Fishing with the Angels

This past weekend the Blue Angels returned to Oahu, to the delight of fans of military aircraft and extreme aerial exhibitions. Sunday is my only day off for the time being, and it just so happens that some of the island’s best shallow flats are quite close to joint base Pearl Harbor- Hickam, where the air show was going on. So Chris and I jumped in his Klamath and off we went in search of fish and hopefully an excellent view of the Angels in action.

Chris started off quickly, hooking the first bone he saw. As he fought the fish, a F22 Raptor took flight and can barely be seen in the distance (but we could sure hear it).

Chris and the first fish of the day.

Before too long I was also able to hook a nice little bone in the mangroves.

We’ve mentioned this a bunch of times already, but the large numbers of small blue trevally have added a new challenge to bonefishing here. Both Chris and I had bones lunge towards our flies, only to be stolen by the trevally. Because of this, I switched to a crab fly for most of this fishing day.

Turd Burglar

Fishing crab flies is tricky- you need to be able to cast a bulky, heavy, soggy object and not have it land too loudly. You need to get the fish’s attention with the sinking fly or a short, quick strip. And most importantly, when the fish is near the fly and inspecting it, you must NOT move it. You have to see the take, and set the hook accordingly. The part about the not moving the fly is critical, and it’s why the fly is extra effective when thieving little trevally are hounding you. They won’t eat a stationary object, but a bone possibly might.

Chris and another bone, caught on his wild crabby fly.

As the afternoon wound down, we ate lunch and waited for the show to start, either on the flats or in the sky. It seems the Navy's clock is a little more reliable than the evening tailing bones. Either that or they don't like noisy air shows.

Unreal flying skills.

Louder than you can imagine.

Well, that’s it for this time. I hope your autumn fishing is off to a high flying start too. Aloha