# bonito..? or bonita...? that... is the question.



## GruBZ

GREATFIGHT. GREATFISHIN.


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## Yankeefisher56

Bonitas aka bobo's and yes they are a blast on light tackle.


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## PAWGhunter

hellz yeah they are! Especially in a kayak


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## SlingShaft

*Little Tunny*

I grew up hearing everyone call these bonita....and I guess based on Wikipedia it says "bonito" is the name for various medium-sized fish in the .... family, blah, blah, blah

Actually these are Little Tunny, ie "False Albacore". These things are a BLAST to catch on light tackle. Bait isn't important as they will hit pretty much anything.

Nice Haul

Lew


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## FenderBender

My friend from mississippi hooked up on one with a zebco 33 just for fun... hilarious!


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## GruBZ

yep... had fun with my penn sargus4000/w 10lbs test.. FUNN


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## Lyin Too

Look under the tail, bonito if it has balls, bonita if it dont.


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## Boat-Dude

Looks like fun. LETS EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## sj1

John C. Reilly in Stepbrothers would love this thread.....:no:


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## SouthernAngler

"they are what is called a trophy fish"


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## Boat-Dude




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## samoajoe

Bonit-skeet-skeet!


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## weedline

the fish we all call bonita or bonito is truly a little tunny and what we used to catch off the piers all the time years back that we refered to as a northern mackerel is a true bonito or bonita if im wrong on this correct me but im pretty sure


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## PorknBeans

hahahaha great movie


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## Charlie2

*Bonito(a)*

Bonito is pretty in Spanish.

Bonito is masculine; bonita is feminine.

My spell checker even tries to correct 'bonita' to 'bonito'.

False Albacore to be sure. Or is 'Albacora'?  C2


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## Longbow14

Yeah i yelled at step brothers for that.
bonita are a colloquial (sp) term for small inshore tuna false albicore are what you caught (skip jacks, bonito, little tuny/ false albies)
Bonito are a species atleast the Atlantic bonito they have teeth last one i saw.


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## Rooster80

Haha! Love that clip!


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## Dylan

Thats Juanita


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## albacized

Newbe here...Love catching these fish (false albacore). I now live in Massachusetts but also a former FL resident (but from further south on the Gulf coast in the Tampa area)...basically, I travel down to Juno Beach near W. Palm in July to catch these fish before I start catching them in my own home waters off Cape Cod later on in Sept and early Oct. 

But...I've heard whispers that late fall and even early winter might be a good time to find them in your area...if so, I could be very interested in adding a few day getaway to the Pensacola area every fall...how reliable is this fishery down there? 

As an aside, when fishing for them here in NE, I generally flyfish for them because it's a viable fishery right from the rocks...when I hit Juno, it's pretty much a pier thing and thus, all spinning gear. I assume it's the latter down there(???) and any fly opportunities would have to come from a boat or yak....and if so, that's perfectly ok as I have a lot of fun either way

Btw, what are the sizes of these fish down in the gulf (not related to the video commentary...LOL)? Here in MA, we rarely top 10lbs and our state record is 19 lbs...while on the flip side, when I hit Juno Pier, I regularly surpass what would be the MA state record on a regular basis...LOL...20lb albies (what we call them here in New England) are still pretty big, but evidently not as eye popping down off the east coast of FL as it would be up here.


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## Longbow14

albacized said:


> Newbe here...Love catching these fish (false albacore). I now live in Massachusetts but also a former FL resident


welcome I'm a reverse of your story Cape Coder turned floridian. 
These albies seem bigger than the Mass ones and yes spinning gear tends to be the norm for most pier fishing.


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## albacized

Longbow14 said:


> welcome I'm a reverse of your story Cape Coder turned floridian.
> These albies seem bigger than the Mass ones and yes spinning gear tends to be the norm for most pier fishing.


 
Ah - thanks a lot. What part of the cape were you from?


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## Joe.K.Sr

*Bonito, bonita????????????????*

Bonito, bonita??? Are they any good to eat, being of the tuna family? Just sayin.............

:blink:


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## Orion45

NO!!!!

Bait only.


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## nextstep

a bonita is the fellow at the far left. not the fish the person. great pinfish trap bait, the fish not the person.


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## Redneckracoon

bonito, bonita, people pronnounce it differently so it doesnt matter. i call em bobos


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## albacized

Redneckracoon said:


> bonito, bonita, people pronnounce it differently so it doesnt matter. i call em bobos


When I'm down there, that's mostly what I've heard them called...that and bonnies. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I'm from up north and we get 'real' bonito (atlantic bonito) which have larger mouths with sharp teeth. The two dorsal fins are also lower profile. They're almost like if you took a spanish mackerel (minus the coloring) and gave it the bulk and bullet shape of a false albacore...and their fight is predictably in the middle of what you'd expect from a spanish mackerel and false albacore too (except for way more 'zig zag' to their fight)


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## Longbow14

Atlantic Bonito are also edible


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## albacized

Longbow14 said:


> Atlantic Bonito are also edible


Oh yeah - I shouldn't have forgot that...people often grill this fish


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## albacized

Btw, catching these guys from the rocks is pretty insane


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## albacized

btw, in the pic above, that is a soft plastic in it's mouth. Although the standard seems to be small metals reeled in as fast as you can reel, small soft plastics seems to work better (weighted and unweighted - the latter is better if they're buzzing close to where a long cast isn't needed)...and the rod/reel combo is pretty light as well; cabo 20 on a homemade rod made with a St Croix Avid blank 7 1/2' rated for 4-10 lbs line (it's actually my freshwater trout rod that I started using for schoolie stripers, rat blues and these guys)


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## aaronious45

I'm not sure of the spelling, but I do know it is the Spanish word for "beautiful" if that helps..and I think the 2 different spellings are male and female uses of the word. Also, the Catalina wine mixer!


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## ReelBurner

Bonita can been eaten, but usually are used for bait. Bonito are more Atlantic fish and are better to be eaten. Definitely a fun experience on lighter tackle. I've had the best success using a gold spinner with a small white plastic swimbait under the bottom. Like anything else, try to match what they are hitting at the time....find the birds and you'll find the fish.


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## albacized

ReelBurner said:


> Bonita can been eaten, but usually are used for bait. Bonito are more Atlantic fish and are better to be eaten. Definitely a fun experience on lighter tackle. I've had the best success using a gold spinner with a small white plastic swimbait under the bottom. Like anything else, try to match what they are hitting at the time....find the birds and you'll find the fish.


Do they catch 'true' atlantic bonito anywhere in FL (atlantic or gulf coast)? These are the guys with the larger teeth in their mouth and straight lines running forward from their backs down along their sides


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