Off Bonaire the bottom drops into deep blue water along the leeward coast, and that one feature shapes everything we do on the Fishtales. In a single day we might troll the blue for billfish, jig a FAD for yellowfin, pop a reef edge for jacks, and drop a bait into 1,500 feet of water for a snapper or a swordfish. Different fish, different jobs, and every one wants the right tackle fished the right way.
This is the hub. Below is how we approach every target we chase here, with a link to the full gear-and-technique rundown for each. We’ve fished a lot of the world; Bonaire is still one of the best there is, and the variety is a big part of why.
Trolling the blue water, marlin, wahoo, mahi
Most days open on the troll: a spread off the outriggers at 7 to 9 knots, worked along the seam where the reef plate falls into the blue. Blue marlin is the headline, a fish that can pull 300 yards off the reel before you’ve set your feet, and we run 80 to 130 lb mono on 50W–80W lever-drag reels for exactly that reason. Here’s our full blue-marlin trolling tackle rundown. Wahoo is the fastest thing that bites here, so we rig for the savage, drag-smoking run. And mahi-mahi light up around floating cover and the FADs, light tackle, big fun.
Jigging & popping the FADs, yellowfin, blackfin, jacks
When the tuna stack under the FADs a few miles out, we send jigs down to around 500 feet and crank them up out of the dark, honest, shoulder-burning work. See our yellowfin jigging gear. On the surface, poppers and stickbaits draw explosive strikes from tuna and hard-pulling jacks, our popping & stickbaiting setup covers it.
Light tackle on the reef edge, barracuda & cero
Some of the most action-packed fishing on the island happens right along the reef edge, on light spinning gear, for barracuda and cero kingfish. Both are fast, both have teeth like a bandsaw, and both hammer a moving lure. Here’s the light-tackle barracuda & cero kit we actually use.
Deep-dropping the wall, snapper, grouper, amberjack, swordfish
When it goes quiet on top, we drop to the bottom. Our reef wall falls fast and deep, so the structure that holds red snapper, queen snapper, grouper and hard-pulling amberjack sits right off the edge, our bottom-fishing & deep-drop gear walks through it. Our swordfish ledges sit in 1,500 to 2,500 feet of water; we drop on Lindgren-Pittman electric reels and you battle the ocean’s heavyweight, 80 to 200 lb on average. See the swordfish page for the full picture.
The boat and the gear we run
The Fishtales is a Bertram 42 on twin Cummins QSC engines, 600 HP each, the fastest, most complete charter boat on Bonaire. We fish Penn International and Shimano reels for the heavy stuff, RJ Boyle rods and Lindgren-Pittman electrics for the deep drop and swordfish, and Penn light-tackle spinning and jigging gear for everything else. A Pompanette fighting chair, harnesses and stand-up belts mean you can take on a fish of any size. You don’t need to own any of it. It’s all aboard.
What we keep, what we release
Every billfish goes back: we run 100% catch-and-release on marlin, sailfish and swordfish. The good eating fish, wahoo, mahi, tuna, snapper, are yours to keep, and we clean and cut them at the dock. Bonaire sits inside the STINAPA-managed national marine park, and we fish inside those rules every day; some species are protected and always released.
Ready to put it into practice? Book your trip and we’ll rig the rods, read the conditions and put you on the fish. Tight lines., Captain Yuri
