Saltwater Flyfishing part 3

Bonito, just the name gets saltwater fly fisher men's hearts a'throbbing! They are the perfect fly rod fish. There are lots of them, they hit flys really well, and they are pound for pound one of the hardest fighters in the fish kingdom.

Sure, the tuna's, albacore, yellowfin, bluefin and skipjack get larger, but you have to have a larger boat equipped for offshore fishing, sometimes 100 miles out to sea. Most boats get 1 MPG ( miles per gallon ) that translates into about 250 gallons for a days fishing, ( at today's gas prices over $800 for fuel ) and there is no guarantee you will be successful at finding a school of tuna in the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean.

I have spent many days unsuccessfully looking for tuna, but that was back in the days of under a dollar gallon for gas. Now days I stay near shore looking for bonito, they are not as big as the other tuna's, but you save over $700 looking for them.

I'm usually on the water 4 to 6 days a week in the summer so I usually have a pretty good idea where the bonito are. If you want to catch bonito and you have your own boat, one necessary piece of equipment is a good working live bait system, one that holds at least one full scoop of live bait.

Here in So. California we are very fortunate to have many live bait businesses that usually have live bait for around $20 to $25 dollars a scoop for anchovies or sardines. Get anchovies if you can, they make the best chum bait for fly fishermen. Sardines are a fast swimming fish and they run away from the boat quickly. Anchovies stay near the boat longer and bring the bonita close to the boat and in the range of your flys.

If you don't know where to find the schools of bonito, call some of the local party boat's fish reports and see which one is catching bonito. Then start your search in that area, bonito can usually be found from 1/4 mile offshore, out to several miles offshore.

Tomorrow locating and catching bonito on the fly.