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11/17/13

bonefishing hawaii:

better late than never.

 

the weather this past week has been a bit shakey from a fishing standpoint.  cloudy for the most part with some scattered rain throughout the islands.  good sleeping and t.v. watching weather for sure.  for the first time this year it felt a little like christmas in hawaii.  on tuesday, i took my sage 7136-4 one “steelhead special” out for a short bombarama.  i had been wanting to sling that rod around again since returning from oregon, but never had the right opportunity to do so.  i wasn’t planning to fish on tuesday, but i got the late game time call to duty from doug.  totally unprepared to fish, i scrambled to get my gear together and rushed down to meet doug and his cousin stan.  a little late, but cannot help, sometimes like that.  i got out around noon right at the peak of the tide.  the area i chose to fish was pretty deep and i had to “jump” the foot high swells that rolled in.  sketchy at best, just the way i like it.  i worked out the 480gr. rio steelhead scandi head that i was using and began conking out some casts.  about the fifth cast i felt my fly suddenly stop.  i instinctively gave it the strip set.  the fish wiggled for a moment then took off.  the bone was a pretty hot one but i kept it out of the coral and landed it.

 

the sage 7136-4 one... nice.

 

bone #1.

 

i let that guy go then began casting again.  switch cast, snap t, double spey, poke... bit.  not even five casts.  another hot fish that put some serious bend in the two handed rod as i wrestled it away from the coral bottom.  this guy was quite a bit chunkier than the first but both were good sized fish.

 

bone #2.

 

i took a little break, drank some water, and soaked in the saline atmosphere that i was immersed in.  i thought about my casting and how to improve it as i usually do on these bombing breaks.  then i got back to it, starting off fishing short and increasing the distance with every cast (as steelheaders often do).  i was about half way to my comfortable  casting distance when i felt that rubbery pull.  i thought “oh no not again.”   i strip set and the fish took off on a long run.  i thought for sure i would lose it as it had gotten the jump on me before i could get it under control.  i quickly but gradually increased the pressure on the spool of my abel classic spey reel slowing down the line peeling off of the reel and increasing the bend in the butt section of the rod.  fortunately, i got enough pressure on the fish to keep it out of the nastiness below.  i landed that fish.  after releasing it, i took out my cell phone and saw that i had only been fishing for about forty five minutes.

 

forty five minutes... now this is getting a bit ridiculous.

 

these days three fish is about my limit and i usually start losing interest and get more lazy.  after about three fish i don't fish nearly as hard as perhaps i once did many moons ago.  at this point the futon and t.v. usually starts making a very strong case.  on this day the fish had come so fast that i still hadn't even come close to getting my fill of casting in.  so i started up again but this time i skipped the whole fishing the close water first thing, stripped out a bunch of line and just started wailing out casts.  i got in about a dozen good launches before yet another bone climbed on.  i landed that fish and that was it... i called doug and told him i was bailing.  i guess sometimes it is better late than never.

 

okay, that's it for me i am out'a here.

 

 

i had had enough so on the last fish i was able to fool around a bit more.  i saw an opportunity to get this shot and amazingly, i got it.  i call it tiny plane flying under bent rod or airplane flying under gigantor bent rod.  i know... i suck at photography. but whatcha'gonnado? 

 

the next day, doug and i went out with sean.  sean and i don’t get to fish much together, but because we had to close the shop when the power was being turned off, we decided to take advantage of the situation.  sean wanted to break in his new sage 790-4 method and nautilus reel and i for one know the importance of getting the stink off of new gear.  after the previous days bone conking, i didn’t really feel the urge to catch any more fish anyway, so i didn't put a leader or a fly on.  i just walked around with the guys and watched them take shots at fish. oh yeah, all the while brutally heckling them.  you think it’s challenging to sight fish for bones?  try doing it while there is some jackass horsing around and making fun of every single thing you do.  it was all in fun and in the end, despite there not being a whole lot of fish on the flat that day sean hooked a couple of fish to break in his new gear.

 

oops.

 

sean get's the stink off of his new sage 790-4 method right next to "the flats heckler".

 

the weather appears to have cleared up this weekend though there is still quite a bit of clouds in the sky.  we are getting to that time where inconsistent weather becomes the rule and usually with that comes inconsistent fishing.  there are and will still be fish around though just don’t be surprised if one day is good and the next is not or vice versa.  keep in mind, that’s just part of the game.  i’ll see you on the water.

 

oh yeah, i almost forgot.  shout outs to usc for getting us back in the pac 12 title hunt.  100th rose bowl here we come... go ducks!

 

hey everybody, it's j rod!!!!

our boy jarod checked in with a steelie he was able to sneak for himself during another busy alaskan guiding season.

 

it's getting wintery around here but there are fish out there to be enjoyed.  add that to some good friends and you have yourself yet another week of good times.

 

clay.

 


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