BONITA!!!

Gus with Bonita

Every so often here in the western end of the Santa Barbara Channel we get a shot at a few bonita.  Last fall, while Gus and I were out on the Te-Ca-Te trying to scratch up a few rockfish for dinner, we spotted fish boiling a few hundred yards away.  We ran over just in time to see a couple of bonita go airborne before the school went down.  We started fan casting the area trying to find the school.  On my fifth or sixth cast a dozen or so nice bonita came charging in after my plastic.  I made another quick cast and was instantly hooked up.  On Gus' next retrieve we both watched as a bonita inhaled his bait a couple feet off the tip of his rod.  It was an incredible rush.  After 10 or more laps around the Te-Ca-Te (our 12' Achilles inflatable) we both landed our fish and went home to make sushi.