Chronicles of Ronia: Bonito Fought Like A King

Finally our Brooker is back from his heart surgery. The Evinrude had its powerhead totally busted and so a replacement had to be fitted. It's like having a new engine. Bloody hell we still had to be charged for this work though the mechanic says he's doing it half price for us. Well, as expected, these 2 fishmongers had to take it out for a thorough spin to make sure that the warranty of 3 months is well worth it. The early morning saw me woke up at 4.30am to drive up Kyeemagh for baits. Chen had been squidding the previous night with his mate. He actually got 2 squids and briefly tried for jewfish only to give the rest away to some fishos there! Those are gun baits! Oh well, that's just the good of him. Had contemplated to try launching at Rose Bay but still opted for our usual Tunks Park.

Reached Tunks at 6am during first light and already I had to park elsewhere. That's the thing about weekend boating. Thankfully no drama whilst launching only to experience the battery playing up a little on us. Off we motor away and I prep the berley. The new heart performed well, even when we punished it with full revs. It was outgoing tide but as Jialiang said to me once, "low tide also got fish one lah". Well, one thing for sure, the session was non-stop for 5 hours being there. Yes, 5 hours, this shows how crazy we are when you only had 2 hours of sleep for both of us. Went cubing straightaway and breams kept climbing on board. It was easier to 'strike' them ala GTK-style, don't know why, maybe it was the Gamakatsu/Owner hooks that Chen supplied or the fish simply too hungry. I definitely lost count of the breams till we set ourself only to take enough for the bbq and release them ala AFC-style. But bloody hell we tried very hard to 'upgrade' the fishes, however, they were all in the 25cm range.

The best part of the session soon after came when we got onto a few small snappers and whilst reeling it in, a kingfish will follow it. It got us pretty much excited, if only we had squids. That was it, I told Chen we had our "teasers". True, whilst reeling in my snapper, a bonito was circling around it near the boat. They were not as shy as the kings. Chen quickly dropped a pillie and within seconds, the Revros zzz a bit but missed. Lucky the bonnie was still circling my teaser and Chen try again. This time took longer but soon he managed to entice it and then the hookup begins. However, this 1st bonnie wasn't running hardout, but still, it was Chen's first Bonito. Well done bro.

The anchoring was shit. We kept drifting slowly but it didn't affect the fishing. The breams were biting throughout the morning with maybe a few 10-15 minutes break. I brought the blackhole junior rod and thought might as well use it. Used the same old rig and did my "one-third" style. Not long later, the rod bent and when I picked it up, the reel screamed. The line was vertically down and I thought it might be a king. Up it came a 32cm bream foul-hooked on the side of its body. Champion man! No wonder it fought almost like a king. The next action came from Chen when he got another Bonito. This time round, it gave him a good run of his money. His Revros was equipped with a new Seaguar egging 8lb braid. The braid kept making a funny rubbing sound on Jialiang's lure rod but his rod is damn nice to fight these light sport fish. Finally, Chen said "respect" to this bonito cos' the 1st one didn't gave him much fun.

By then, it was almost late 'morvo'. We almost gave up till some points I was just chilling out in Brooker and lazy in baiting up. I still continued my '1/3' style and suddenly, Chen saw the junior bent again and I went to pick it up. This one was absolute mayhem man. The little daiwa samurai reel with limited 8lb braid and 10lb vanish was punished to da max. The stamina of this fish running suddenly makes us wonder if it was a king. The little torpedo run and vertical movement of the line makes me call out for a king 1st. Usually for my own stamina I would have subdue or pump the fish up after 3-4 runs. This one was not the case. I was already draining and Chen could see my utter helpless look on my face. The blackhole although rated as 8-14lb still couldn't cushion the strain on my left arm. I thought 10lb vanish most likely cannot hold but with constant adjusting the drag to almost max, we could finally see what it was at surface, bloody hell, it's another BONITO! Damn it, this time, my turn to say "RESPECT", and to da max! If it was on a 4-8lb, I might contemplate letting the gear slip out of my hand, yeah right!

After that action, it was still breams after breams. We set out a timing to leave as we couldn't take it anymore. My 1/3 had no more customer and so back to tunks. Got wet on the way back as there was too much chops on the water. Brooker did well and we were pretty impressed. Chen was a very proactive boater, he makes sure that the bonnies are bled and iced immediately after landed. We've heard that they can be sashimi and so I tried cutting sashimi the 1st time. Never did precision cutting before and it was a long 1.5 hours to do it! I had to constantly sharpen, wash the cutting board every single time when I start on a side of the fish, that means, the shoulder part, stomach and on both sides of the fish. One side was done not that pretty but it improved on the other side. In the end, the bonito was rated a good eating sashimi by Team StMike and associates. Personally, I found that it tasted better than tuna and hiramasa (king).