March 20 – fishing report. There have been a good amount of small to medium bonitos around this week and last, and with them there have been a handful of chunky Blackfin tunas ranging from 3-15lbs. They are eating very small crack minnows on the surface and anything fitting that profile has worked well lately. I have gone to fishing long daisy chains on 40lb floro with pink squid heads trimmed down about a half inch and spaced out about 16-18 inches tipped with a silver stainless bullet at the end. I also run a green on the other long rod with the same setup. I always keep a big bait usually a split tail mullet with a green or blue chugger head in front if it on the short rigger just behind the long planer. We’ve had a few very large Mahi and a Wahoo last week hit the planers and the mullets. We managed to catch the wahoo on a purple mylar seawitch with a blue/green squid skirt underneath tipped with a bonito strip. The Mahi ate the mullet and another Wahoo ate the Mullet the next trip out as well. Don’t be afraid to spend time in the pesky bonitos because the larger fish are after those bonitos and will be right there in the mix and if you are patient every 6-7 bonito’s you will get a good tuna or mahi or whaoo or even a large kingfish. On the planer rods the #4 and #8 have been working. I have been running a small silver spoon on 100′ long leader tipped with 40lb floro about 6 feet tied to the 60lb main leader with a double uni knot on the #4 planer long. This setup has produced like crazy as the small spoon mimics what these fish are feeding on. On the deep short planer #8 I am running the same 60lb mono -40lb floro 100′ leader but with the seawitch mylar purple seems to work this time a year with all the small bonitos around. Live bait fishing has been hit or miss with some quality sails when patient. Swordfishing has been on fire when the weather cooperates and the size and numbers of these fish are increasing yearly since the longline ban from the 80’s.
Thanks for reading our fishing report and Tight lines!