Bonita Fishing Port Aransas / Corpus Christi
Bonito or bonita look like living sculptures made of a special tainted glass and they will prove to be a joy to catch when you go deep sea fishing in Port Aransas. You will need the help of Corpus Christi fishing guides to successfully reel in a bonito if you are a beginner angler because bonitos are fierce fighters. They are pelagic fish just like albacore and tuna, and they have a delicious flavor. You can actually eat your own catch because fishing charters in Port Aransas TX offer catering services.
How Corpus Christi Fishing Guides Identify The Bonita
Before you go deep sea fishing in Corpus Christi you should know that there are three species of bonito that look slightly different from each other. They include the plain bonito, dogtooth tuna, leaping bonito and six other species. But the one mostly found in Corpus Christi is called the Atlantic bonito. They are all similar to regular tuna in shape but they are mostly medium sized. Bonito backs are purplish-blue and they have a silvery below with dark bands that run from behind the head to the tail.
Their first dorsal fin is pointed and they have tuna-like finlets that run from the second dorsal fin and the anal fin to their forked tail fin. It can grow to a length of up to nearly 4 feet and can reach a weight of more than 70 pounds. They travel in huge mixed schools, and feed on mollusks, crustaceans, cephalopods, other skipjack tunas and a variety of fish.
Where You Can Find Bonita
Your Port Aransas fishing guides will have to go 20 miles off the shoreline in the deeper areas of the sea to find this fish. They can also be found in bays and prefer brackish or coastal saltwater areas. Bonita live in warm waters with temperatures from 32°F to 80.6°F. Unlike other deep water fish they can survive in situations where water temperature changes gradually.
Techniques For Catching Bonita
The most common methods to catch this fish is through trolling and drifting. But fishing charters in Port Aransas TX prefer trolling. Just approach a school and cast with feather jigs, deep-diving minnow plugs and spoons. Other gear you need for catching bonita include a rod that can handle 30-pound–test braided line, reels with both level-drag and level-wind, a 20-pound-test monofilament, and a 40-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. You also have to use small hooks and the hook must be buried deep into the bait. Recommended baits when you are deep sea fishing in Corpus Christi for bonita are live fish or crustaceans.