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	NWFF blog

10/25/09

bonefishing in hawaii:

bonefishing with e.t. and nao.

spent the day out at ke’ehi with e.t. and long time nervous water client nao from japan.  i guided nao the first time he had ever been to hawaii back in 2000 or so.  since then nao has fished with every nwff guide over the years.  needless to say he has become quite good at the hawaii bonefish game although he will never admit it.  i hadn’t been out on the water with him since guiding him myself so it was a treat for me to spend time on the water with him again.

the day was beautiful and we all managed to get a few small bones.  i lost a heart breaker to a nice whitey (trevally).  i had the fish beat but in a last ditch effort it hung me up around a tiny coral head right at my feet.  the guy didn’t just pop my twenty pound leader and take off.  the fish broke free and suspended motionless in the water a couple of feet in front of me as if to show me up, before casually swimming away.

as the tide bottomed out the three of us were horsing around together, slowly making our way toward deeper water, when we spotted three big fish cruising toward us.  the fish were in so skinny that the tail dorsal fins and part of their backs were sticking out of the water.

“go nao, go.” ed and i said in unison.

nao looked at us with a perplexed look.

“me?” he asked.

“yeah, yeah, go.  hurry up!” we said urgently.

i quickly slid around nao to give him the shot.  one of the fish stopped and rooted around a bit slowing up the other two.  nao made a perfect shot that landed the fly with hardly a splash in front of the trio (which was key as there was no wind at all and the water was like glass).  it was a face off of epic proportions.  the three of us staring down the three of them.

ed and i watched the instantaneous events unfold in front of us and commented simultaneously.

”there, there, there, they’re comming!”

”yup,yup,yup.”

“strip,strip,strip.”

”you got’em, you got’em.”

nao strip set and the water erupted in three chaotic explosions followed by mounds of water pushing toward the nearby edge of the flat.

”run to the edge, run to the edge”, ed and i pleaded in unity.

nao took off, but it was too late and the fins got the best of poor nao. e.t. and i laughed as we approached nao who looked back at us with his mouth wide open and a stunned demeanor as if he had just seen a ghost (a double digit ghost).

“big fish,” i quietly told nao.

”ah, yes...big fish.”

nao is as comfortable fly fishing the flats on oahu as he is making soba in japan.

nervous water guide e.t. in his element.

nao with one of the guys.

e.t. with another guy.

great guys = good times.

clay.