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11/02/13

fly fishing hawaii:

chasing buutbuut.

 

fished once this past week with e.t. and doug.  instead of the normal bonefishing, we decided to do something that we had been planning to do for a long time but never got around to doing… trying to catch the black trigger fish on the fly.  we call this fish the buutbuut (pronounced bootboot) because of the grunting sound it makes when out of the water.  it is a bit of an understatement to say that the black trigger fish is not well liked by island fishermen.  they are the scourge of bottom fishermen throughout the islands as they bite with such vigor and in such numbers that it is often times difficult to catch anything else.  but i have always had a soft spot for so called “trash” fish such as our friend the buutbuut.  in my trout fishing days, i secretly liked catching whitefish as much as i did trout and my love for the red devil has been well documented in this blog.  buutbuut on the fly was a no brainer for me.

  

buutbuut.

 
the buutbuut or black trigger fish (humuhumu'ele'ele in hawaiian) is a cousin of the more famous humuhumunukunukuapua’a or wedge tail trigger fish which is the hawaii state fish.  the humuhumunukunukuapua’a (i call it humu for short) will occasionally eat a fly and i have caught quite a number of them over the years.  the buutbuut, however, tends to inhabit the deeper reefs outside of the surf break.

 

 humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

 

the plan was to palu (chum) the buutbuuts up to the surface and try to get them to bite a bread fly.  i tied up a bunch of prototype “bread” flies and we bought a few loafs of bread.  five weight rods seemed appropriate for the “target” species so i went with the echo gecko.  doug used his 5wt. tfo bvk.  using the fives were fun but still a little over gunned for my taste.  next time i think i'll take a 3wt.  anyway we loaded the “gear” into the yellow bus and headed out to known buutbuut waters.

 

buutbuut hunting consists of a light fly rod, bread flies...

 

and bread.

 

we cruised around the crystal clear water which was about fifteen to twenty feet deep until we spotted the black shapes littering the reef bottom.  we anchored and began throwing bread in the water… it didn’t take long.  like a pack of wolves the buutbuuts came rising to the surface and began a frenzied assault on the bread.  i quickly threw my fly into the fracus.  a couple of fish charged at the fly but stopped short of biting.  then one came up and chomped the fly with a little splash and i was on… success.

 

doug got one soon after, but then the fish became very wise to the game and wouldn’t eat the fly.  they would devour all the bread we threw and ignore the fly.  we tried different flies and different chumming techniques.  the mamo or sergeant majors that joined the frenzy would bite the bread imitation but the flies i tied were too big to hook those guys.  we kept at it for a while and e.t. (who was the last one up to the plate) finally got one to take.  we kept trying until the fish disappeared and wouldn’t even come up for the bread.  after that e.t. wanted to go throw plugs for g.t.’s so we let him have at it.  surprisingly he actually got one chase and hooked one that took off and somehow shook his plug.  we ended the day successful, but with more questions than answers… fuel for the next time.  i’ll see you on the water.

 

buut... 

 

buut...

 

buutbuut on the fly... not as easy as one may think but definitely good times.

 

clay.

 

 


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