Bonito Blues: Fast, Furious And Never Effortless

by | Salt Water

Bonito + Bluefish Video

It was the first day of the trip and Jeremy and I used a small skiff to look for Bonito and Bluefish. Jeremy once told me that down in Rhode Island it is a completly different salt water world than what I was accustomed to in Maine. Everybody in Rhode Island seems to love Stripers, and Bluefish are kind of under rated and considered a nuisance because there are so many around. But, Jeremy always said that he loves to fly fish for Bluefish. So, when Jeremy and I set out in the skiff, it was not long before we found our first acre of busting bluefish with no other boats on them. It was amazing. Bluefish were crashing bait for as far as the eyes could see. I was able to land my first Bluefish on the fly. Jeremy positioned the skiff ahead of the busting fish and handed me his 9 weight fly rod with a wire leader and some sort of Deceiver pattern. The Bluefish worked their way towards us and when they were in range I hauled out my line. I thought it was a short cast, but I guess not. I started stripping in my line and Immediatly the fly rod was bent and line was pouring off the reel at a good clip, and soon enough I had caught my first Bluefish on the fly.Jeremy and I got started early the next morning and made our way around the Rhode Island coast until the sun came up. At every Bonito spot we checked, we saw tons of bait, Bluefish and Stripers but no Bonito or Albies. So, we hopped on the Block Island Ferry. Our feet hit Block Island and I could almost smell the fish. Jeremy and I stood out on two seperate, slippery rocks. We resisted the undying urge to blind cast and decided to wait for the busting fish to make their way on shore. I was tired, hungry, confused and soaked to the bone from the previous rain storm and crashing waves. My bunny fly was fouled to no end and my line was twisted and tangled. Just as I start to get myself situated, jeremy spots the Bonito. “There they are!” I look up with excitement but I knew there was no way I was getting a cast into the crashing Bonito. The busts are immediatly reconized to be tuna, because of the fast movement of bait, large sprays instead of the typical bluefish or striper slurp and tail slapping. In an instant Jeremy’s fly rod was stressed to the max and his reel was singing! And soon enough Jeremy had landed our first Bonito of the trip and his first ever Bonito from shore. Soon enough, the Bonito were busting up and down the shoreline infront of me. Taunting me and testing all of my patience and skills. The rain was blowing in my face and my glasses were so fogged up I could hardly see, but it surely didn’t stop the Bonito from coming through and tearing up the bait infront of me. Everything was moving fast but felt like slow motion. A beautiful Bonito jumped out of the water only a few feet from the beach. I could clearly make out the forked tail, the vibrant stripes and the rocket shaped body. I wanted to catch that fish so badly. Even though I got my fly close. The Bonito did not take my fly. I left without the Bonito but had the experience of a lifetime.

5 Comments

  1. waterwhippa on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    “I was tired, hungry, confused” More the rule than the exception when Jer is in the mix. A-tin congrats on the blue, it was a beauty. see you on BI in a couple of weeks

  2. Shaq on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    ANother great one!!!. You guys are have really taken to the salt and are doing a sweet job of research and planning and it’s showing in the results!! Keep it up.

  3. ChrisR on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Nice Bluefish Austin. Great fish tale and video as always. Now I’m getting fired up for the Block Island trip. Hope to see you guys out there. With any luck the Bonito and Albacore will be in thick by then.

  4. jeremy on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    awesome bluefish austin … it is important to keep this in mind … every region of the world has species that other people dream to catch … but many times the people who live in that region actually dream to catch the fish that you have back home … so i always try to approach fisheries with that view point …

    here are a couple examples from my personal experiences:

    rhode island: they LOVE stripers and not so crazy about bluefish .. however, here in maine, we seem to get many more stripers and less bluefish .. therefore us maine fly fishermen are pretty psyched up to see and cast to and catch some big bluefish in maine .. i know i am …

    maine: i love brook trout as much as the next mainer .. but sometimes,. its only natural that we take them for granted and dream of other species such as steelhead … but i never forget that fly fishermen travel from all over the world to fish for the maine brook trout.

    florida: oh man, i get down to florida and its like disney world .. i could fly fish to and catch jacks all day long .. and even all night long .. i love jack cravelles .. and especially when i arrive in florida in january and coming from maine where we are iced in ,… a jack cravelle, to me, is an AWESOME fish! but, the florida guys .. seem to pay very little attention to Jacks .. and in general, they have no real desire to target them .. because they are so plentiful and accessible to them basciall 24/7 in every harbor, inlet and coastline ..

    BUT – in my opinion, rather than trying to “fit in” and pretend like i am from florida and say, “oh, no big deal .. i just caught a couple jacks.” … i try to be true to myself and how i feel, so if i had a fun morning or evening fly fishing to jacks my statement is more like … “dude, i had a killer time chasing jacks up and down the beach! they were busting all over the place and i finally got one on a popper fly! it was awesome!” …. and THAT is the truth .. it was awesome …

    so – perception is everything — and a good rule of thumb is … fly fishing is fun, and everybody is a different points in their fly fishing journey … and always be true to your OWN fly fishing journey and try not to compare it with others or the “common” perception …

    so – FOR YOU – that BLUE FISH WAS AN AMAZING FISH! AS IT SHOULD BE! and although there are probably some folks on the site from Rhode Island or marthas vineyard or connecticut where the bluefish are thick … i guarantee that there are equally as many, if not more fly fishermen on the site from colorodao, montana, wyoming, western ny etc… who would LOVE to even have an opportunity to catch that fish …. after all .. never forget … many fly fishermen don’t have immediate access to the ocean …

    ok — sorry to ramble — but perception is everything … and if i could recommend anything at all to you or anyone else and even myself .. it would be “STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF” and “FOLLOW YOUR OWN FLY FISHING PATH”

    nice work austin — great fish.

  5. bluerand on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Nice fish and viedo guys. I have been having a blast all summer on big blue fish in N.J. They have finaly come back due to a rebuilding plan forced by law (magnuson Stevens Act) Now if we can get more folks letting them go and push the rigional fishing councils to rebuild more of the depleated fish populations we will be having more fun.