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10/28/12

bonefishing hawaii:

high tides, cloudy days, and a yellow boat.

 

here we are nearing the end of october and we are seeing the weather becoming a bit less predictable.  this past week we had a big tide in the middle of the day combined with variable winds coming from the south south east.  i fished with doug and e.t. one day.  wednesday, i believe it was.  the plan was to go out on the high tide and just fish from e.t.’s boat.  i don’t particularly care to fish from a boat for bones, but if that’s the plan, that’s the plan.

 

to me chasing bones from a boat takes a little away from the “oneness” with the natural environment that i like the most about bonefishing and fly fishing in general.  don’t get me wrong, i am all in to fish from a boat if that is the only way or best way to do it as is the case at many bonefishing destinations where soft bottoms make wading super difficult at best.  here in hawaii, though, we are fortunate to have hard bottom grounds with relatively very few things in the water that will kill you. besides, despite an overall lack of care, hawaiian water is still pretty nice to be immersed in for the most part.

 

anyway e.t.'s plan for this day was all about fishing from the boat and it was something slightly different than the same ‘ole same ‘ole which i am always up for.  the tide was high but not ridicuhigh at about 1.8 ft. and super cloudy.  the sea breeze from the south south east was strong enough to break some of the humidity (thank god or whatever super being responsible for that).  the three of us took turns taking shots at fish and "guiding" when the other was "on deck".  it was a little tough to see and there weren’t tons of fish around.  but we did the sight fishing thang anyway.  we laughed at the blown shots and the break offs and whooped it up on the hookups.  we won some and lost some.  kind of the same as an average day on foot.  i hooked one that magically turned itself into a single large bonefish scale.  maybe i snagged it... like i always say, all they gotta do is look.  it did look to all of us like it ate though.  the first fish e.t. hooked took off around several mangroves and doug displayed some skills poling e.t.’s boat (which is far from a flats boat) around the mangroves in record time.  e.t. and i were thoroughly impressed by this never before seen skill of his.  must have been the adrenaline from residual bone fever still in the guy.

 

i believe that there is good and bad things about everything.  although i still find fishing on foot here to be the best and most fun way to go, i found several things that i liked about fishing with doug and e.t. from the boat.  although the ocean water is very soothing and does (i believe) have healing powers.  there is something nice about coming back from fishing dry.  it is also much easier to eat when fishing from the boat.  we didn’t bring food this time but you can bet the next time (if there is a next time) there will be some lunch box mochiko chicken plates on board.  since only one person is taking shots at fish at a time, only one rod is needed.  i didn’t even have to bring a rod i just used doug’s so i didn’t have to wash my gear when i got home.  also kind of nice.  using doug’s set up may have cost me some fish... but that’s a story for another day. hah!  it was interesting to get second and third opinions about what was happening, happened, or didn’t happen.  we were all looking at the same physical events go down on every shot each of us took. yet, we often saw things slightly to extremely differently.  at times it cost us some fish because the guy with the rod was getting directions in stereo from the two guys on both sides of him as well as the voice in his own head.  it got pretty comical at times.  for the most part, we just listened to the voice inside and lived with the ribbings we got if we didn’t hook up.  finally as e.t. elegantly put it,

 

 “you know how we always say let’s stay together today... let’s stay together.  this way we actually do stay together.”

 

i’ll see you on the water (maybe from a boat).

 

e.t. hooked up.  i left the pics dark because it was pretty dark that day. 

 

the sky was quite ominous.  fortunately no rain.

 

doug on a boat with a goat (goatfish).

 

at times we weren't sure who was guiding who or if it was helping or hurting the angler.

 

the boyz, the bones, the boat.  put them all together... good times.

 

clay.


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