Catch Up Posts - Friday Catching

I celebrated the arrival of pau hana by breaking out the fishing poles.  I started out fly fishing, I wasn't generating any love from the fish.  I went back to the truck and broke out the spinning gear.  I rigged up with a small kastmaster with bite tipper and the fun started!

Good fight from this kaku!

Then I ended up catching four of these white papio - great way to start a weekend!!!

Wednesday Evening Catching

Wednesday after work I stopped by the fishing hole. This was supposed to be a dropping tide and a really high solunar activity period. I had a 1/12 ounce silver Kastmaster on the end of the line and these guys showed up to play tug. Really small lizardfish. Small barracuda. Handsome baby Giant Trevally - I actually caught another one of these the cast before, but it came off the hook near me. I got a good look at it before it got off and it had a wingman flying the pattern. I saw them headed off in a direction - I cast towards them and BAM! Back on the hook and I brought this one in. Did I say this was one handsome fish??? And the last fish of the day - a ubiquitous bluefin trevally. Can't leave without catching one of these! Great day on the flats!!!

Lots of Activity on the Flats - Part 2

Checking out who is home is cool, but catching the residents with simple flies cannot be topped. A small (baby) Giant Trevally volunteered to play tug-o-war! When I released this guy, it colored up with dark vertical stripes and swam off. It might be small, but it's way better than a skunk!

First Fish on the Fly (out here on Oahu)!!!

Same place I checked out yesterday evening, but a little later in the day - the tide was really low. I saw a few oio (bonefish), but they saw me while I was making some casts. Despite the small setback, I didn't get skunked!!! I caught this small papio (baby Giant Trevally) using an All Rounder Saltwater 6wt line from Orvis with the Epic 686 fiberglass fly rod I built out. With this rig, I was slightly undergunned for the bones, but way overpowered for this guy. It eagerly took the Turneffe Crab fly entirely in it's mouth but he didn't have enough juice to pull any line out. The rod seemed a little soft with this line. I recall it felt solid casting a class V full sink line... I may try to up line it with a 7wt to see if it livens up. No matter - catching is always better than getting skunked and releasing a healthy fish is a great way to end the day!!! I guess I can call this "Trevally Tuesday"!

Latest Completed Gyotakus

I spent more time at the Fort Belvoir MWR Frame Shop yesterday. Enough time to finish up the big GT I printed over a year ago. The framing was actually easy - easier than the printing. The big GT is hanging in our foyer now. Next up is finishing off some bonefish prints, framing those, then to catch a trophy sized sunnie and print it up (and find a good recipe for bluegill...)

Three Varients

I worked three versions of the GT I posted up this past weekend. The first one has a home with Mike Chucran (top picture). The middle one will stay with me and the third one will go to Lloyd Hiromoto back on Oahu. I learned how to effectively fill in void space while working these prints. I also learned how to use just accent coloring (on the fins) to make parts jump out better. Three weeks left to go - I can still make a bunch of gyotaku before I get to go back home.

Multi-Tasking

Convergence zone - friends heard we caught some fish, guy in the background cutting up sashimi and the GT being printed up front. All these things help the time go by in quality.

Short but Productive Outting

Punched out of work on Friday afternoon and trolled the lagoon. Boated three BFTs and a GT in an hour and a half. The GT came in on a kite rod - ironic how the biggest fish was caught on the setup least able to handle it (good on you Mike for wrestling that beast on that setup). Always an awesome time. The colors on the Blue Fin Trevally always amaze me. I did a bunch of prints of these guys including my first double (the BFTs). We'll see how they turn out. After this week, I am essentially turning over so I can go home. It's been a long year away from my family and I am more than ready to go back to them. But while I am waiting, I'll make a bunch of gyotaku to work on when I'm back with the kids and La ;)

Huge GT Gyotaku

So I saw this place out of the corner of my eye. And it was across a busy road - I was actually not going to go in because of the wait to cross. Boy was I glad I waited! Check out the size of the fish these guys caught!!! They printed the fish on bed sheets and the images came out perfect. You can tell they were stoked because of the way the kanji was written. Awesome!!!!

Fish 1 - Me 8

I went on two separate fishing stints on Saturday.

The first was shoreline fishing and the second was deepsea.

I'll post the various catches over the next few posts.

The first chunk was caught on a Mark White 2.5 ounce Ulua Bar - the two GTs were schoolies that were about 3 pounds each. The Bluefin was around 10 pounds and was an AWESOME fight!

I switched to lighter tackle when a friend showed up. More on that on the next post.

Friday's Fish

Pau hana time fishing!

Nice fight from this GT!

I had to time the retrieve between sets - the surf was PUMPING!!!

Nice chunky waves that were begging to be ridden!

There were tons of water pools (due to the overtopping surf) - I plopped the GT in one. After finishing, it was still strong -

And I let it go back to the ocean...

I lost the lure though - on a rock that I could reach if it wasn't for the pounding surf.

I'll make sure mother ocean knows I paid my dues already. Flyfishing tomorrow!!!

Mark White 1.5 Ounce Ulua Bar - Part 2

So I let the omilu go, and a few casts later, this bruiser hits that same lure!!!

He took the line and ran with it - around a concrete divider, making me go over a bunch of revetment rocks to keep the fish free and clear.

It then tried to run back down the dropoff, but I got it to turn.

A few minutes later and I had it up.

Gorgeous Giant Trevally!!!

Without a scale, I guess it was a 15 pounder. I found a pool of water and revived it after the fight. I figured "since I let that omilu go and I caught this ulua, if I let this ulua go, I should hook up with a much bigger one...." With the tide draining out to a .5m low, that was not to be. I took the remaining time I had and walked the extremely low tide exposed beach and scored a bunch of seaglass.

I did let this one go also - seemed very appreciative (I guess any living thing would if it was let go from the clutches of death). From this point forward, if the fish isn't injured critically, I'll likely let it go (not that I haven't been doing that already, I'm just codifying the practice).

Awesome fight - awesome lure!!! I couldn't have asked for a better reintroduction to fishing day! Hopefully, Karma will pay out based on today's results.

We'll see...

Happy New Years Trevally Day - Part 1

Brand new year - what's the first thing I do?

Trolling!

Mike caught a barracuda that was being tailed by two others - one of which was really big.

After that we had a long lull. When we finally switched out to squid skirted lures, we had tons of hits! Trevally after trevally - the only thing that would have made it better would have been catching really big ones.

Great way to open up a new year!

Catching Up - Dinner

It's been a while - gomen nasai on the lack of postings.

Here is my effort to catch up...

Green Curry Trevally with Fried Tofu - dinner from 7 November.

GOOD STUFF!!!!

Sunday Fishing - Part 3 - The Glorious Giant Trevally

The last phase of Sunday Fishing...

After playing with the Bonefish with the flyrod, I decided to throw a lure for a while to see if I could get a good hit.

I was using the lightweight rod/reel and a Mark White surface plug - the same one that picked up the Yellow Spot Trevally - Oh by the way - with that catch, I have caught four different species of Trevally - the Yellow Spot, the Thick Lipped, the Blue Fin and the Giant Trevally. My favorite to catch, clean and eat is the GT. In fact, I think this is my favorite fish period.

I had some chasers but no hits. I subsequently changed lures three times and still didn't get a hit.

Without a hit, I decided to bring out the big guns - my medium weight rig armed with a big Tsunami Popper.

I pitched it out and worked 180 degrees out from a line parallel to the shore along the rocky outcropping - working left to right. Nothing on the first pass.

I decided to cast the lure out in a way so that during retrieve, I could bring it in over a section of reef that had some big holes underneath. On the second cast, I got the strike I was looking for!!!

10 minute fight - I thought the GT was trying to break off on a coral head, but I was able to steer it back into open water. After more pulls - I landed this magnificent fish.

If you can't already tell, I have the utmost respect for the GT!!! This made my week (although not as big a thrill as the 25#'er)!

Number 2 - Papio

Papio sized Giant Trevally.

I'm not into endorsing stuff, but these Mark White ceramic lures are really good at catching trevally. The design has taken a much different track than the conventional plastic lures.

There is beauty in simplicity and there is peace in catching your dinner.

One - One Trevally - Ahhh Ahhhh HHaaaa Haaaa!

Fished three places today -

This was what I caught at the first spot - nice sized Giant Trevally

This one was dinner - sashimi!!!

Caught it on a Tsunami Popper - nice fighter! About 5#