A great time can be had in pursuit of a good catch. When bonito are on the move I’ve noticed waves of them coming by in schools every 10 – 15 minutes or so. They can be fussy and only take lures on one day and the next only biting at a whole baitcast mulie. Some of the folk fishing around me seem to be diehard lure-only fishermen. Last time I was down there I saw 15 or more anglers all casting and retrieving lures countless times and only stopping occasionally to rest their tired arms.

From my vantage point at the top of the rocks I observed a nice school of bonito swimming straight past their lures seemingly uninterested in taking them. As quickly as I could I rigged up ...

Salvotore Fronte with a nice bonito

Bait cast mulie, 25 pound mono down to a decent swivel and 50 pound trace. I then attach 2 split shot sinkers just above my gang hooks on my leader to give just a little bit of extra weight for cast distance.

First cast lucky! Bang!! My Penn 850SS was screaming! After a brief but exciting fight I landed it, a very nice sized 4kg bonito. After the initial excitement I realised a few North Mole locals were looking at me and not in a good way. I sent out my second cast and sure enough ... Bang!! I had hooked another one! I was almost feeling guilty at having another nice bonito so quickly. Within a few minutes I had some fellow fisherman wander over to suss me out and see what my secret was.

Being a person who is only to happy to share my methods, I advised them to get rid of their lures and baitcast a mulie. I felt that’s why they weren’t catching anything. At the end of the day I had landed five and kept two to eat. I must add though that the bait casting rig can only be used when there is either no wind or you have a southerly, south-westerly or south-easterly wind.

Rig 2

I don’t intend to discount lures as I have been caught out myself without my lure box only to see bonito being landed on Nilsmaster and Rapala lures and the bonito not interested in baits on that day. If I had to choose, one of my favourite lures of all time is the Nilsmaster Yellow Belly.

Attach a clip on your wire trace leader to your main line and then clip on your favourite lure. These small wire trace leaders are available at all tackle shops. Using these also gives the lure a fraction more weight which helps when casting. The main advantage with this set up is the ability to swap lures easily without having to re-rig anything.

Also if the ocean isn’t too rough you can always flick out the trusty metal slice. Skip one of these beauties and see if you get a taker.

When the bonito are running anglers flock to the North Mole

The third and final rig is one which I have seen used with amazing results by a group of fishermen who were alongside me one day. I took notice of their success and how they were catching their fish. One family member would have a small rod with a “bait chaser” rig to catch small yellowtail. Whilst he was busy one of the other men rigged up the 10ft rods with a main line of what looked like 20 pound line tied to a swivel and a metre and a half leader of about 40 pound. He had a single 5/0 hook attached to the end of the leader.

Now for the interesting part ….. He reached in his tackle box and opened a packet of water balloons. (Yes, I admit I had a chuckle to myself and pointed it out to my mates). He then blew the water balloon up with his mouth and tied it just above the swivel to the leader. His wife hastily passed him a live yellowtail which she had just caught with perfect timing to use. He then placed the 5/0 through the yellowtail’s shoulder being careful not to go too close to the backbone which of course will kill the live bait.

I was watching all this with interest. He carefully cast out, being gentle enough not to rip the hook out of the live bait. It looked like an awkward set-up due to the long leader and his cast only got him 10 metres out. I was chuckling to myself, but that merriment was to be short lived! He then started to feed line out and the live bait actually started to swim the small balloon out! Then “Smash!!” the small balloon disappeared and instantly all I heard was the sound of a reel screaming! He was on! All I thought to myself at that time was that this was just a fluke. I ended up counting a total of eight bonito caught by him using the live yellowtail under an air filled water balloon method. Who would have thought you could do this on such an unconventional but clever rig.

Bonito taken on a Rapala

The moral of this story is: If one thing isn’t working for one angler, try something different! Usually the fish are there, it’s your job to coax or trick them into taking your strategy.

Another saying is “the proof is in the tasting” and these three methods I have shared are proven bonito catchers. So I hope it helps you too. When chasing bonito have your block of mulies, your lures and a packet of water balloons ready to go and you should hook up at least one of these great fish!

Once you have managed to capture a bonito and you decide to keep it, make sure you bleed the fish straight away. Cut the throat and to be humane, brain spike the fish as well.

When eaten the same night, bonito are actually a really nice fish on the table. Cook the fish in foil with a dash of butter and a pinch of allspice for that perfect flavour. After taking it from the oven or BBQ give it a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime and you are set for a great dinner.

Well, that concludes this article on the North Mole little pocket rockets. Get your tackle ready, get out there and get one for yourself.