When August rolls around here in Maine it’s a good time to put the six weight down for a while. Forget about dead drifts, light tippet, and constant mending for a few days, grab a nine weight and head for the Atlantic.After two days of walking beaches, driving spot to spot, casting off rocks, and fishing with my wife and friends my favorite summer Striper spots had given up exactly zero fish. To say Maine’s coastal fishing had been strange this year would be a huge understatement.Then I began to recall my trip to Rhode Island last August. Remembering the huge schools of busting Blues, the Striper blow up of a lifetime, and the shifty eyed Bonito that haunted me all winter.With a day and a half of free time I left Portland at 4am on a mission and made it to Rhode Island by late morning. I met Jeremy at the dock with a bag full of red bull and gas station junk food and out of the harbor we went.We ran for hours nonstop without a sign of busting hardtales. We found some willing stripers on the moving tide and got a few to the boat before realizing that a very powerful storm was on the way. The sky went black within minutes, the wind kicked up and we began to see lighting. Jeremy put the hammer down right into the wind and whitecaps and we tried in vain to run for distant sunlight. We motored into the stinging rain trying to reach the shoulder of the storm which grew as we motored west. Then as quickly as it came on it was gone, but so was daylight as we retreated for the harbor with hardtale hopes dwindling.Day two brought a new focus, we were on the water before the sun, with the failure of yesterday forgotten. The seas were smooth, the water was clean, and there were jellyfish by the thousands and we motored along scanning the horizon. “Over there!” Jeremy said, a few terns were cruising low and slow, fluttering nervously over bait as we slowly aproached. Then we saw a boil, then a slash and spraying bait. “That’s them, get ready” Jeremy swung the boat around trying to get a good position ahead of them, then killed the engine. The school got fairly close and I fired a cast, the fish moved left and closer to the boat Jeremey made a cast and hooked up quickly. By the time I got my line ready and made some more casts they had ducked out. “Slippery bastards” Jeremy laughed as he landed the first Bonito of the day.We motored on and saw a couple other pods breaking water, but we were no longer alone now. Two other boats got wind of these fish too, and one of the boats repeatedly motored in on the fish giving themselves and the rest of us no solid shots. It was past noon now and I’d have to be on the road shortly, so we made the call to go look for new fish. Terns were everywhere now but they all seemed to be flying offshore in a hurry. We’d been motoring for an eternity and it was time to refuel. I was just capping things off when we notice some fluttering terns near a distant bouy. Jeremy fired up the motor and we crept in slowly… The pod seemed to run in circles, disapearing and resurfacing in a windless slick. Jeremy got the boat withing 100 yards and killed the motor. We waited…the fish popped again just out of range, then it was silent…we waited. They showed again and were heading right at us now. I fought the urge to cast too soon, as they slashed the the bait our way. Jeremy fired a long cast just started to strip and hooked up. I threw a long cast with no tug, the fish had dropped out, and I made an 80 foot cast to the last swirl, tucked my rod under my arm and stripped a tight steady two hand retreive…”there he is!” I shouted. “Doubled Up!” The Bonito started tearing away as I cleared the line and let the reel sing. The fish made multiple long runs then dogged, as I slowly got my fly line back on the reel. I watched in awe as the blue blur of the fish rising from the depth came into view. As he got close I could see the stripes of my first ever Bonito, and right at last call.
awesome boz! you got it done .. i remember you talking all winter about how you wanted to catch a bonito … and you nailed it … you had virtually 1 good shot at a few spooky, fish … and you made 1 killer cast when it counted. not easy to do when the adrenaline and anticipation is on full capacity and the “shots” at fish are very few and far between. how freakin’ cool looking are those fish! the horizontal line patterns and the vertical lines, the hard tales, the long almost prehistoric looking dorsal fin and a slim/effecient profile built for speed … just a cool species of fish, in my opinion .. and one you should be proud of having caught on the fly.
Great tale Boz. Glad you scored your first Bone in such tough fishing times this season. It makes that first bonita just that more memorable.
That’s really neat you get your first Bonito.
It always pay to want something really strong.
Reading all these story about everyone fishing days or trip show that whatever specefic fish we are after and no matter the time it takes everyone can get a piece of dream….that’s fly fishing for me.
You “deserved” that fish, congrats man!
good read boz. glad you got your bone, not an easy task and one and done when it counted.
awsome fish boz! the hardtails are stellar fish for sure….i loved how you got it done last minute and pressed on through the not so perfect conditions. congrats!
‘nother notch on the wading belt, boz. Great job to chase those bullets. Congrats guys.
ps. I maybe have one more eo trip next week then it’s off to naples the 27. hope you can visit.
Great fish. Bonies that size just spank you. This has been a very good year out here in California. We have had an epic Yellowfin bite that just ended. Before that was an amazing dorado bite. There were so many dorado at one time off San Diego we had to move the boat constantly to get away from them and try to get our flies down to the Tuna. That’s the situation right now with bonita. It’s funny how there are different perspectives on fish. I am jonesing to get into a mega striper bite like you guys have out there and envy your fishery. Bonita here are very abundant. Big boys too. We caught them to 14 lbs this year. Catching bonita in the mix with other pelagics really shows how well they fight. Pound for pound hard to beat. This has been an amazing offshore year here. I’ll try to post a end of season collage. We also had our first offshore fly fishing tournament this year. We are a little behind the curve in alot of areas. I love your posts and music. We never did put together that mako trip Jeremy.
Randy
yo .. long time no see .. how are ya? .. glad to hear california treated ya well this year .. you are right, we never did put together that trip .. we gotta do it sometime .. as the pacific dorado, yellowfin, makos and bonito and other off-shore stuff is killer … so here is a question for ya .. last year i went to mexico marlin fishing and the first fish i caught was a bonito .. it looked the same as the ones we catch here in the atlantic and you are right .. they were everywhere … bascially bait. .. anywyay, here is my question .. are the ones in the pacific in california and mexico infact the same fish??? these are called “atlantic bonito” as far as i know … so, what’s up with the pacific versions??? same exact fish or different? they looked identical to me …
ps.. i know that we get false albacore here .. and you get albacore (long finned albacore i think?) .. totally different fish, it seems .. so what about the bonito?? same or different?
Thanks Jeremy. The bones weren’t exactly plentiful that trip and it took patience to not give up and just go after the blues/stripers. Awesome looking fish though, shifty eyed striped ghosts. Thanks for getting me in the bonito game… I learned alot on that short trip. Got locked up in stop and go traffic in a downpour heading through Bean-town and didn’t care…it was a victory ride home.
Thanks Dave.
Leaves are falling fast, temps are dropping, and cold rain is coming. A new season is just beginning and I’ll bet we’ll cross paths soon.
Jeremy, My understanding is that they are actually a different species. The Pacific variety run a little smaller on avarage. This year they are very abundant and large. Some years the bonita are only 2-3 pounds. It seems to run in a cycle, one year a bonita year they next a barracuda year. The reason may be that the Mexican purse seiners have not been as active just below the border. They caught their quota early and closed shop. Bonita are a huge bycatch for them. When times are tough they also target bonita to market as cat food and pay fuel costs. Bonita are also favorites of Mako and marlin off our coast although mackeral is the preferred bait for marlin. While I was fishing a school of YFT on dolphin I caught a striped marlin likely because there were some bonita in the mix. The fly fishing in saltwater out here is truly in it’s infancy. However, it is growing very fast and the tackle maufactuers have finally noticed. Next year several FF tourneys are planned to help jump start the sport. One bright spot out here is that we dont have to winerize our boats.
Randy
Great story Boz!! Did you guys have a DV camera also? Would be great with some film.
I rember it well when i hooked and landed my first Bonito from shore at the canary island. A milestone
in ones flyfishing carrear.
Best Regards
P-A