Tons of Bonita

[Nancy's Boys]

Al and I back at it again, too many Bonita, over 20 plus false albies ran out of time and never took a dock shot, only evidence of the day! Some more good eats till bass come our way!

[tombanjo]

I caught a bunch of those little bones too and was greatly anticipating having them again after last year's feast. Bled and iced right away, the meat was a huge disappointment. Grayish and unsuitable for sushi/sashimi. Not sure if it's a size thing and maybe these little ones need to grow a bit to yield better meat. Last year the ones I ate were all 3lbs and up. Will throw them back next time.

[bulletbob]

I caught a bunch of those little bones too and was greatly anticipating having them again after last year's feast. Bled and iced right away, the meat was a huge disappointment. Grayish and unsuitable for sushi/sashimi. Not sure if it's a size thing and maybe these little ones need to grow a bit to yield better meat. Last year the ones I ate were all 3lbs and up. Will throw them back next time.

Thats strange, you would think the opposite would be true.. I haven't caught Bonito since i lived in NJ years ago, and never caught small ones, but I do remember the ones I caught were really good eating... Maybe as you alluded to, the big ones are just better eating for some reason...

Over the years, I have found individual fish of several different specie, to be horrible to eat for unknown reasons.. Clean water, healthy fish, horrible meat, while on a different day at the same place the same species of fish was perfectly good..

Maybe the fish you had caught and eaten were on some particularly nasty type of food source for a period of time that imparted a nasty taste to the meat.. It doesn't take long I have found. Fish can taste bad one week, and much better a few weeks later when environmental/forage conditions change... bob

[Billfish715]

I caught a bunch of those little bones too and was greatly anticipating having them again after last year's feast. Bled and iced right away, the meat was a huge disappointment. Grayish and unsuitable for sushi/sashimi. Not sure if it's a size thing and maybe these little ones need to grow a bit to yield better meat. Last year the ones I ate were all 3lbs and up. Will throw them back next time.

If they have teeth, they are bonito. If they have spots, they are false albacore (AKA Bonito in southern waters). If they have stripes and no teeth, they are skipjacks. Some people do eat false albacore but they are not the most desired human food fish in the ocean. However, the sharks and marlin love them.

I've never had any problem with the flesh of bonito when the fish are iced and bled immediately.

If you are a fluke fisherman, the white belly strips from the false albacore make excellent baits. The flesh and skin from the belly cavity are just the right thickness for fluke strips. Freeze them with some Kosher salt to keep them firm and package them in small bags with just enough for a single day trip. We used to use large belly strips from them when we trolled along the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida's east coast. I imagine that small pieces of belly strips would be good for seabass as well.

[tombanjo]

Yes, I know the difference between albies and bonito. And yes the younger the meat the better.....usually. True for calves (veal), pork, chicken and of course women.

[Nancy's Boys]

The key to these is keeping them very, very cold! Add kosher salt to your ice bath and immediately put the catch in the box. The bonita are almost frozen by the time you get back to the dock. The meat is very soft, so we make tuna tartare with it. Amazing tasting!

[Billfish715]

The key to these is keeping them very, very cold! Add kosher salt to your ice bath and immediately put the catch in the box. The bonita are almost frozen by the time you get back to the dock. The meat is very soft, so we make tuna tartare with it. Amazing tasting!

When you fillet the bonito, leave the skin on and try to cut some of the blood line and any attached bone fragments out. Then, cover the meat with a coating of mayo, horseradish, lemon juice and breadcrumbs and bake. The recipe works with smaller bluefish fillets too.