I did put one on the hook and a dog took it.

Count it!!!

Nice Calico

Don't throw out bonito, if you have access to a smoker, they make the most Amazing smoked fish dip

Congrat on the fish, the YT only can get bigger from there!

It's actually a 20lb Yellowtail and a 50lb Calico in that cooler 👍🏼 that's what you tell your friends that don't fish 😜

But seriously, nice catch on the calico and congrats on your first YT

Thanks I'll keep that in mind next time. I was gonna keep em but wasn't sure on regulation size. Now i know. I had some kids help me take a pic of my catch and as I was loading my yak I was stopped by lifeguard telling me someone had reported me taking an undersize. He inspected my catch and tried to look up YellowFIN, after a little back and forth about my catch not being a tuna but member of the Jack family he told me I was ok to go after he looked up the correct species. Dude didn't even know his fish and was trying to enforce limit laws on me and someone didn't appreciate me taking a young one. Didn't bother me though I had perma grin at the point.

I think I'm way too honest to be a good fisherman, I feel so bad telling stories, lol

How is the minimum size limit 24" for bonito. Everyone on peirs keep bonito far less than that. Even 1/2 day boats keep 300+ tiny 8inchers. Or does fish and game just not care?

Technically you are allowed 10 over 24".
Or 5 below 24" and 5 over.

And if you chunk it for lobster or chum the pieces cant be identified so each piece is a sub 24".

Does this mean people keeping bonito for bait that are under 24" are crooks?

According to that chart, 5 are allowed to be under 24". Sorry, just adding to the confusion. You're allowed 5 bonito under 24 for bait. Plus 5 over 24 if you decide to keep. That's how I interpret it. Although as soon as you lose a bait, you're allowed another haha.

Sorry I deleted my last post to re-think my words. but, as long as you stay with in the legal count and size limit I guess it be ok :confused:

They definitely don't make the regs easy to understand

If you bleed out and ice the bonita right away they are actually VERY tasty sashimi. They are easily bruised though and go downhill fast if you don't pop a gill and get on ice.

I use the Fish Alert app on my phone for the MLPA zones to show me where it's legal to fish. But one other nice feature is that it has the regulations for all CA fish. You can bring up the app, pull up YT and it will tell you the size and take limit for each fish. It would have helped you avoid wasting time with this guy while he looked up the regs since he clearly didn't know what he was doing.

If he is going to try to enforce limits he should know what the hell he is enforcing 👍🏼


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is what the app looks like

Thanks I used that app to make sure I was outside the mlpa before I made bait

Well you better learn fast if you want to be a pro!

I just checked out that app...and I found an error right away. I would say it's a good guide but to be sure to cross check the DFG regulations just to be sure.

I looked up a fish that is on the no take list, the Bronzespotted Rockfish, AKA (Warthog). I know it's a no take species....the app says limit is 10, and that's just plain wrong.

Edit: Just noticed that yelloweye and canary are on there too with a limit of 10...? WTF? So is Cowcod!

This thing is loaded with errors....
The maximum depth on rockfish is currently 60 fathoms and it says it's 50 fathoms....
Current Lingcod bag limit is 3 on the app it says it's 2.

Those DFG regulation are actually correct if you lived in northern cal 2003. LOL!!!
click on link and Go to left of screen and click on north cal regulation.

http://www.sfsportfishing.com/oceanfish2004.pdf