Dana Point 10/19/15
 

I've been posting here, but I'm pretty new. I usually fish out of an inflatable, but sometimes fish out of a yak when my brother's in town. Hope you don't mind me posting here, as I fished from an inflatable inshore today. I identify more with the kayakers than private boaters.

Started around 9ish to overcast conditions, 3-4 foot swells, around 6-8 mph winds, but the water was a nice blue, very little salad. A few days ago the water was full of chlorophyll and it was tough to get a bite.

Started casting jigs for nada for the first 15-20 minutes. Then started getting better marks and started catching 16-18" bonito, which is still fun to me on the bass gear.

I spotted some macs poppin' at the surface, which was surprising because I haven't seen too many boils out of Dana in a while. Started casting the Kroc but didn't get too many mack takers. Based on the way the boil was moving it looked like something was causing havoc, so I started casting a bit a way from the action and then I got hit. 23" in size, some sort of tuna I gather. On my 200 Curado it was pretty fun. I think it's a type of tuna but can't verify what type it is. No teeth, tuna shape. Any guesses? Bullet tuna?

I caught a few more bonito, macks and occasional short calico , then about 40 minutes later I landed a 28" bonito. Never get tired of catching big bonita. Trolled a live greenback hoping for a yellow, but that never materialized, left around 2ish since I wanted to keep mystery tuna fresh and my ice was nearly gone. It was a good day of fishing in my book since I don't get many days of nearly non stop action for a few hours.

It's a Black skipjack....

and one of a hell of a nice bonita!!!

Those bones are a hoot on light gear. Your mystery fish is skipjack. IMO, one of the tastiest sashimi fish out there.

Nice report. Thanks for sharing.

Cool, skipjack...that was one of my guesses but wasn't sure. thanks.

I've never had a skipjack so looking forward to tasting it.

skipjack for sure. great for poke.

White skippies are preferred over the black ones. Black ones are worse than a bad bonito.

Actually caught the bonito on an Curado 300 EJ; something I would call more medium tackle gear. The skipjack was caught on the 200 Curado. That said, i let the skippie rest over night and will taste it later on today.

Sounds like a fun day
Nice fish
I should be out there this weekend
Hopefully in a new kayak

Let us know how it tastes. I've been curious about how our local ones tastes compared to the one I tried in Maui.

as ful-rac said that is a slug bonito!

Not all skippies are created equal...
 

Now, I love me some Skippy... Aku poki is the best! keep it cold, eat it within a day or less and the sashimi is really good. On a PB, the skippy seldom makes it back to shore...on the water snacks! I sometimes soak it in a little orange juice and serve it with a little "Mr. Yoshida's" for dipping...

BUT(!)...not the black skipjack. I hadn't had one before and OMG! Nasty!! Take a big ole bite of Bluefin bloodline and you've pretty much got the same thing.

White skipjack is great, but I put Boners and the Black Skipjack in the "bycatch" category. My cat and Aussie both turned up their noses and went after the yellowtail scraps instead.

That said, both are a riot to catch!!

ful-rac, carbon bass, thanks for the words re: the bonito. I actually caught a bigger bonito, a 31" a few weeks back that weighed almost 14 lbs. I didn't think they could get that big. Anyways, That dude pulled like a freight train. This 28" was a nice fight,too, but for some reason he charged toward my boat so I reeled him a lot faster, which kind of sucked. He hit my pole hard like he meant it though!

King Saba, you wanted me to follow up on how it tastes? Well, maybe I didn't kill it properly or something because it tasted horrible. Let me explain. So, caught the skippie around 9:30 or so, bled him shortly, but only by slicing underneath the gills, etc, put him on some ice I had with me, but he wasn't in a frozen slush or anything, if you what I mean. Threw him into the fridge when I got home, washed him only in drinking water/salt water mix. I seared the fish, then put it back into the fridge for sashimi slicing from what i read around, and it just tasted pretty foul. Fishy and sort of rotten taste to it. Like I said, maybe I didn't something wrong.

That said, that fish had a ton of more blood in it after i got it home and started cleaning it. The bloodline on the skippie holds an incredible amount. For comparisons sake, when I bleed a bonito the same method, I don't have the same "blood" issue when I get home. It's almost as if you have to take out the guts, get to the bloodline in order to properly bleed the skipjack. I'm sure others here have more experience than I do with black skipjack. This was just my experience.

The bonito on the other hand tasted awesome as usual. let it rest about a day after filet, then sashimi or poke style.