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11/10/11

bonefishing hawaii:

pretty windy.

 

i apologize for not posting a blog for the past couple of weeks.  i caught my annual pesky it must be getting wintertime cold and haven’t been fishing.  not out of the woods, but at the point where i was strong enough to go out and take advantage of the healing powers of the ocean, i went out yesterday.  i did go one other time to hickam but, to be honest, wasn’t really feeling well enough to fish then and probably shouldn’t have gone.  yesterday i felt better and did a little two handed bombing to see what was up.  the story of the day and this week is wind.  as we say around here, it was howlin' like a shaolin. constant 15-25 mph. with higher gusts that several times almost knocked me over.  for those not in the know, two things happen when the wind blows hard like that that can seriously affect your fishing success.  first, the tide will seem much higher than it really is.  often, this factor can make you fish shallower than you would normally fish on that same tide because depth of water (or our perceived depth) plays a big roll in where we decide to fish.  over the years, i’ve spent many windy days on the water thinking i was where i wanted to be only to have the wind suddenly shut off.  when the wind disappeared,  i would notice the true depth of the water i was fishing leaving me asking myself “what the hell are you doing here?”  the second effect these windy days have on fishing success is that it becomes infinitely more challenging to present a fly the way you want to whether sight fishing or blind casting.  wave action and subsurface currents change and have an immense effect on how your fly acts.  as we all know or should know by now, how the fly acts in front of our finned audience is the most important thing to get a fish to put it in it’s mouth.  i often say “you gotta play the hand you’re dealt” or “you gotta make them bite”.  a large part of these two sayings is that you have to be able to adapt.  the weather and the fish don’t care about us they just do whatever they want to do and, assuming that you want to catch fish, you have to adapt what you do in different situations.  that is why my answer to questions like is this spot good or is this fly good or this tide or whatever fishing theory that pops up is always a resounding... sometimes.  that is the only truthful answer i can give.  let’s face it if there was an absolute answer to these questions, why would we even fish. what fun would that be?

 

fortunately for us all, it is not that way and my experience with the recent ridicuwinds was a good example of this.  i took out my sage 7119-4 tcx and pate bonefish reel (a classic).  i lined the set up with a rio powerflex running line and airflo skagit switch 450gr.   i got on the water and it was rockin’. i knew i was in for a beat down by the elements.  i started bombing with my usual rio 10ft.clear intermediate tip and realized quickly that the rig i was fishing was just not going to cut it.  the wind and currents were so strong that it was keeping my fly from getting down even in relatively shallow bombing water.  as slow as i tried to fish it, i couldn’t even get the fly to contact the bottom.  i tried a heavier weighted sparse fly and it still wouldn’t get down like i wanted.  i fished it for an hour or so just because... well because do bones eat a fly that’s higher up in the water column?  sometimes.  but, as it turns out, not this time.  so i reached into my proverbial (and literal) “bag of tricks” and put on a 5/5 mow tip light (5ft floating, 5ft of t8).  it was better but i still wasn’t contacting the bottom as much as i like or in the way that i like.  still, i fished that for another hour or so because, you know, sometimes.  with no bites with that, i switched to a 10ft. section of t8.  although much more visible than a clear intermediate tip (or so we humans think at least) and somewhat dangerous in reefy areas (the stuff is not cheap), remember, presentation first.  i bombed it out counted it down and started stripping.  wouldn’t you know it, first cast with the t8.  that rubbery tug of fish lips.  strip set.  first fish of the day on.  almost instantly, i felt that familiar head shaking.  this ain’t no bone.  it’s some kind of trevally.   feeling that, i started getting excited.  i have been kind of trying and, more so, hoping to hook a trevally since i lost a good one maybe a month ago.  since then i patiently heard about and watched others catch them.  just waiting for my turn which i knew would come sooner or later.  now here i was.  the classic trevally battle was on and it’s always amazing how strong these fish are no matter what size they are.  these guys will make bursts toward any thing they can find to try to cut you off.  if they can’t do that, they will then turn broadside to you and make you work for every inch of line.  bonefish are fast but trevally are strong.  i saw it was a barred jack and it wasn’t hooked that well.  in fact i thought i would loose it for sure especially because these guys just do not give up.  i finally got a shot at it and tailed it, scoots be damned.  the fish shook and the fly came flying out.  close one.  i admired it for a little while.  it had some kind of healed wound on it’s back like it had gotten cracked by something much bigger than himself... a survivor, cool.  i let it go and watched it swim away cursing at me, or maybe at himself for being so stupid and getting hooked.   my day was done at that point but e.t. and doug weren’t done fishing so i kept on fishing too.  i hooked a few bones after that using the 10ft. t8 tip.  one of the bones had a tag in it which was cool because in all the years since tagging mania began, i have never caught a tagged fish.  it looked like it was tagged recently and not exactly properly.  the flesh wound looked fresh and a little larger than it had to be, so i just snapped some quick photos and let it go.

 

was the t8 sink tip the magic ticket to catching fish yesterday?  you know what i would say... maybe.  there is simply no way that i can say for sure that all the fish i hooked with the sink tip wouldn’t have bit anyway no matter what i threw.  there is just too many factors involved to make a statement like that.  fishing is a lifetime of research and data collection with no conclusions.  to me, those who seek the answers or, worse, think they have the answers, just don’t get it.  the only thing i know for sure is that i’ll be out there again soon enjoying the research and collecting more data. 

 

barred jack head.

 

high winds tend to make the sea very angry.  difficult to take good pictures by yourself, quickly, and without taking cracks.

 

life long researcher stares into the eyes of yet another subject.  what are you trying to tell me?  probably, "put me in the water!  i can't breath you idiot!"

 

 

i can't read this but maybe you can.  if you tagged this fish.  yeah, i caught it yesterday and it was still small.

 

two survivors of the game of life just doing what they gotta do.  what can i say, i love this fly fishing stuff.  good times.

 

clay. 


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