The Striped Bonito is not a fish you set out to catch at Kaiji No Ri. It is a fish that finds you. It is a small, fast schooling member of the tuna family, and it will hammer the same Spanner Spoon you are throwing for Yellowfin Tuna. My best so far was a Unique at 9.900 kg and 96.6 cm, which paid 3,497 coins and 3,173 XP. That tells you everything about where this fish sits: it is one of the smallest earners on the map, and I caught mine as a bonus while fishing my tuna setup. This guide is honest about that. It shows the spot, the lure, and why you do not need a dedicated rig for it.
Why Target the Striped Bonito?
Let me be straight with you, because a guide that oversells this fish would be lying. The Striped Bonito is a poor coin earner. My Unique paid 3,497 coins and 3,173 XP, and the species tops out at just over 10 kg, so my 9.900 kg Unique is already close to the biggest this fish gets. That puts it near the bottom of the Kaiji No Ri pack, well below the Dogtooth Tuna, the Yellowfin Tuna, and the Striped Marlin. If you are here to make money or grind levels, this is not your fish.
So why catch it at all? Two honest reasons. First, it completes your Kaiji No Ri species list, and if you care about your catalog it has to go on the board. Second, and more useful, you do not have to go out of your way for it. When you are casting the Spanner Spoon for tuna near the reefs, the Bonito bites the same lure, so you pick it up for free without changing anything. Think of it as a bonus catch, not a destination.
It sits in my Kaiji No Ri cluster with my Yellowfin Tuna, Striped Marlin, Albacore, Bigfin Reef Squid, Dogtooth Tuna, Giant Trevally, and Giant Grouper guides.
About the Striped Bonito
The Striped Bonito (Sarda orientalis) is a small schooling pelagic from the same family as the tunas and mackerels. In the game it reaches a little over 10 kg and past a metre in length, so even a big one is modest. It lives in warm subtropical and tropical water down to around 150 metres, and it travels in mixed schools with other mackerel-sized fish. Its diet is small fish, shrimp, and squid, which is exactly why an artificial lure worked so well on it.
The in-game info lists spoons among its preferred lures, along with pilkers, crankbaits, minnows, bucktails, spinners, and soft baits. It also takes baits like shrimp, finger mullets, scaled sardine, and Japanese jack mackerel. The point to take from that long list is simple: this is not a fussy fish. It is an aggressive little predator that will chase almost any moving lure, which is why it keeps grabbing your tuna spoon.
Where to Catch Striped Bonito at Kaiji No Ri
I marked and caught mine near coordinates -3398.97, 312.53, in the open water close to Green Harbor. This overlaps the same water you troll and cast for tuna, which is the whole reason the Bonito shows up on your line. It is a schooling surface and mid-water fish, not a structure hugger like the Dogtooth, so you find it out over open water rather than tight to the reef. If you are already fishing the tuna lanes off Green Harbor, you are already in Bonito water.
I caught mine at midday under clear skies, around 23 degrees with a light northwest wind. The activity chart showed a strong afternoon bite and another lift through the early night hours. Since you are catching this fish while working tuna anyway, do not plan your day around it. Fish the times that suit the tuna, and the Bonito will turn up on its own.
The Setup: Your Tuna Rig Already Works
Here is the honest version. I caught the Bonito on my tuna rig, and that rig is wildly overpowered for a 10 kg fish. It is a MizuJigu 170 SE, an X Heavy saltwater spinning rod rated for 40 to 90 kg line, paired with a JigoKuTen 16000 SE reel and Kaigen Fluoro 1.05 mm. That gear is built to drag Yellowfin Tuna off the surface, not to fight a Bonito that weighs less than a bag of rice. The Bonito just happened to bite the lure on it.
So do not read this as a recommended Bonito setup, because it is not. If you were targeting only Bonito you would drop to much lighter tackle and enjoy the fight more. But almost nobody does that, because there is no reason to make a special trip for a 3,497 coin fish. The realistic setup is whatever tuna rig you already have out, and this one works fine.
The lure that did it was the Spanner Spoon, a silver 150 g spoon with a 8/0 hook. The joke behind it is that a Japanese angler literally turned a spanner into a spoon, and in the game it is described as something tuna bite on remarkably well. The Striped Bonito is in the tuna and mackerel family, so it responds to the same lure for the same reason. The in-game info does not list the Spanner Spoon by name in the Bonito preferred lures, but it does list spoons in general, and this one clearly works. That is the practical takeaway: one spoon, two or more species off the same casts.
Landing It
There is no drama here, and that is the point. At under 10 kg on tackle built for 90 kg line, the fight is short. It runs and shakes like the fast little fish it is, but it never threatens your line and it never dives for structure the way the Dogtooth does. You reel it in, lift it by hand, no crane and no worry. If you have been fighting tuna all session, the Bonito is the easy breather in between.
Common Mistakes
Making a special trip for it. Do not. At 3,497 coins for a Unique, the Striped Bonito is not worth dedicated time. Catch it while you fish tuna and treat it as a bonus.
Keeping every one you catch. Your boat has a weight limit, and Bonito are cheap. If you are filling the hold for a good tuna haul, do not waste capacity on low-value Bonito. Release them and save the room for fish that actually pay.
Thinking you need a light rod. You do not need to swap tackle for it. The Bonito bites the heavy tuna spoon just fine. Switching rigs only makes sense if the Bonito is the one fish you are missing for your catalog and you want an easier, more sporting fight.
Final Word
The Striped Bonito is a bonus, not a target. It is a small, willing tuna-family fish that grabs the same Spanner Spoon you throw for the big pelagics off Green Harbor, and it costs you nothing extra to add it to your Kaiji No Ri catalog. Keep your tuna rig out, work the open water, and let the Bonito come to you.