Trolling Tips for Bonito – On The Water

Bonito are the appetizer to the entrée that’s albie season. Fishermen on the lookout for that first style of inshore pelagics can discover it, most years, by the center of July. By August, it’s a positive factor that the bonito have settled in.

Most years, bonito transfer inshore earlier than the smorgasbord of fall baitfish leaves the backwaters, which makes sand eels their main summer time meals supply. The bonito beeline for shoals, humps, and rips the place sand eels are plentiful. At these areas, bonito typically feed beneath the floor, giving no indication of their presence. Because of this, high-speed trolling is the best method.

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Rods, Reels and Line for Bonito Trolling

Trolling for bonito looks like a scaled-down model of tuna trolling with out the long term offshore. Most fishermen use a two- to three-rod unfold with a mixture of small trolling feathers, drail-and-spoon rigs, and small, deep-diving minnow plugs.

Bonito are quick—some fishermen imagine they’re even quicker than albies—however most weigh lower than 6 kilos, so to totally benefit from the combat, most fishermen use the lightest sort out they’ve that may deal with high-speed trolling.

Usually, the rods ought to be capable of deal with 30-pound-test braided line and weights as much as 4 ounces. Reels with a level-wind are properly suited to much less skilled anglers because the level-wind means that you can combat fish with out worrying about laying the road evenly. For extra skilled anglers, typical reels with a lever drag are greatest, as they assist you to simply alter the drag from a looser trolling setting to the tighter fish-fighting setting.

For line, 20-pound-test monofilament is an efficient alternative as its inherent stretch cushions the strike of a turning-and-burning bonito. For chief, he bumps 30- to 40-pound-test fluorocarbon, offers a bit of insurance coverage when leadering a fish subsequent to the boat.

Whereas outriggers can be overkill for such mild sort out trolling, anglers can unfold out their spreads with the assistance of out-rodders, which additionally preserve the rods angled decrease to the water, enhancing the lure presentation.

Greatest Lures for Bonito Trolling

Minnow plugs are the most well-liked alternative for bonito trolling, with deep-diving fashions within the 5- to 6-inch vary being the best. For years, bonito trollers relied on the inexperienced mackerel coloured Insurgent Fas-Trac, a jointed deep-diver designed for Pacific salmon that caught the heck out of Atlantic bonito. Trendy minnow plugs catch even higher, deal with quicker trolling speeds, and are available a wider vary of colours. Decisions embody the Rapala X-Rap Magnum 10 and Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow Deep Diver (4 3/8″ or 5″).

Anglers trying to combine issues up, or who love proving that the old-school techniques nonetheless work, can catch with an Unique Clark Spoon fished behind a small planer or drail weight, and with small Trolling Feathers.

For colours, inexperienced and chartreuse are at all times productive, and the basic crimson head/white physique is an in depth second. Scorching pink, blue, and all white work as properly, as do the assorted mackerel patterns obtainable within the Rapala X-Rap Magnum 10.

Trolling Pace

The perfect trolling pace for bonito varies by the day, and the presence of bluefish. Most of the standard minnow plugs swim greatest between 4 and 5 knots, in order that’s a great place to start out. If bluefish frequently cowl up your unfold, push the speeds previous 5 knots. Coping with small bluefish is a part of the sport, however they  may be so ravenous, that getting by to the bonito typically looks like an impossibility. This prompts many captains to attempt to “outrun” the blues by pushing the throttle previous 6 knots. These speeds will cut back (however not get rid of) bites from bluefish, and can go away your lures open lengthy sufficient to draw a bonito.