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BONITO

Skipjack Joe - 1-27-2013 at 09:22 AM

The Rodney Dangerfield of the piscatorial world. They get no respect. Nobody goes to Asuncion to catch bonito.

But someone besides me must find them beautiful. Or they would not have been named that way.

People on the Cortez side often refer to a fish that looks like a skipjack, bonito. Actually they are bonito, but a different species than what's found on the pacific side of the peninsula.

BTW, that speck on the right is Juan with a couple of clients. Yeeehaw! It's starting to get choppy, although it flattened out an hour later.

micah202 - 1-27-2013 at 09:27 AM

...looks like a national treasure you're messin' with

woody with a view - 1-27-2013 at 09:28 AM

we caught a metric butt-ton of them last trip! some going 8-10 pounds and kept them. our neighbor is Vietnamese and likes us alot right now! we seared some like it was tuna, boiled it and made tuna salad and i've gotta agree, they get no respect! nothing wrong with their texture or flavor and they fight like hell!

[Edited on 1-27-2013 by woody with a view]

24baja - 1-27-2013 at 09:29 AM

I agree the coloring makes them beautiful.

bajario - 1-27-2013 at 10:34 AM

When they're fresh, they're suprisingly (too me) made great sashimi.

And put a kid on one and they're hooked for life. Happened to me.

bigjohn - 1-27-2013 at 10:34 AM

Used to love to catch them on light tackle, always gave a good fight. Pops used to smoke them, I could never eat one, way too oily for me.

[Edited on 1-27-2013 by bigjohn]

woody with a view - 1-27-2013 at 10:40 AM

that's what i was believing too. smoked or feed them to the cat.

edit: maybe that's why Oriental's live so long? the extra omega-3's?

[Edited on 1-27-2013 by woody with a view]

baitcast - 1-27-2013 at 10:42 AM

Pound for pound as tough as they get just imagine one 20# or 30#

.......got one that weighed 12# off Palos Verde on a light rig had to up anchor and chase him,they will never turn belly up!
Rob

BONITO

captkw - 1-27-2013 at 10:44 AM

Yon can make great trolling lures with their skin...That size in pic is just about right for trolling for blacks and blues....K&T

BajaBruno - 1-27-2013 at 10:45 AM

With four different bonito-looking fish cruising the peninsula, bonito always confuse me. Did I catch a Mexican Bonito Sarda orientalis, or the Black Skipjack, Eurhynnus lineatus, or maybe the Skipjack Tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis, or even the Eastern Pacific Bonito, Sarda chilensis? Some are good eating, some the cat would reject.

So, I enjoy the great fight from all of them and turn them loose, being too lazy to figure out one from another and remember the good from the bad.

That kid of yours has gotten big over the years, Igor!

Skipjack Joe - 1-27-2013 at 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by micah202
...looks like a national treasure you're messin' with

Well, to me, they are.

I don't take pictures of dead fish anymore. It's been several decades now that the major sport magazines no longer print pictures of stringers of dead fish either. That was common when I was growing up. There is something about the appearance of a living fish that's just more appealing to the viewer.

shari - 1-27-2013 at 10:52 AM

Good thread Skipjack...we just smoked up a whack of bonita that dtbushpilot didnt want to take home....and I prefer it to smoked yellowtail, not to mention the yummy tuna salad they make....oh yeah, Woody already mentioned that. Our neighbour from the Marshall Islands loves them as sashimi too....a very underestimated fish indeed y muy bonitas!

Skipjack Joe - 1-27-2013 at 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by baitcast
Pound for pound as tough as they get just imagine one 20# or 30#

.......got one that weighed 12# off Palos Verde on a light rig had to up anchor and chase him,they will never turn belly up!
Rob

Rob,

As I recall, the biggest bonito would show up in the southland in the fall. I caught one off the channel islands that weighed 11 lbs. I know, because I placed him on the bathroom scales when we got home. Mom was not pleased, "Get that smelly thing out of here".

I knew it was sizable as soon as he started his run. Bonito were plentiful back then and you could gage (gauge?) the size by that first run. If you're using anchovies it's a screaming surface run straight out. I burned my thumb many times because you had to keep it in free-spool to let the anchovy swim naturally.

Skipjack Joe - 1-27-2013 at 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by shari
Good thread Skipjack...we just smoked up a whack of bonita that dtbushpilot didnt want to take home....and I prefer it to smoked yellowtail, not to mention the yummy tuna salad they make....oh yeah, Woody already mentioned that. Our neighbour from the Marshall Islands loves them as sashimi too....a very underestimated fish indeed y muy bonitas!

Some of the bonito we hooked with rapalas trolled for yellowtail had their gills damaged and I couldn't release.

What to do, I asked the guide. "Oh no senor. Son muy buenos." Then he listed me all the ways it could be prepared. Machaca was on the list somewhere.

Quote:

Bubba:

Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it.

Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried.

There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich.

That- that's about it.

Iflyfish - 1-27-2013 at 11:26 AM

What a great pic and what a great son!! Tight lines amigo, tight lines!

Iflyfish

Ken Bondy - 1-27-2013 at 12:05 PM

The bonito is very beautiful and Alex is muy guapo!!

bigjohn - 1-27-2013 at 12:41 PM

Or as Reuben Daggett would say, "Better than Viagra"! But then he says that about all the odd fish that are caught! :yes:

woody with a view - 1-27-2013 at 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shari
not to mention the yummy tuna salad they make....oh yeah, Woody already mentioned that.

Thanks for the heads up! they're great and i think most "refined" palates are missing out on a great, plentiful fish.

msteve1014 - 1-27-2013 at 02:35 PM

I can them. In years like this one where you just can not get a tuna (in our area) we are happy to keep a bunch. Much better than a yellowtail, canned.

vgabndo - 1-27-2013 at 02:38 PM

At San Nicolas' bay we'd turn them up occasionally while trolling for Sierra. The look-alike over there was the Barralete. It has stripes on its belly and really red flesh. Catfood. Both as excellent sport on light spinning tackle.

The Bonitos, though, were excellent smoked, and especially if you bleed them as soon as you catch them.

Less than a week, but who's counting... :lol:

Howard - 1-27-2013 at 02:42 PM

In my opinion, one of the hardest fighting fish lb for lb. Right there with the Yellowtail for for a fight.

I have always wondered;

skipjack
bonita
barreleta (sic)

Are they the same fish? Is it like a Dorado in Mexico and a Mahi Mahi in Hawaii, Lo mismo?

fishbuck - 1-27-2013 at 02:56 PM

Awesome fish. Fun to catch and an incredible fight when they get to about 10lbs or better.

Pompano - 1-27-2013 at 03:51 PM

Carumba!, Igor, time flys.

Your son has matured muy guapo and looks to be carrying on the tradition of enjoying and appreciating nature. Bravo for you both.

Bonito and cousins...always fun to catch and superb table fare with the right recipes. Cats, Dogs, and Humans alike.

Great times with these guys! Whenever we had kids aboard my cruiser Pompano and got into a school of them, it became a fun riot...for all ages!

Husbands and wives alike, we nicknamed that fish...

..'El Vibrador'...Vibrator because of the strong & sudden s h u d d e r i n g action of that tail. Never fails to bring grins and happy times to us.

p.s. per your avatar, we watched 'Captains Courageous' on the RV sat-tv last night out in the boondocks. Great classic. I'm sure 'Manuel' would have loved bonito, too.

[Edited on 1-28-2013 by Pompano]

DENNIS - 1-27-2013 at 04:06 PM

Quote:

That's it....."Smoke 'em if ya got 'em."

Skipjack Joe - 1-27-2013 at 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaBruno

That kid of yours has gotten big over the years, Igor!

Yep. Remember this?

Those doggone dorado won't stay still.

I miss the old days, actually.

woody with a view - 1-27-2013 at 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
I miss the old days, actually.

i think we all do, Amigo!

shari - 1-27-2013 at 05:42 PM

awww....chimuela Alex (which means teeth missing) what a cutey.

Juan says bariletta is skipjack.

Cypress - 1-27-2013 at 06:00 PM

Yep, those Bonita can really put up a good fight. There are all sorts of recipes for cooking 'em, but have only salted the fillets and used 'em for bait.

Skipjack Joe - 1-30-2013 at 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by whistler

Skipjack,Leo and Doug from "Fish First" would come down and fly fish the bonito with us in Redondo harbor.

A lot of clubs in the Bay Area did that in the 70's and 80's. San Jose had a yearly fishout at Redondo, as did the Peninsula Fly Fishers. Guys would pile into a car after work on Friday, drive all night, and get there at day break. 20+ fish days was normal. And then the fishing declined in that harbor and nobody goes down any more. The old timers just talk about it. Those bonito were a size well suited for the fly rod.

I missed all that. I fished bonito off those barges before the harbor had been built. The boat just pulled up to the pier pilings and you jumped on. Same at the barge. That boat would be rocking up and down next to the barge and you had to time the jump or miss the landing altogether. I watched our side crush up against the barge and wondered what that would do to a man if he slipped somehow.

I remember coming back from the barge one year and groups of anglers from another boat had sacks full of albacore. There were no long range boats back then. The albies had been caught in the catalina channel. That must have been '62 or thereabouts.

dtbushpilot - 1-30-2013 at 06:24 AM

Quote:

I wanted to take them home, you didn't smoke them in time for me to take them :?:

....We only managed to bring home around 70lbs of frozen yellowtail fillets, a few smoked bonita would have been nice :lol:

woody with a view - 1-30-2013 at 06:26 AM

damn, i'm all out of YT already. do you deliver?

Cardon Man - 1-30-2013 at 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Howard

I have always wondered;

skipjack
bonita
barreleta (sic)

Are they the same fish? Is it like a Dorado in Mexico and a Mahi Mahi in Hawaii, Lo mismo?

Definitely not the same fish. Though they sure seem to be confused by many fishermen for some reason.

bill erhardt - 1-30-2013 at 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaBruno
With four different bonito-looking fish cruising the peninsula, bonito always confuse me. Did I catch a Mexican Bonito Sarda orientalis, or the Black Skipjack, Eurhynnus lineatus, or maybe the Skipjack Tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis, or even the Eastern Pacific Bonito, Sarda chilensis? Some are good eating, some the cat would reject........

!

Some of these may be fit for the table if prepared properly - or maybe not - but they are all good for bait, either whole or chunked, and also a good source of protein when added to the Purina Dog Chow.

tripledigitken - 1-30-2013 at 09:07 AM

On a overnight boat out of San Diego, during a hookup a crew member threw a skipjack in the bait tank. When the action died down he took it to the galley and out came sashimi with wasabi and soy sauce. It was delicious sashimi!

I have since ordered in Sushi restaurants.

(thrown in the cooler, fileted and cooked the next day.....not so much)

redhilltown - 2-6-2013 at 01:01 AM

Skipjack!!! Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... if you spread the word the "purists" are gonna quit throwin em back and we'll have less to catch and enjoy!!!!

(great thread, great fish)

Skipjack Joe - 2-6-2013 at 09:17 PM

Cortez skipjack:

skipjack.jpg - 49kB

Russ - 2-7-2013 at 07:15 AM

Thanks Skipjack Joe, That's really helpful

Skiplack:Bonito.jpg - 47kB