Balboa Pier Sunday Oct 16 2022

Rusty

Active Member
#1
Wide open Bonito bite in the early AM until about noon, when the bite slowed down, but a few anglers were still managing to still catch. Lots of Bonito up to 2lbs. Still smallish, but that doesn’t stop anyone from taking as much as they can fill their sacks with. Bite picked up again around 4pm.

The fish only wanted sardines, and they were a bit picky at those, they had to be the right size, strong swimmers, and not beat up or bloody.
 

Rusty

Active Member
#3
The limit on those small bonito is five fish.
yep. And all of those people know the regulations. No one cares anymore. Literally everyone was taking all they can, except a few. And not limited to any specific ethnicities or gender. Disappointing to see this happening, everyone is all for themselves nowadays. I tossed my catches back (which upset a few anglers), gave a few away to some that couldn’t manage to catch.

An even more disappointing sight was someone trying to sell their Bonito on the pier, lugging a bucket full up and down the pier. Now, this kid, I have seen fishing here for years, i remember when he was barely 3 feet tall, begging me for sinkers, hooks, and rigs.

You know who you are if you are reading this, and you know who I am; you know the regs and what you should not be doing. You’re old enough now to know.
 
#5
Yeah the bait bite was crazy Thu AM 10-12, but they were not picky, so mush sardine that they were biting and being snagged by jigs, you could throw the ignored jig back out with the sardine and get bit within 10 sec. They devoured even the fattest sardines! A slow pick on croc or jigpara and NOTHING (not even passes) on splasher or stick bait, but reports from jetty were WFO on jigs like colt sniper
 
#6
The regs are the regs, but actually they are really stupid for Bonito, pigeon hole policy making at its best. They are fast-growing migratory pelagics with massive breeding numbers. There is nothing sport fisherman in CA could do to harm their numbers, it all happens South of the border and we are just lucky when decent numbers evade the Mexican fleets so we can get our 5. The regs were adopted when 24" (4-5lb) fish were common but diminishing in-shore. So it's been 40 years and and there are way fewer 24" grade fish, even at Catalina, but 1000's times more younger age schools coming into our waters. Why? Cat/Dog food supported by fleets of commercial boats. Regs will likely never change and DFG will likely never get enough funds to properly enforce. Sooo the good news is that while taking too many Bonito is a violation enforcement risk, it will not harm the population that we have access to. Commercial fishing and global weather/current changes is the big worry in my opinion.
 

Mahigeer

Senior Member
#8
I think people who keep more than five (I see a lot at the Mole), sell their catch. They all know the regulations. Especially at the Mole with (4) four posted signs.

Otherwise, it would be stupid to risk a ticket for just eating more fish.
 
#9
The regs are the regs, but actually they are really stupid for Bonito, pigeon hole policy making at its best. They are fast-growing migratory pelagics with massive breeding numbers. There is nothing sport fisherman in CA could do to harm their numbers, it all happens South of the border and we are just lucky when decent numbers evade the Mexican fleets so we can get our 5. The regs were adopted when 24" (4-5lb) fish were common but diminishing in-shore. So it's been 40 years and and there are way fewer 24" grade fish, even at Catalina, but 1000's times more younger age schools coming into our waters. Why? Cat/Dog food supported by fleets of commercial boats. Regs will likely never change and DFG will likely never get enough funds to properly enforce. Sooo the good news is that while taking too many Bonito is a violation enforcement risk, it will not harm the population that we have access to. Commercial fishing and global weather/current changes is the big worry in my opinion.
You are absolutely correct. The cat food fleets in Mexico have a wall of death south of the border so the larger ones never make it up in the spring like they used to, I remember at balboa pier 1978-1981 catching 3-4 pounders first week of march on a diamond jig casted far out and deep. The schools would be breezing by with no signs but they were there. June would come and the 3/4 lb fish would be in droves. I remember one overcast morning in June 1979 at balboa pier, the water was black with bonito. There were literally millions of them. The larger ones could always be caught at the end of the wedge. The rule of thumb back in the early 1980s was if they were 1 pound at the balboa pier, they would be 3-4 lbs at the wedge. Ensenada harbor is like a fish hatchery for bonita. I remember one trip down there in may of 1986, the entire bay from the harbor entrance all the way to the Bufadora was nothing but boils. The sportfisherman do not put a dent in the population. These seiners are massive. The reason we only get the small ones early in the year is they were small enough to escape the nets and as the water is warm so they continue to trek north as they did this year.