During the 88th annual Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, which took place on Dauphin Island from July 16-18, Kyler Davis landed a pending Alabama state-record fish. But he almost cut it up for bait.
People commonly, but erroneously, call the species a “bonito” as identified in the rodeo category and pronounced “bonita.” People also call it a false albacore, but Davis actually landed a “little tunny” weighing 22.24 pounds. It beat the existing state record of 21 pounds for the species. W. A. March Jr. caught that fish in 1956. The current world record weighed more than 36 pounds.
“I’ve been fishing all my life, ever since I was young,” said Davis, a 23-year-old heating and air conditioning technician from Irvington. “My main goal has always been to have my name put in that record book. Everybody keeps calling me and asking me about it, and I really don’t know how to feel. I’m very excited, but I can’t explain how excited. Reaching that goal was unbelievable. Truthfully, it’s something I can’t even describe.”
Many people confuse this species with Atlantic bonito, another member of the tuna family. The state record for Atlantic bonito weighed 5-lbs., 5-ozs., and the world record came in at 18.25 pounds. Most little tunny run about 5 to 15 pounds.
“In the Gulf of Mexico, the little tunny is more often referred to by the wrong common name (bonito) than any other species I know,” said Dr. Bob Shipp (bobshipp.com), a renowned marine biologist and author of Dr. Bob Shipp’s Guide to Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. “The Atlantic bonito does occasionally enter the Gulf of Mexico. The resemblance is striking, thus the confusion.”
Regardless of the proper name, Davis landed the biggest one of that species ever officially weighed in Alabama. He fished with his good friend Evan Diamond on a 21-foot Sea Pro offshore edition boat powered by a 150-horsepower Yamaha outboard. They ventured about 70 miles due south of Dauphin Island. Hoping to catch tuna, they first need to catch little tunny for bait.
“We were fishing out past the Petronas rig in about 2,000 feet of water,” Davis said. “The Petronas rig is 64 miles out of Dauphin Island, and we were past it. We were fishing between the big oil rigs out there where they catch yellowfin and blackfin tuna. I’ve seen lots of videos of people trying to chum tuna up to the surface. That’s what we were trying to do.”
Kyler Davis, of Irvington, with his pending state record little tunny that weighed 22.24 pounds. The existing record weighed 21 pounds and has stood since 1956.
Several big schools of sizeable little tunny came up to the chum slick. Davis threw a vertical jig into the school and hooked into the record-breaker. He fought the extremely fast and powerful fish for about 25 minutes before landing it.
“They were schooling up big time,” Davis said. “I threw out a vertical jig into the group because they weren’t hitting any other lure. We caught three of them that were similar in size. We were cutting them in half and using them for shark bait. I didn’t even know I had a record on board.”
Since they were fishing in a rodeo with about 30 species categories, they were fishing for whatever they could catch. They kept the biggest bonito and cut up the rest for bait. They were about to cut that one up, too, but they could look on the internet at a live leaderboard and see the top little tunny at the time weighed about 16 pounds. They decided to keep their biggest one to weigh in for the rodeo.
“I knew I had a fish weighing more than 20 pounds, but I did not know I had a state record,” Davis said. “When that school came in, we were just trying to get more bait because we were running low. They are a lot of fun to catch. They are a good fighting fish, a good sport fish, but I just look at them as bait.”
That’s how most people look at little tunny, as a source of fresh bait, However, these compact, muscular smaller cousins of bluefin and yellowfin tuna can provide incredibly exciting sport on light tackle. Almost never intentionally targeted as game fish because of their reputation for poor tablefare, these fish hit baits lightning fast and take off running at blistering speed that can rip line from even top-quality offshore reels.
“Little tunny are fast-moving, tight-schooling predators, favoring clear, nearshore, coastal areas and shallow-shelf, surface waters,” Shipp said. “As to its meat, though, its reputation is a dud. It’s too bloody and too strong, but it is tuna meat, so the potential is there. What’s needed is a good long time in a flavorful marinade or a prolonged term in the smoker.”
When fishing for tuna, sharks, king mackerel or other large predators, anglers frequently cut up little tunny for chum or fish small ones as live bait. When meat pieces hit the water, these ravenous, largely unpressured, fish swarm in huge numbers like sea-going piranhas. Sometimes, anglers targeting yellowfin tuna or other large fish need to use giant meat chunks to get through the frenzied little tunny tearing everything to pieces.
“The frantic feeding by little tunny is a sight to behold,” Shipp said. “A tight school of feeding little tunny can literally maintain a half-acre of foam. Despite their voracious habits, preferred prey are small forage fishes. In fact, little tunny are probably in greater competition with Spanish mackerel half their size than they are with comparably sized king mackerel.”
Little tunny in a hungry horde might demolish almost any lures, live or cutbaits, including little tunny chunks. They particularly like shiny spoons and jigs worked as fast as possible near the surface. For the ultimate thrill, use gear suitable for largemouth bass or redfish and throw topwater baits. Toss a floater past the school and work it over them. Hold on for explosive strikes, followed immediately by sizzling runs. Use reels with high line capacities.
Although Davis and Diamond didn’t land any tuna, they did return to port with other good fish besides a pending state record. They caught their red snapper limit, some cobia, king mackerel and a small wahoo among other fish.
“We both went at it hard,” Davis said. “I entered an African pompano in the rodeo that Saturday. It was on the leaderboard but got knocked off on Sunday. We did get some blackfin tuna to the top, but we kept losing them. When I first heard that I had a state record, my initial thought was ‘no way!’ I accomplished my goal of catching a state-record fish, and I had a trophy to enter in the rodeo. My dream is to become a charter boat captain.”
