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Bonefish
Species Information
| Scientific Name: | Albula vulpes |
| Common Names: | bonefish |
| Environment: | Inshore, Surf |
| Ideal Temp: | 70-85ºF (21-29ºC) |
About Bonefish
Bonefish is a popular gamefish and are known as "grey ghosts of the flats" because they are stealthy, fast swimming fish that are fun and challenging to catch. Bonefish mature at three to four years of age (17-18 inches total length), may live longer than 23 years, and grow to be three feet long and 15 pounds.
Description:
Body elongated, silvery, with darkish areas at the tip of the snout and at the base of the pectoral fin. May display faint bars. Dorsal fin single, tail deeply forked. Mouth short, underslung, ending before the eye.
Size up to 1 m.
Habitat:
Inhabits shallow coastal waters, estuaries and bays, over sand and mud bottoms, down to 84 m. Often in schools, except for large individuals that are solitary. More or less pelagic, but feeds on benthic worms, crustaceans and mollusks. Tolerates oxygen poor water by inhaling air into a lung-like airbladder.
Distribution:
Abundant to occasional South Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean; rare North Florida.
Catching:
Live shrimp and crabs make good bonefish bait, but bonefish also respond to fies and artificiallures. They also can be enticed to bite by anglerschumming with chopped shrimp. Casting is another test of the angler’s skill; casting too close to a fish will send it scurrying, whereas a line dropped too far away will never get its attention.Once hooked, a bonefish makes a mad dash for deeper water, often breaking the line on rocks or corals as it streaks across the bottom. Most anglers use 10-pound test line on bonefish. Although bonefish can be caught any time of day, tailing fish are most likely to be spotted in the early morning or evening. In the winter, bonefish are not as numerous in the shallows, and deeper waters are a better choice for the angler
Bonefish Fishing
| World Record: | 8.61 kg (19 lb 0 oz) Zululand, South Africa |
| # Fish Caught: | 64427 documented in database. |
| Earliest Record: | 7/2/1758 12:00:00 PM and located at 11.00000, 72.50000. |
| Latest Record: | 1/16/2026 6:38:00 PM and located at 25.78888, -80.25030. |
| Common Techniques: | Casting, Fly |
| Popular Lure Types: | Flies, Plugs, Spoons, Topwater |
| Fishing Spots: | 10 Bonefish fishing spots. |
Latest Bonefish Fishing Reports and Spots
Last week the weather was warm and nice. Water temps in the high 70s and fishing was killer! We have several good days of fishing on both fly a (
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It's not often I say that about month's end but this has been a tough month. With the steady cold fronts dropping air and water temps into unu (
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JOIN Steve Dally on this adventure to perhaps the world’s best permit fishery at Perla Negra on the vast and little touched Espiritu Santu Bay J (
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Florida keys Flyfishing Guide Hot water and air temperatures along with strong winds have kept the bonefish permit and tarpon very active. If t (
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Summertime Bonefish: Finding fish when the weather gets too hot Summertime bonefish are one of the main things to do in the flats of Miami and (
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Burr it’s been cold and the last two weeks have definitely been slower fishing because of it. However with this nice warming trend everything i (
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Sure it's been cold and windy but the fish have to eat and my clients have decided to go for it and it's paid off. More tarpon are moving in w (
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Yes we've a cold front in January. No it's not strange but it is strange that we've only had one. The weather has been spectacular and the fis (
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Wow what an incredible second half of December we’ve had in Miami. The bay has been firing on all cylinders and with the exception of the last (
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As the rest of the country is freezing and living in arctic like conditions in Miami ti has been perfect. With a warmer than normal December t (
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