12/23/09
fly fishing hawaii and beyond:
tuna, salmon, trout, and bones.
nwff crew jay called me last night to let me know he was fishing today. i called him back this morning and asked, “what time you going go?”
“i leaving my house now.”
with that i told him that i was coming, hung up the phone and scrambled to get my shtuff together. i grabbed the closest rod and reel, which happened to be a loomis 8wt. roaring river switch and a pate bonefish, and headed out the door. i knew full well that i probably forgot something of great importance. upon reaching the water i realized what i had forgotten, my simms sun clava. because of my somewhat misguided immune system that i now live with, i cannot just rambo in the sun e.t. style like i used to growing up in hawaii. so the sun clava has become like underwear to me (even more so than underwear is). fortunately for our super hero, i was wearing the simms solarflex hoody with built in sun clava. although not as comfortable, the hoody worked fine for shielding the sun. the alternative for me would have been to apply sunscreen on every other cast... not fun.
the day out in ke’ehi was clear and the winds were light from the south east. i probably should have brought a single hand rod and sight fished but i had what i had. as i waded out to a “bombable” spot i ran into a happy family of little squids. i played with the little guys a bit and took some pictures.
jay walked the flat while i blind cast the edge. jay caught a couple of good bones though he said he didn’t see that many. i also caught a couple of rats on the orange bombing pepper. par for the course these days. being in the ocean felt great and seeing the squidies was cool too... just another day in the life.
a couple of other nwff crew dudes checked in. greg “pops” honbo took a day off from the switch rod pounding he has been doing recently and got a fifty pound shibi (yellowfin tuna) just in time for christmas... thanks for the sash greg. he hooked it on a spinner jigging the buoy outside of kaneohe. i heard the fish took over an hour to land and he got spooled twice during the fight. i wish i was there to witness that battle of epic proportions.
brother jose also checked in from alaska. he said the weather “warmed up” to thirty degrees and he got on the water for potentially the last fishing of the season. if that’s not a case for lucky we live hawaii, i don’t know what is.
pops, the mister, the shibi, and the resulting “sash”.
salmon and trout ak style.
squidies chillin’ on the flat.
what can i say... always good times.
clay.
12/20/09
bonefishing hawaii:
winter is here.
went out today to kahala with the nwff crew e.t. and surfa boy craig. we decided on kahala because... well why not? we got out around ten or eleven. the wind was blowing pretty good out of the east and it was cold (well “hawaii kine” cold). we got dumped on a couple of times by passing showers but there was also some sun. for the first time this year, i felt like it was winter bonefishing in hawaii.
i fished the loomis roaring river switch 8wt.. there wasn’t much in the way of spotting fish. although we did get some good light, we didn’t see a fish. so i turned up the tunes on my mp3 player and let the bombing begin. there were a bunch of divers out looking for tako which i don’t think have really come in yet and a couple of other fly guys out. it was good to see so many people having fun and getting after it despite the sketch weather.
well by the time the whistle blew (which was much later than any of us really wanted to stay out but we did because no one wanted to flinch first) we all got fish. craig got one on the orange jiggy bone bug that ate while he was falling backward from a wave and e.t. found a couple using his (if there is a fish on this flat i will find it technique) and an orange dubbed charlie. i more or less stayed in one place the entire time practicing my spey casts and grooving to old skool alternative rock tunes. i got a visit from my buddy the trumpet which has been a bit rarer than usual this year and managed to get a bonefish to boot.
that’s about it, if i don’t blog again... hope all the peeps out there have a chillaxing holiday season, peace on earth, merry christmas to all and to all a good bite.
doot doo doo doo! introducing mister trumpet.
winter fly fishing in hawaii... good times.
clay.
12/16/09
fly fishing hawaii:
the fall goes on.
been having some great weather lately but some really spotty fishing. reports from around the island have been the same. some fish around but it varies by the day. the bones appear to have sparsed out a bit since this past friday or saturday. hopefully the return of the trades will stir things up a bit out on the water. there’s still reports of some fall fatties around as well as rats. so pick a day and get out there, you just may get lucky and get a biggy. flies that have been working (for me at least) have been the jiggy bone bug in brown and orange, although i don’t think the fly makes much of a difference. the difference now is just getting on the fish and you can’t get on them if you’re not out on the water getting it on.
photos by jay freis
jay freis got into a couple of yellow spots out at hawaii kai.
guide terry “duff” duffield checked in with a couple of fall fatties.
me and my pal doing our thang best we know how... good times.
clay.
12/09/09
bonefishing hawaii:
...let the games begin.
first of all for those not in the know. the above pic is of a hawaiian style lizardfish or 'ulae. when i was young we used to call it donko. i'm not exactly sure why it may be japanese or something. the “lizard” as i lovingly refer to them now are pretty prolific throughout the islands. due to it’s absolute reckless abandon, it is probably the first fish that most beginning fly guys catch around here. although not much of a fighter, i find it’s no fear, gungho, balls to the wall, go for broke attitude, intriguing and strangely admirable. this guy came flying from over five feet away and cracked my fly just as i dropped the fly at my feet to test its sink rate. i also had a couple more come flying out of the water while attempting to hit the fly but missing.
anyway, this was greg “pops” first day off of his vacation so nwff crew e.t., jay, and greg, and loomis rep garett and i hopped on the “yellow bus” and headed out to fish ke’ehi. the winds were light mostly coming out of the south east. it was a great day for sight fishing and the guys did so with good success.
i had made other plans, though, and a little bit (or a lot of sun for that matter) wasn’t going to change that. i wanted to dial in the 8 wt. g. loomis roaring river switch rod that garett had let me use. i used two lines on the rod both airflo scandi compacts in 480 and 510 grains. <they both worked okay for me. i liked the 480 a little better but i didn’t feel that either was “magic” for me so the quest goes on for that rod (suggestions are very welcome). “pops” joined me with his 8wt. deer creek switch. i was very impressed by the progress that greg had made casting the switch rod. it’s amazing what some daily casting practice and a couple of dvd’s can do. we are both still very novice with two hands but are enjoying every minute of the journey, the ultimate goal being to fish a fly where no one in hawaii has figured out yet. in the mean time the flats are easy places to try things out and hone our casts so we can start pounding the more “technically challenging” places that we have in mind.
so it turned out to be one of those good days, which, in retrospect, is always the case when the crew gets out together whether there's fish or not. today the fish were around and the crew stuck thirteen bones in total as well as some other bonus critters. pops found his first tako (octopus) and got his first inking of the season. some trumpets and cudas were also in the mix as well as the ravaging lizards.
i managed to test the loomis switch on a few bones myself including one fall fatty and the rod came through fabulously. it laid the wood to the fish just like i like rods to do in corally situations. and the fatty never got into my backing much to the disbelief of jay. i think he has never seen me fight a fish because he’s always so far away from me when we fish (he’ll say it’s because i don’t catch any fish).
in other news sean solo missioned on monday and conked a couple of rats himself despite the less than favorable weather. greg is off until christmas so...let the games begin!
sean’s monday rat fix.
the loomis 8wt roaring river switch looks like it will prove to be a valuable tool in the hawaii fly guy arsenal.
there are still a higher than normal amount of “summer rats” running around for this time of the year.
bone parts. i just catch them, i never claimed to be able to photograph them.
fall fatty mc fat fats... it’s cool when they start looking like carp. thanks greg for getting wet to take the pics. good times.
clay.
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