconds before he pulled the hooks. Dave is a great angler as was a machine – covering the water effortlessly and when we saw a breaking fish or I had a strike – he could fling a cast spot-on to the fish. We had a bit of bad luck today though – between the two of us, we probably lost 10+ fish for various strange reasons….and the first fish Dave got to the boat was tail-wrapped and when i went to grab him, he lurched to the bottom, snapping the line.
It took a little bit but Dave got his first Bonito to the boat – a beautiful 6.5lb fish. We also had the pleasure of getting to “play” with a huge mola-mola (ocean sunfish) that swam by the boat (pic below).
This day just goes to show – even though it’s been blowing for what seems like weeks – when I can get out, we always catch these guys. This cold front should really prolong the bite until after May15 – maybe to the 20th.
I’ve still got good dates open…
