La Jolla 9/12 - Huge Bonito
 

Picked up a huge bonito today with a yo-yo :jig:. Depth was at 57'. I was expecting a yellow based on how it was taking line (25lbs mono). I thought I had to go to Ensenada to pick up a bonito this big.

That sucker is huge. I love bonito, nice catch 👍

You've got small hands!!!??

I hope they hang around. Fun to catch and make great sashimi

fat bone!!!! sweet. cool catch.

There were a bunch at LJ today. At the start of the day I had to tie a new sabiki, because the one I was using lost the hooks to bonitos, because they had some rust from several days of use. The sabiki was still working, but when hit by a bonito by the time I got it to the Solo Skiff they would break off. Funny thing is after putting on a new sabiki I found some Spanish macs and a bunch of nice greenbacks. I caught several bonitos on a P line minnow and later while trolling my greenback Rapala, (none were that nice size) I got another bonito and a Calico. Started trolling to cover more water looking for signs of Yellowtail, did not find any, and mostly because i got tired of feeding the Sea Lions that were attracted to numerous kayaks and boats. Usually I don't go on weekends, because of that. This day was because last week I could not go due to the Valley fire and having to wait and see if I would have to evacuate my house due to changes in wind direction and expansion of the fire. Got lucky, but had to miss going fishing.

Wow that thing is a unit! Nice

see those dark lines along the back? The bonitos from Ensenada have them vertical, and that's the type I want to catch (no such luck yet).
Some say both are "bonito", but I'm not convinced. Having tried many of the "diagonal-lines" ones cooked different ways, I still don't like the taste, even though the raw meat looks good, very delicate. 20 years ago on the cattle boats everybody was throwing them back in the ocean, calling them (inaccurately) 'skipjacks'.

So, jkim0130, sure you had fun pulling the beast out.
What do you think of the taste?

We cook it with a spicy Korean paste and daikon radish. It is delicious and one of my favorite cooked fish. It is a strong seasoning and it even tastes good with mackerel. With that seasoning, I do not think I can tell the difference between vertical and diagonal stripes. I even like mackerel grilled with salt. I tried grilling a bonito steak and it wasn’t bad. Next time we will create a dipping sauce for it because it is a little lean compared to a mackerel.

I am eating it again tonight!

For sure a fun catch. Had to do a triple take when I saw it at color.

Aha, spiceeey is the key. With that kind of sauce one can eat any creature, doesn't have to be a fish, ha-ha. Reminds me of a tiny tube of Wasabi still in the fridge sitting there from Bush-the-Elder era... never had the guts to finish it.

not sure where my post went but the ones with vertical lines are black tipped bonito, the ones with diagonal lines are pacific bonito. I found that they have to be bled immediately upon catching of the taste will get strong.

Yep, bleed them right away but also spike the brain to immobilize. The meat bruises easily. If they flop around the bruises make the meat taste gamely and get mushy

Nice Boney! Congratulations!