this
past week old man winter finally decided that enough was enough and reared his
ugly head here in the islands. just in
time for the official start of winter which i guess is today. noticeably cooler temperatures and extremely
sketchy weather made for some interesting on the water experiences for me this week. if there is one word to describe winter fly
fishing in hawaii,
it is unpredictable. get out on a good
day and you may think winter is the best time of the year to fish, get out on
the wrong day and you may never want to fish the winter ever again. those who are out on the water regularly know
that winter fishing here is a combination of the best and worst this fishery
has to offer.
i fished two days this past week and it went from tough to
tougher. the first day i fished with
craig one of my favorite guys to fish with (and not just because he always
picks me up and drives). craig is always
stoked to fish no matter how good or poor the fishing may be. we always say that at the end of the day you
can never tell if craig caught a ton of fish or absolutely nothing. he is just always stoked. this is a pretty rare trait to find in peeps
who fish. craig doesn’t get to fish as
often as he should or wants to (thats why i gave him the nickname rusty). when we do fish i am always pulling for him
to get bit because to me that kind of good attitude toward our little sport deserves to get bit.
we
decided to do a little two handed bombing on wednesday. i used my sage 6126-4 z axis, abel switch reel, and a
rio scandi 390 gr. head. craig used a steve
godshall speywerks switch rod, abel switch reel, and a 450 gr. rio skagit flight. there was a little chill in the air and the
water felt a bit cool. i looked around,
as i usually do, while wading out and saw no bones at all... definitely not a
good sign when sight fishing but also not so good news when bombing either. we got out and began the bombing assault on
the area covering huge amounts of watery real estate with nothing but a few
trumpets to show for our efforts. i
was in my groove listening to tunes and launching bombs all over the place. on one of my many many strips of the fly, i felt that subtle faint tap on the line that my brain immediately
recognized as the bite of the non aggressive “cold water” bone. i instinctively strip set and felt a lifeless
weight on the end of my line. “weeds” i
thought feeling a little silly that after twenty years of doing this i can
still be so easily fooled by the fly grabbing weeds off the bottom. i call getting fooled like that “how
exciting”. i took two or three hard long
strips to get the line in quickly so i could get back to covering water when
the seaweed began wiggling. “well...”
i thought. it was a fish after
all. i fought the fish all the way to
the leader where the hook popped off.
this did not surprise me as it is often tough to hook bones well when
they bite reluctantly like that. i got back to
covering the largely barren water searching for another fish knowing full well
that i may have just lost my one chance.
after what seemed like a thousand casts i found another one. again the dull tap, this time the fish knew
something was up and took off almost at the same time as i strip set. it was like we realized each other was at the other end at the exact same time. when i got the fish close
i saw, to my relief, that it was hooked well.
after that i told craig to hurry up and catch one so we could get out of there. i asked him what fly he was using and he said
he was using a fly he had tied. i
jokingly told him that this was not the time to fool around implying that the
fly he had tied was not a good one. i
walked over to him, opened his fly box, and told him to switch to the jiggy bone bug, one of craig’s favorite flies.
he tied the fly on and i dropped it in the water right in front of us
to see. “ooohhhh...” we both said
laughing looking at the fly hover in the water.
he started casting again as i watched, both of us starting to shiver
from the cold and rain. a few casts
later, bam. craig hooked up. the fish didn’t run much so
we thought it was a small micro bone but as it got closer we could see the tell
tale flash of a hooked trevally. turns
out it was a nice barred jack. let’s go
home!
the jiggy bone bug strikes again.
friday was much more of the same but even worse. our buddy nick joined doug, e.t. and i. again the tough bomb was on. there is something about tough fishing that
brings out the best in myself and the guys i fish with. i have never seen doug (the hardcore sight
fisherman and full on non-bomber) bomb with such intent and vigor. seemed like the longer we went without
any signs of any fish around, the more and better he cast.
i told nick that we better hope doug hooks one or we may be here all night. maybe it was because i hooked one earlier and he didn’t want to be out
done but i like to think that the tough conditions brought out his inner
bomb. he did eventually hook one which
popped off from a less than ideal hook up like the one i hooked earlier. the day ended with only two bones and a couple of nunu (cornet fish) hooked and
lost between the four of us, but you know what they say. when the going gets tough the tough get going. that, my friends, is all the time i have right now... i gotta get back out on the water.
WARNING: not all results are the same. the experience above is only one of many who fly fish in hawaii for bonefish. winter is an upredictable time of year and can cause and abnormal euphoria or serious depressed mental states. people who always have to catch fish should not fish in the winter without careful consideration. past catch performance does not predict future success. your results may vary. i’ll see you on the water.