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Photo: michael_bommerer, CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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How to catch Atlantic bonito
Atlantic bonito feed in 58–76°F water and bite best at 62–72°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 5 waters.
15 pts · trophy at 26"Feeds 58–76°FBest 62–72°FOut of season nowArtificial reefPass / inletBeach / surfWreck
About
The striped bonito of the winter beaches and nearshore reefs off Northeast Florida and the Panhandle — a real bonito, unlike the little tunny, and good eating bled and iced.
How to fish it
Find the blitzing schools on the winter beaches; cast a spoon or troll small feathers through the birds.
What it eats
small spoons and jigsglass minnowstrolled feathers
Live bait for it
Glass minnows (bay anchovies)Thrown by the handful as chum for Spanish, trout and ladyfish, or several on a tiny hook.
Pilchards (whitebait)Free-lined or under a cork, hooked through the nose on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook. The one bait that catches everything inshore.What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itLeader40–60 lb fluorocarbon
Hook4/0–8/0
Braid50–100 lb
The rule
not confirmed hereNo size limit; general bag — confirm at MyFWC.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
PPeakSSpawningAArriving·AroundLLeaving
South Atlantic
Mid & North Atlantic