Trolling Tips for Bonito – On The Water

Bonito are the appetizer to the entrée that is albie season. Fishermen looking for that first taste of inshore pelagics can find it, most years, by the middle of July. By August, it’s a sure thing that the bonito have settled in.

Most years, bonito move inshore before the smorgasbord of fall baitfish leaves the backwaters, which makes sand eels their primary summer food source. The bonito beeline for shoals, humps, and rips where sand eels are plentiful. At these locations, bonito generally feed below the surface, giving no indication of their presence. As a result, high-speed trolling is the most productive technique.

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Rods, Reels and Line for Bonito Trolling

Trolling for bonito feels like a scaled-down version of tuna trolling without the long run offshore. Most fishermen use a two- to three-rod spread with a mix of small trolling feathers, drail-and-spoon rigs, and small, deep-diving minnow plugs.

Bonito are fast—some fishermen believe they are even faster than albies—but most weigh less than 6 pounds, so to fully enjoy the fight, most fishermen use the lightest tackle they have that can handle high-speed trolling.

Generally, the rods should be able to handle 30-pound-test braided line and weights up to 4 ounces. Reels with a level-wind are well suited for less experienced anglers as the level-wind allows you to fight fish without worrying about laying the line evenly. For more experienced anglers, conventional reels with a lever drag are best, as they allow you to easily adjust the drag from a looser trolling setting to the tighter fish-fighting setting.

For line, 20-pound-test monofilament is a good choice as its inherent stretch cushions the strike of a turning-and-burning bonito. For leader, he bumps 30- to 40-pound-test fluorocarbon, provides a little insurance when leadering a fish next to the boat.

While outriggers would be overkill for such light tackle trolling, anglers can spread out their spreads with the help of out-rodders, which also keep the rods angled lower to the water, improving the lure presentation.

Best Lures for Bonito Trolling

Minnow plugs are the most popular choice for bonito trolling, with deep-diving models in the 5- to 6-inch range being the most productive. For years, bonito trollers relied on the green mackerel colored Rebel Fas-Trac, a jointed deep-diver designed for Pacific salmon that caught the heck out of Atlantic bonito. Modern minnow plugs catch even better, handle faster trolling speeds, and come in a wider range of colors. Choices include the Rapala X-Rap Magnum 10 and Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow Deep Diver (4 3/8″ or 5″).

Anglers looking to mix things up, or who love proving that the old-school tactics still work, can catch with an Original Clark Spoon fished behind a small planer or drail weight, and with small Trolling Feathers.

For colors, green and chartreuse are always productive, and the classic red head/white body is a close second. Hot pink, blue, and all white work as well, as do the various mackerel patterns available in the Rapala X-Rap Magnum 10.

Trolling Speed

The best trolling speed for bonito varies by the day, and the presence of bluefish. Many of the popular minnow plugs swim best between 4 and 5 knots, so that’s a good place to start. If bluefish continually cover up your spread, push the speeds past 5 knots. Dealing with small bluefish is part of the game, but they  can be so ravenous, that getting through to the bonito often feels like an impossibility. This prompts many captains to try to “outrun” the blues by pushing the throttle past 6 knots. These speeds will reduce (but not eliminate) bites from bluefish, and will leave your lures open long enough to attract a bonito.