7 bonito hooked; 4 boatside and 3 in the boat, 2 in the fridge
including a 8 pounder. Rather than chasing around Vineyard sound
I stayed in my backyard on the falmouth shore and was in the biggest
pack of bonito I have ever seen for 2 hr's straight.
I hooked 2 on a fly and lost them both, but oooh baby, I now understand....
Those 2 on the fly, wow! One was in backing in fractions of a second
and then started melting that off the spool. The it turned, came at me,
and was gone. The second came out of the water at boatside, struck down
on my hanging bunny fly, which was about 2 feet away from the boat. I saw
it take the fly and dive under the boat at full speed. It broke off
almost instantly.
I had another on a jig like that, jig sitting at boatside, bonito came
out of nowhere at full speed and grabbed the jig, dove under the boat
and kept on going at full speed. You can only imagine what the Penn 4300
sounded like at that instant...
I also had another which picked up a sinking and still jig as I struggled
to free a line twist from my spool.
The last one wore me out, 4 times around the boat, blazing runs and the
unwilling to give an inch spiral at the end. Thats the one that weighed
in at Green Pond at 7 Lb's 12 oz. After it bled all over my boat and
barfed a few oz' of sandeels...
Leslie - say what you want about Penn quality - their drag is sweet,
I just stripped and cleaned the 4300 and it was still smooth before
I cleaned it after a 5 bonito workout. I recall a 1 bonito day
trashing a decent Shimano a few years back...
L.