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06/19/13

fly fishing hawaii:

a fish tale.

 

went out with e.t. and our friend todd (tippy) yesterday.  i don’t fish with e.t. all that often as he likes to fish differently than i do.  for assorted reasons, we prefer to fish at different times and locations so our fishing schedules don’t align all that often.  not that i don’t enjoy fishing with him.  every time we do get out on the water together it is super fun, but it always involves some compromises from our normal routines to make it happen.  yesterday was no exception.

 

we got out on the water at around ten (late for e.t.) and e.t. said he wanted to pole us around.  i don’t particularly like to fish from a boat unless i absolutely have to especially in saltwater.  i grew up in the ocean and a large part of the enjoyment i get out of fishing comes from actually being in the water.  because i haven’t fished with tippy for a long time (a couple of years i believe), i decided to go along with them rather than jump out and go off on my own as i would normally do.  todd hasn’t caught a bone on the fly so we put him on deck to try to get him bit.  there were quite a few fish around and todd had a few good shots that just didn’t eat.  then todd gave me the rod and told me to show him how it was done.  i didn’t want to take the rod because todd doesn’t fish all that much so i wanted him to catch one.  also it was e.t.’s set up which is a lot different than what i like to fish from leader length to fly.  not that it isn’t good (except for the wind knot that e.t. said to leave in the tippet), i just prefer my own rigs.  i took some shots at fish with the same results as todd.  i teased e.t. about his fly whenever i made a good shot and the fish didn’t eat and blamed his gear for the bad shots that i made.  good fun ribbing and horsing around that always goes on when i fish with my good fishing buds.  to me, that is the most fun part of fishing with others.

 

we were going through some mangroves when we spotted a big boy sitting among the roots.  i half heartedly took a shot expecting the big fish to spook and take off as they often seem to do these days.  fishing pressure tends to do that to fish especially the bigger, older ones.  as the fly sank, the fish immediately changed direction away from the fly.  that’s it i thought... the first stage of spook.  i lazily picked up the line and rolled out another cast expecting the fish to bolt as soon as the fly hit the water.  to all of our amazement the fish didn’t bolt.  instead it slowly turned toward the fly and began to track it.

 

“ it’s on it! it’s on it!” e.t. yelled, “it’s going to eat!”

 

i watched the fish slowly tracking, tracking, tracking then i felt the super subtle bump of it sucking the fly in... i stuck it.

 

with all the screaming and excitement in the air i forgot all about that finesse b.s. i talked about in the last blog (did i mention it is a lot easier to do the finesse fighting technique when you are alone?)  after i set the hook i reared back and let the fish feel the full force of the 8wt. g loomis nrx backbone.  the fish did the "wtf" wiggle and shot out of the mangroves like a rocket.  i thought for sure it would hang a mangrove and break off (remember the wind knot e.t. said to leave in the leader?)  i did my best to keep the fish free from the many little mangrove patches but it quickly made a hard left and got around a big mangrove bush.  i started stripping line out furiously to give it enough slack to keep running and not hang the mangrove.  e.t. was stroking the boat and doing everything in his power to get around the bush.  he couldn’t get the boat up wind fast enough so he quickly started up the motor and gave chase marlin fishing style.  when we got around the mangrove we saw the fish had already gone another twenty or thirty yards over the edge.  e.t. asked if it was still on as we have both seen this scenario play out hundreds of times with not so good results.  i felt the fish still pulsing so i knew it was still on.

 

we got out into the deep water and found that the fish had dug into the depths pretty good.  i began trying to yoy it out of the deep.  it was more like fighting a tuna than a bone as the fish sounded and refused to come up.  finally the fish surfaced and tippy put the net on it.  tippy is not an experienced fly fisherman but he knows a thing or two about landing fish as he pounds pelagic and bottom fish on a regular basis.  we got it and in true fish story fashion the fly fell right out.  all i could do was laugh and say, "see if the fish has your name on it there is nothing you can do to not catch it."

 

how big was it?  i don’t know and i don’t really care.  i’m not that into exact fish sizes or weights because who cares... not me.  to me they are all good fish.  i only classify bones in one of four sizes micro, rat, good size, and big.  this one was big, but more important than its size, this one was epic.  a true team effort and one we will all remember for a long time.  that is really what it is all about.

 

i did feel a little bad about hooking that fish, i much rather todd have caught it, but sometimes like that.  todd pounded the rest of the day and he did manage to hook his first bone on a fly but it caught some mangroves and the hook pulled out.  e.t. and i told todd that was just part of paying dues.

 

tippy said, “that’s okay... i got the taste.”

 

 

 

 

good times.

 

clay.

 

 


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