Mackerel and Tuna — Family Scombridae — Pacific Bonito
Species: Sarda chiliensis (Cuvier, 1832); from the Greek word sarda (an ancient name for a European species of bonito) and chiliensis (in reference to Chile, South America, where the species was first recognized).
James Liu (GDude) and a bonito caught at the Cabrillo Mole in Avalon.
Alternate Names: Most commonly called bonehead but also given the names bone, boner, bonefish, flasher, bongo, magneto, and micronito (small bonito). In the past often called “poor mans tuna,” striped tuna, little tuna and, derisively, Laguna tuna. One of my favorites names—from the PFIC Message Board—Mr. Bojangles. Called bonito del Pacífico oriental in Mexico.
Adam Cassiduy (baitfish) and a bonito from the Cabrillo Mole.
Identification: A tuna-shaped, elongated body that is pointed at both ends, a shape that provides power and speed. A series of 6 to 8 finlets follow the second dorsal fin and anal fin and their caudal fin (tail) is deeply forked. A fairly large mouth is filled with large, sharp teeth. Typical coloring is dark blue above with greenish reflections and a metallic luster shading into silver below. Several slanted, dark stripes run down from the back. However, when feeding they often display a very different pattern with vertical stripes on the side, sometimes with a yellowish mid-dorsal stripe. The same is true when breeding but the color change only occurs in the males.
Two color variations on bonito. The top is the normal color. The bottom is the color change during feeding or breeding.
Size: To 48 inches and about 25 pounds. Most caught from piers are less than 24 inches. For years the California record fish was listed as a fish that was caught in Malibu Cove in 1978 with a weight of 22 lb. 3 oz. (That weight was apparently changed to 21 lb. 3 oz. and today is the IGFA record for 16-Lb. line). I’m not sure why the weight was changed. The current California Record and IGFA World Record is a 21 lb. 5 oz. fish taken at the 181 Spot in California in 2003. The diving record is for a 10 lb. 4 oz. fish taken at Catalina Island in 1967.
A 20-pound bonito caught (I think) by the commercial guys.
Range: There are two subspecies. One, the northern population, Sarda chiliensis lineolata, is found from southern Baja California, including Islas Revillagigedo and Gulf of California to Copper River, Gulf of Alaska. The southern population, Sarda chiliensis chiliensis, is found in the subtropical eastern Pacific, Máncora, Peru to Talcahuano, Chile. Most years the northern subspecies is common from Mexico into southern California. However, during El Niño, warm-water conditions, they are sometimes found as far north as Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
In the El Niño year of 1983, while fishing off of Elk in Mendocino County, northern California, roughly 120 miles north of San Francisco, I witnessed several large bonito, all over ten pounds in weight, being caught by anglers. They were trolling for salmon as was I. During cold-water years, especially La Niña years, bonito may be absent from California waters. Bonito generally arrive in California in the spring as water temperatures rise and food becomes more plentiful. A statement in The California Finfish and Shellfish Identification Book reported the following: “I spoke to a herring biologist who informed me that he caught some bonito underneath the San Mateo Bridge [San Francisco Bay] in late January 2016. It is rare enough to get bonito in the bay, but that deep, and in January? Unheard of!” But, fish surprise us all the time.
A bonito I caught on a rainy day at the Cabrillo Mole.
Habitat: Near-shore epipelagic (upper open ocean) from the surface down to a recorded depth of 361 feet. They are generally found within 20 miles from shore with younger fish common in near-shore, shallower waters, including beach and kelp areas along with bays (especially those with warm water outlets). Larger, older bonito are generally found in deeper water. They show extensive summer migrations, sometimes hundreds of miles, following schools of bait, especially anchovies and sardines. They primarily feed on small fish but include squid and crustaceans in their diet. They grow rapidly reaching 20 inches in one year but rarely live more than six to eight years.
A bonito from the Goleta Pier
Piers: Common at many southland piers during and after warm-water years, both those in bays and those at oceanfront spots. Best bets: Ocean Beach Pier, Oceanside Pier, San Clemente Pier, Balboa Pier, Newport Pier, Cabrillo Mole (Avalon), Redondo Beach Pier, and the Hermosa Beach Pier. Stearns Wharf (Santa Barbara) and Goleta Pier can be decent some years, especially in the fall. We even received notice one day on Pier Fishing In California of a 5-pound bonito being caught at the Pacifica Pier (near San Francisco) by Salty Nick. It was during one of the El Niño years (while others were catching salmon).
Shoreline: Sometimes taken by shore anglers fishing from jetties in southern California, especially the jetty at Redondo Beach.
Boats: One of the favored boat species although the numbers can show a drastic change year-to-year depending upon water temperature.
Bait and Tackle: Bonito primarily feed on fish and squid and are taken on a variety of baits and lures. The best bait is live anchovies or small sardines fished on a sliding leader or with a cast-a-bubble. For years the best lure was considered to be a bonito feather affixed to either a cast-a-bubble, a wooden float, a Styrofoam float, or a golf ball—the bubble/float/golf ball causes commotion on the surface, which attracts the bonito and keeps the lure near the top. Today a wide variety of spoons and jigs, i.e., MegaBaits and Jigpara, have also proven effective.
A LARGE bonito caught on the Sea Wolf.
Food Value: Bonito are considered moderate in flavor, with large flakes, a dense texture and moderate fat content. The California Finfish and Shellfish Identification Book says: “This fish offers a firm texture and delicate flakes with hints of smoke and saltiness. Pacific Bonito is a versatile fish that has a burst of fresh, oceanic flavor.” However, that description is based on proper preparation. For best results they require cleaning soon after capture. If bled quickly, or even better if filleted and then put on ice, the flesh can be quite tasty. However, if allowed to warm up in a gunnysack on a boat or in a plastic bag on the nice hot surface of a pier the flesh can be almost inedible (which is true with many fish). Some parts of the flesh (a strip in the middle) are very dark colored, bloody and strong flavored. Remove those parts of the flesh unless you desire them for smoking. Given the relatively high oil content of the flesh, the best cooking methods are broiling or bar-b-cuing the meat; the worst are methods like deep-frying that would add more oil. In addition, smoked bonito and pickled bonito are also very good.
When I was young, and lived in San Diego, I would often go out on the half-day boats to catch some bonito. Most of the bonito (in the gunnysacks) would wind up as fertilizer for my mom’s roses. However, a couple of the cooks on the boats would cook up some of the fresh-caught fish. A favorite method was to cut thin slices of meat from the head of the bonito (up behind the eyes) and then lightly cook the slices on a grill using just a little butter. Flavored with soy sauce, it was delicious.
Today, given that we’ve all become gourmands, we would probably serve the thin slices raw as sashimi and include a little dipping sauce, i.e., wasabi paste and soy sauce draped over a daikon radish. One recommended dipping sauce even includes fish flakes from bonito, it’s a sauce made from shōyu (a type of soy sauce), mirin (a sweet cooking wine) and the bonito flakes.
Comments: Many people feel that bonito are among the strongest fighting fish, pound for pound, in the sea. In southern California they are one of the favorite Sportfish on boats and piers ranking, with halibut, as one of the top two favorites on piers.
Although they may bite throughout the day on boats fishing in deeper waters, I’ve always considered them somewhat of a crepuscular species around piers, being primarily active during twilight, i.e., dawn and dusk. Often there is a strong early morning and early evening bite with mid-day showing only minimal activity. When I was a young angler fishing on Newport Pier in the early ‘60s, I remember how the regulars would be fishing most of the day for halibut or other fish with their rods and reels but a second rod, rigged with bonito tackle, would be sitting, ready to be used if and when a bonito boil showed up near the pier.
For many years the place to go for bonito was the Redondo Sportfishing Pier in Redondo Harbor. This was especially true during the colder-weather winter months. That narrative was altered when the nearby power plant changed ownership and changed procedures. Instead of always being on, and sending a steady stream of hot water into the harbor (where it emerged from the famous “bubble hole”), it became a sporadic occurrence. Visitors never knew when the hot water, or the bonito, would be showing up. Locals learned to check out the tall towers to see if they were emitting smoke. If they were, the hot water would be bubbling up in the harbor and bonito probably would be present. Today the pier is closed but hopefully will be rebuilt. Many also hope the warm water will return to the harbor on a more regular basis.
One thing that is hard to visualize today is the number of bonito in the early to mid ‘60s. For anglers in boats they were sometimes even considered a nuisance. One trip on the half-day boat “Del Mar” out of Davey’s Locker in June, 1968, saw my group seeking out some good eating bottom fish. On our first stop the anglers dropped down their three-hook gangions, with heavy jigs as sinkers, and almost every angler immediately hooked up with four bonito. It was a job bringing up four good-sized bonito. A second drop produced much the same and the skipper angrily announced we had to move to get away from the “damn bonito.” No one counted up the number of gangions twisted up into useless rigs. Although bonito at times can be a frustrating, i.e., when you see them following but refusing to take a bonito feather, there are times when a school is aroused and will attack almost any bait or lure thrown their way (much like a “mac attack”). That wasn’t the norm but the number of bonito in those days (at least on the boats) was sometimes amazing.
Bonito or bonita? The correct spelling is bonito but a surprisingly high number of people over the years, including journalists and writers who should know better, have used bonita as the moniker for these fish. One day on the Pier Fishing in California message board someone said his daughter had been called a bonito and she got upset until someone told her that the name meant pretty in Spanish. People then chimed in that she should have been called a bonita since that was the feminine name and bonito was the masculine name. As for the fish, given the strong, powerful fight they typically put up, I think I will stick with bonito as the name.
