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06/16/13

fly fishing and not so fly fishing hawaii:

just doing what must be done for hawaiian summer fun.

 

busy week this week as summer fishing on oahu kicks into full force.  this week i did a few different things on the water to appease the chronic fisherman that dwells within.

 

started off on wednesday with the usual bonefishing (of course).  craig, another gear junkie like myself, let me use an old school fenwick ferralite 807 8ft. 7wt. fiberglass rod that he had picked up a while back and never got around to trying out.  i, being quite fond of all fly casting utensils (especially those that belong to craig that he hasn’t used) was stoked and excited to give it a try.  i lined it with a scientific anglers 7wt. mastery bonefish line and an abel classic reel.  the rod had a nice smooth action but not quite the recovery that my 7wt. fiberglass lamiglass has.  the wind that day was howlin’ like a shaolin but the fenwick still fished well though distances over fifty feet or so were a bit tricky.  i hooked a bunch of bones with the fiberglass rod which was super fun.  hooking these fish gave me a lot of practice doing what i call “finesse fighting”.  this is a technique that i use to land bones quickly and without too much stress with light rods that lack backbone or fish fighting power.  the “finesse” style utilizes the bones tendency not to run far or fast when only a small amount of pressure is applied from the moment it is hooked.  it is the pressure that makes them run not the hook in their mouth.  by applying minimal pressure to the fish and backing off when you feel the fish getting excited, you can actually land bones without them ever making that crazy long run.  i have landed many bones over the years like this even big ones.  i know most people like that super long fast run but the finesse fighting style does come in handy when fishing areas with a lot of mangroves or light tackle without a ton of backing.  it does not work all the time though.  once the applied pressure passes that delicate point of no return and the fish decides to take off, it is gone.  once this happens you gotta wait for it to stop and duke it out the regular way.  anyway i caught a bunch of fish with that fenwick rod and (big surprise) fell in love with it.  at the end of the day i asked craig how much he would sell it to me for.  he must have thought the rod and i were meant for each other because he just gave it to me... what a guy!  thanks bro.  i’ll get you back for sure.

 

friday i was back on the lake with my right hand man on the lake matt.  rather than bring out the arsenal of fly rods that i usually bring, i brought only one fly rod, an ultra light spinner, and a baitcasting rod.  i planned to fly fish.  i always gotta fly fish, but for some reason, i don’t exactly know why, i had cats on my mind and i wanted to try to catch some.  we got out on the lake and were greeted with good news!  the lake appears to be dropping and, not surprisingly, the fishing is on the upswing again.  the water level was down a good six to ten feet since i was last there.  we saw quite a few red devil sight fishing targets and got on some of those before going into full on cat mode.  once in cat mode we fished live bait and cut bait.  we caught some peacocks.  i heard reports of guys pounding tucs on live bait but on friday they were pretty slow by live bait standards.  always good to see peacocks showing signs of summer biteyness.  still that was not what i had a hankering for.  we tried different spots around the lake until finally we rolled up on what matt and i call the cat spot.  i threw out a bait and got bit pretty quick.  i began pulling the fish in then saw that silverish roll in the depths... cat.  not a big one, but i’ve never been a big game hunter.  i just like to fish.  we ended up catching about a half dozen cats none were big but good enough to satisfy the crazy cat hunter.

 

yesterday (saturday) i wasn’t planning to fish but i had a couple of casting lessons so i brought along my beulah classic 4/5 switch rod to play around with after i was done with the lessons.  i didn’t think i would be fishing, more just practicing casting which, as it turns out, i still need a lot of when it comes to two handed casting.  i called matt and he came down to join me.  just playing around, neither of us expected to catch anything.  matt was whipping with a mark white ceramic lure and i was casting a little floating baitfish pattern.  all of a sudden i see matt pulling something in.  i jokingly told him that he hooked a plastic bag.  i actually thought that was probably what he hooked.  to the amazement of us both a little whitey ate his mark white lure.  he released that fish and we were joking and laughing about the totally unexpected incident when a little whitey boiled and ate my fly... too funny.  just goes to show that you never know and no matter where you are or what you are using, if you have a line in the water there is always a chance.  the rest of the afternoon went more like we expected.  just casting.   it was a great way to end a beautiful day in hawaii.  i still can’t believe we both actually caught something.

 

well that’s it for now.  i may be out for a while as i got jury duty.  we’ll see what all happens with that.  so until the next time, i’ll see you on the water or in court, whatever the case may be.

 

 

 

 

the retro fenwick 7wt...

 

 

 

and the bones that fell victim to the fiberglass and the "finesse".

 

then back on the lake for some fly devil fun.

 

basstard.

 

 

i guess if i could only take one rod to the lake it would be the g loomis glx classic 5wt and an abel tr2.

 

 

 

there were some tucs for the master baiters...

 

 

and cats!!!!!

 

what better way to end yet another week in the life than with a couple of foolin' around fish.

 

sometimes you just gotta do what must be done for hawaiian summer fun and, as always, good times.

 

clay.

 


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