The Best Bonito Charters

Our Damn Good Guides currently offer 156 bonito trips, and the most popular trips are South Padre Offshore Fishing guided by Henry, Legendary Fishing in Key West guided by Chuck, and Trolling and Chilling guided by Seth.

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Deep Sea fishing is the most popular for bonito as well as nearshore fishing, inshore fishing, and flats fishing.

The most common fishing techniques are trolling, heavy tackle fishing, and bottom fishing but light tackle fishing and jigging are popular as well.

for bonito prices can range anywhere from $270 to $3,000 and up, but the average price for a half day for bonito is $1,125. The average price for a full day for bonito is $2,343.

The most popular season for bonito fishing is summer, and most anglers book their trips 36 days in advance.

See here for more information on bonito fishing licenses, bonito bag limits, and fishing season regulations for bonito. When in doubt, your fishing guide will always know the right bonito rules and regulations.

The bonito (Sardini) is actually a tribe of fish that contains eight different species across four different genera. These species include the Australian, Eastern Pacific, Pacific, striped, Atlantic, leaping, and plain bonito, as well as the dogtooth tuna. All bonito are members of the Scombridae family, which is shared with the mackerel, tuna, and spanish mackerel tribes.

Their tops range from green, to blue, to violet with silver and whitish bellies. All species have some form of stripes on their back, varying in color, direction, and amount, as well as some have spots. They also have torpedo-shaped bodies and are very muscular, with two dorsal fins and a deeply forked tail fin. This makes them fast swimmers and ferocious fighters when caught.

The size of bonito depends greatly on the specific species. The smallest type of bonito is the leaping bonito, which will weigh about a pound. The largest is the dogtooth tuna, which will weigh around 40 pounds and grow to about 45 inches.

The most common bonito is the Atlantic bonito, which grows to around 12 pounds and 20 inches long.

The largest bonito ever caught was a dogtooth tuna. Caught off the coast of Tanzania in 2015, the behemoth weighed in at 236 pounds and 15 ounces.

There are several other world record bonito species recognized by the IGFA. These include an Atlantic bonito weighing in at 18 pounds, 4 ounces, caught on July 8th, 1953 near Falal Island, Azores, Portugal by D. Higgs. Also, the Australian bonito record, weighing in at 20 pounds, 11 ounces, caught on April 1st, 1978 out of Montague Island, Australia by Bruce Conley. The largest Pacific Bonito was 21 pounds, 5 ounces caught by Kim Larson on October 19th, 2003 out of California. The largest striped bonito was 23 pounds, 8 ounces caught by Anne Cochain on February 19th, 1975 out of Seychelles.

Finally, the cutest bonito of them all, the record leaping bonito weighs in at a whopping 2 pounds, 2 ounces caught by Wayne Colling on May 7th, 1995 in the Macleay River, Australia.

The Australian, Eastern Pacific, Pacific, and Atlantic bonitos can be found in the tropical and temperate waters of the regions they’re named after. Striped bonitos can be found in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Leaping bonitos are found near Australia and New Guinea. Dogtooth tuna are found in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Within these oceans, gulfs, and seas, they can all be found in temperate to tropical waters.. They are all pelagic, meaning they tend to inhabit the upper layers of the open sea, not too close to the seafloor or the shore.

Bonito can be fished for year round. Due to their semi migratory nature, and the different oceans that they reside, though, there are some seasons that are better than others. With all of the bonito species it seems that the consensus of the best time to fish are the summer months, though fishing begins to get good as early as May and stays good as long as September.

Bonito are schooling fish who chase prey like menhaden, alewives, silversides, sand lances, squid, and sardines to the surface to feed. Look for surface activity or sea birds to find a school.

Then either use either natural bait that would be the same as their local prey choice, or soft plastic lures or metal jigs. Then start trolling, when they are on a feeding frenzy, it will be a quick bite, so be ready for the fight!

Bonito are oily fish that have a moderate fat content, and are eaten, but are considered of lesser quality than many other table fish such as tuna. Bonito is usually either canned, or eaten as steaks, which can either be grilled, or baked and served cold. They are most popular in areas like the Mediterranean and Spain.