Fruits of the Season

There is a local belief in Hawaii that a good harvest of spring fruit means the summer fishing will also be good. If the mango trees in my neighborhood are any indicator, this summer should be a good one. My lychee tree has also kept me busy picking fruit before the beetles and unscrupulous neighbors get to them. So far the year has been off to a decent start fishing-wise, and we'll soon see if the fruit-fish connection holds up or if it's just an old wives' tale.

Our friends Rick and Christie were visiting from Seattle last week, so ET took them and our pal Dean out to catch some bottom fish on light tackle.

These moana kalis (blue goatfish) were the guests of honor at a family get together that weekend.

Dean with a nice yellow spot papio.

Christie caught another yellowspot and a fat weke ula  too.

Rick and a tough fighting kahala.

Seeing what kind of action Rick and the gang had, ET took me and Brian out a few days later.

ET with a beast of a trigger. We normally catch the little brown ones, but this was a new fish to me. According to Dr. Jack Randall, the fine scale triggerfish grows to 30 inches (whoa!) and is found in water up to over 100 fathoms deep. Too bad they don't like to feed on the flats.

Brian and another nice yellowspot.

Our hero with a mini kahala.

Brian and a cute kawakawa (bonita).

Back on the reef I spent the last day of May casting poppers and streamers to papio and awa'aua (ladyfish) with Kirk.

Kirk started things off with a happy little omilu (bluefin trevally).

I got bit by a baby GT.

Then we had a double.

Another baby GT- they're getting bigger!

See the before and after of my crease fly after a few of these angry little fish.

We finished up the day with another double, this time with Kirk catching a lady.

I hope this summer brings you some good fruit and plenty of fish too! Aloha