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11/04/12
bonefishing hawaii:
fall bones and switch rods.
fished the beulah 6/7 classic switch rod, abel switch reel, and a wulff ambush triangle taper line on my one outing with doug this past week. a switch rod is a rod that is designed to be cast either single hand or double hand. the beulah classic switch rod is a true switch rod and a perfect tool for the unpredictable days of the hawaiian fall. these days, it is hard to guess what kind of light conditions will be waiting for you on your favorite reef or flat. it could be perfect sight fishing conditions or it could be a day of bombing in clouds and rain. most likely it will be somewhere in between and there will be a little of both. kona winds (winds that either blow from the south or cancel out the trades) are becoming a weekly event. when they will occur is anyone’s guess. the predictions by local weather predictors generally have a day or two margin of error which isn’t very good for a seven day week forecast and it is even harder to predict what winds on the water will be. kona winds usually bring more clouds that will sit over an area and not move. add to this the lowering sun and shorter days and seeing things out there can at times be sketchy at best. this can cause fits for those who like to try to predict what a day on the water will be like but it is no problem for those who just go with the flow and play the hand they’re dealt... especially when they are armed with a switch rod.
i like the beulah for just these kinds of days. at 10’6” the beulah classic comes in at the short side of the switch rod scale (they usually run between 10' 4" and 11' 9" with most of them being 11' or 11'6"). being on the shorter side makes it the most pleasant switch rod to sight fish with using single hand overhead casts or single or double hand roll casts (something i do a lot when sight fishing). i still prefer a single hand rod to sight fish with, preferably a slower action one. the switch rod, however, is a more than adequate tool for that with the added bonus of “twohandedness” about it. if need be, it can easily make all but the longest two handed bombing casts (repeatedly) with little effort. both the beulah elixir or the wulff ambush work great on the beulah classic rod for both bombing and sight fishing.
it seems like the bigger fish start showing up more in the fall and i did encounter some big guns out there this week. one gave my new wulff ambush line and rio versileader a “custom reefed” texture (again) before parting my 20lb. tippet on the reef. there are still quite a few smaller bones around (the non gear wrecking type). the kind i like. which is good. these guys will not give you the super long initial run that the big bigs do but they also don’t run out of gas easily and give what they got from the moment you hook one right through the time when you are trying to snap a quick photo. they are little battery packs that never seem to run out of energy. ah, to be young again.
anyway from what i saw out there this past week, i think it is going to be a good fall for all and i wouldn’t be surprised to see it hold up through winter as the past few years have done. the fishing so far hasn’t dropped off much from the summer really. the weather, on the other hand, has definitely turned quite fall like. my recommendation is to arm yourself with a switch rod and be ready for anything this fall and winter may throw your way. i’ll see you on the water.
big fish are showing up more frequently these days. doug and a fall fatty.
fortunately there are still quite a few non gear wreckers running around for the non "big game" hunter.
and everything in between. something for everyone, just as it should be.
switch rods and fall bones. the perfect combination for good times.
clay.
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