I've already talked to you about kayak fishing on sea bass hunts. Other species frequent these hunts, and one of them is the bonito. This fish is present in the Brest roadstead almost every year. The bonito usually arrive a little later, towards the end of July. This year, they've been here for almost a month.
Striped bonito or Sarda Sarda
Called striped bonito, it is also known as pelamide in the Mediterranean. It belongs to a family of 4 species. Sarda sarda is the species of interest to us, while Sarda orientalis is found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The other two species are more specific: Sarda australiensis (Australia) and Sarda chiliensis (Chilean coast).
A fish with a streamlined body and a fast swimming action, it hunts in shoals of forage. When you're lucky enough to come across one, it's a feast for the eyes - the spectacle is always violent. These fish average 50 cm in length, with a maximum of 90 cm. Their weight varies from 2 to 8 kg. This pelagic fish prefers fairly warm waters, and in the Brest harbor, it is present when water temperatures exceed 18°C, which is the case at the moment.
Torpedoes in the harbor
So, on this July 7, after launching myself on my usual spot and in the same area as the day before, once again, some fine hunting began at daybreak. They're a little different from the day before, with several of them with their group of birds above. The birds are moving quite fast, to the rhythm of the forage below, panicked by the predators chasing them. On the surface, there are beautiful wakes that burst through these shoals of forage, no doubt about it, these are skipjack tuna, the torpedoes of the roadstead.
Heavy fighting
Like the day before, on one of my rods, I have a soft lure, a blue-bodied Astushad, imitation sardine, with a 25-gram profyler head, which allows me to cast quite far, thus avoiding breaking the hunt in progress by getting too close. As soon as I cast, it's swallowed, the rod bends, I'm off, and the 30/00 sheared off. I don't insist on using the soft lure and switch back to swimming fish, a 90 mm Deep Diver with a brand-new rigging. Trolling around one of the hunts and cutting off in the supposed direction, I cover a few meters at high speed and get a big jolt in the arm.
One of these torpedoes seized the decoy. The fight that followed was violent, with rapid starts and probing through the water. In the course of the fight, I realize that I've misplaced my rod and that there's a twist in the braid around the lower strand. I take advantage of the end of the fight and a slackening in the fish's defence to unhook my upper strand, undo the turn and re-hook the whole thing. The fish was cooperative and didn't put me through an uncertain rush before the end of my intervention. As you can see in the video below.
During these hunts, I kayak up 3 bonitos, the biggest weighing over 3 kilos, and 4 others come off during the fight. The hunt comes to a sudden halt, and it's the turn of the horse mackerel and mackerel, while the sea bass are less present today, although I'll be picking one up from time to time. It seems that these bonitos like the sunrise, as a previous session on the Landévennec boat graveyard had already shown me.
Equipment
For the tackle, I had a D.A.M rod in 12-42 grams, a Penn slammer reel in 3500, fitted with Yo Zuri super braid in 8 multicolored strands in 16 Lbs and a Topknot Leader fluorocarbon in 31/00. The lure was a Deep Diver large bib in 90 mm.
There's more to Plougastel than strawberries... There are bonitos too!
