Nervous Water Fly Fishers - Fly Fishing Shop & Guide Service in Hawaii

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	NWFF blog

08/09/09

hawaii bonefishing:

finding your own thang

kirk, another of the nwff crew, and i planned to check out what was going on at lake wilson today. i haven’t been up there in a while and was curious as to what all was going on at the ole fishin’ hole. i charged the battery on my boat and tied up some new and exciting (new, not all that exciting) streamers to fish the lake... then i got the call. it was deano and he wanted to know if i wanted to go with him to hickam. i was about to tell him that i was going to the lake when i remembered kirk saying that he had never been to hickam. another quick phone call to kirk and it was set, hickam would be the plan.

we got out at around ten and saw that there were a few other fly dudes already out. the day turned out to be a gorgeous hawaii summer day with no hint of huricane felicia at all. the light was great but we walked around quite a bit without seeng much. deano and i showed kirk around the flat, but the fish just weren’t around... sometimes like that.

we walked to one end of the flat and i began to practice my two handed casts. as the tide rose i saw a couple of fish. one i hit on the head and it spooked straight away. the other i saw when i glanced up while getting out a new fly. it's funny how those things always seem to happen. i hooked a small bonefish and lost it while dragging the fish (with my rod on my head and the fish trolling behind) over to where kirk was to get a photo.

i told kirk to fish where i was fishing and he did. deano and i hung back and watched him for a while. we casted each others rods and deano tried to sabotage me by putting wind knots in my leader (thanks deano). kirk pounded for quite a while but didn’t get bit there.

we then moved over to the other side of the flat. on the way we still didn't see anything except a couple of awa's or milkfish (a.k.a twenty pound world class hawaii bonefish) the tide was pushing and i hooked another small bonefish. while i was fooling around taking pictures with that bonefish, deano hooked another one. i put kirk on the place where i was seeing fish and he didn’t get bit then we put kirk on the spot where deano got bit and still nothing. i stayed with kirk for a little while then slowly made my way out from him. kirk started moving too and i saw him go on his own line toward shore. i fished a bit more then i happened to glance back at kirk... and his rod was bent! i watched him fight the fish and made my way over to him. it turned out to be the fish of the day. a nice fatty hawaii bonefish. i went back out and hooked one more fish before we called it. we ended the day relaxing in the shade and discussing the days events over some mr. gyros (big fish doesn’t have to buy lunch with us, but thanks anyway kirksta).

as deano and i always say, you can’t just copy others and just try to do what they do and expect to get good. you gotta go out and do things on your own and find your own groove. kirk’s first time out to hickam paid off not from the places and ways deano and i told him to fish nor fishing where we hooked fish. instead, it came from kirk just following his own fish sense (and this guy is super “fishy”). it took kirk taking in this “new to him” area and finding his rhythm with the ocean, the surroundings, the flat, and ultimately the fish. it had nothing to do with any help that deano or i tried to give him. kirk just took in what we showed him, fished hard, and found his own thang... all seven or so pounds of it.