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Bonito Bonanza

Friday, April 25, 2008

After the weather busted our planned trip for this past Tuesday, Gery (Hunter’s Haven) and I have been anticipating getting out today to chase some Bonito. The weather reports and marine forecast looked promising so we met up at 6am and headed for the ramp.

The big decision was where to fish. Normally the South Topsail and WB area provide some of the best Bonito action around but it has been REAL SLOW this season so far but there has been some decent action at the north end of Topsail. So we decided to try up there. We made the 45 minute ride up the ditch and went out of New River Inlet at about 7am and were met with beautiful skies and 3 foot ground swells on 10 second intervals with almost no wind - Beautiful!

About a mile out of the inlet we noticed birds ahead and a few boats in that area so we deployed a couple of Yozuri deep diver. BAM! hook-up. But we lost him before we could get him to the boat. Now we were in the area near the diving birds and could see fishing occasionally busting the top, so we decided to sight cast. BAM! Gery has a fish on. He gets it into the boat - skunk be gone!

A few minutes latter, BAM! - I get a hook-up, then a slack line, cut-off. No sooner get a lure back in the water and BAM! fish on. Then another one or two. Then BAM! BAM! double hook-up! Gery and I both get our fish to the boat.

And so the morning went - at times we had fish busting on all four side of the boat! What a blast. Bonito is a hard pulling, fast running fish. On 10/12 pound tackle they are an absolute blast.

We ended up keeping 7 for the table(s) and released and lost plenty too. It was a great morning of fishing and fellowship with a good friend. It was so nice out there we decided to make the 25 mile trip back home via the ocean instead of the ditch - it was a nice ride on a beautiful day!

This was Gery’s first time Bonito fishing - judging from the high fives and smiles, I doubt the last though. Glad we were able to get on the fish Gery - we certainly were blessed!