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01/17/13

bonefishing hawaii:

what makes a good day on the water?

 

i have to start of with an apology.  i don’t usually post pictures of fish that are more than a week old.  to me after a week goes by, it’s over, done... that was then this is now.  besides there are enough websites and blogs putting up stories and pics from months or even years ago.  i don’t want to be those guys.  also, these days, i can barely even remember what happened more than a week ago.  you should see when e.t., doug and i try to remember what happened last week, when it happened and where... it’s pretty comical.

 

so this blog is about last week thursday.  i would have just let that day slide into oblivion as i often do when i’m too busy to blog or just too lazy to do it but that day got me thinking (not an easy thing to do), so here goes.

 

what exactly makes a good day on the water?  we’ve all heard the over used phrase everyday on the water is a good day.  though we all say it, i’m  not so sure everybody believes it.  i have fished with many clients and friends over the years and have seen that different people look at different aspects about a day on the water that makes it a “good day”.  many people say it was a good day but don’t really believe it and after a while you can kind of tell who is actually having the real fun out there.  i do believe that everyday on the water is a good day and that statement is backed by the amount of time that i spend in the water.  for better or worse, i've never been good at doing things i don't enjoy.  last week thursday, however,  made me think about what exactly a good day on the water means to me.

 

ever since i first wandered into a fly shop (the caddis fly shop in eugene, oregon to be exact)  i have always been intrigued by the art of fly fishing and especially the cast.  a hawaii boy coming from a fishing background where i grew up whacking just about anything that swims with net, lure, hook and lead, and spear.  i enjoyed them all but nothing absolutely floored me like fly fishing.  from the get go, i dropped everything, and have done little else (fishing wise and in life) since.  from day one i marveled at those who practiced and excelled in this sport and i wanted to play too... and i wanted to play it well.  twenty years later i’m  still into it as much as i was on day one.  for me it has always been about the cast and i’ve spent years getting my fly casting to where it is today.  then a few years ago i picked up a two handed rod and bam!  i was back to the first day i picked up a fly rod, super excited for the journey i was about to embark on but also knowing that i had a long road ahead.  so the past few years i’ve been working on my double hand casting and although my ability to single hand cast helped with casting the long rod, my double hand casting is still very much in it’s infancy and a work in progress.

 

so what does this all have to do with thursday and what makes a good day?  on thursday i took a few friends from california out for a little bombarama with two handed rods and there were some serious fish around.  the winds were strong and coming slightly from a not so common direction (south, south east) but nothing extremely out of the ordinary for oahu.  in short, with these friends who are pretty proficient with spey rods, our super hero casted like an absolute meat head.  it was just one of those casting days.  i just couldn’t get on track.  normally i would have just packed it in and gone home early (i am a big advocate of not practicing bad habits and living to fight another day).  on this day i was with friends that wanted to fish so i (somewhat embarrassingly) kept working on my cast... and i kept hooking fish.  i wound up hooking eight bones from two to seven or eight pounds.  none of which were hooked with what i would consider a decent cast.  is that a good day?  for some that would be a great day, for others it would be the day of a lifetime.  for me, i enjoyed fishing with friends and catching fish is always good, but i didn't exactly leave the water with that loving feeling i usually have.

 

i took a break then on sunday i fished with the same friends and the casting was better but still quite a struggle.  i caught four small micro bones on some fairly decent casts.  i felt a little better, but it was still not up to my level or capability.  yesterday i got back to close to my level.  there were very few fish around but i was casting with more of a relaxed ease even into the wind.  the way it should be.  i only hooked one fish but that one was better than the four i hooked a couple days ago and far better than the eight i hooked last thursday.  so what makes a good day on the water?  i have come to the realization that, for me at least, although everyday on the water is truely a good day... it’s sure a lot better when the fly cast is working well.  in all the fishing world there is really nothing that feels as magical, as “everything is right in the world” as a well executed fly cast.  fish or not, i hope you will experience that magic the next time out.  to me, that's what it's all about.  i’ll see you on the water.

 

the tfo deer creek 5/6 weight spey rod.  a great casting rod.  the caster on this day... not so great.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

still caught a bunch of bones... is that a good day?

 

 

then yesterday, a low tide, very few fish around, a beulah 5/6 classic switch rod, and a lot of good casts...

 

and one fish... now that's a good day.  good times.

 

clay.


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