Saturday Fishing Fun!!!

I took Marlon fishing again this morning - I caught a kaku so no skunk today!!! I lost a bunch of hooks to a few other kaku hanging around the reef edge - I'd see the splash, then the line would tension up then 'pop' - there goes the hook. Marlon and I both hooked up with lizardfish, but before we could take pictures the fish would let go of the bait and swim away. I took this picture later in the session - but same type of fish. The tide pulled out as we were leaving and we found a bunch of mantis shrimp and different types of crabs on the way in - Can't wait to get back out and do it again!!!

All that Matters is I didn't get Skunked -

I hadn't been fishing in a while - so I tried my luck in an afternoon high tide. No papio, kaku, weke - just a lone lizardfish. But a fish is a fish and it isn't a skunk!

Fishing Friday!!!

Yup - these next several posts are going to be catch ups from the weekend. First in the que - fishing on Friday morning. I took the kids to the eastern flank of the flats and we waded for almost two hours before a weather front chased us back to shore. I caught a lizardfish early on and Noe ended up with a really young moray eel. She declared that "it is the grossest thing I've ever seen" yet she was mesmerized by the tiny wriggling fish chomping away at her bait. Marlon and Noe brought their tenkara rods, but I wanted them to get more experience with the spinning gear first. Unfortunately the strong winds from the passing front stopped us from using the tenkara rods. They wanted to catch small sergeant majors (and moray eels)... next time I'll rig the tenkara rods first.

Better Luck with Bait on Sunday

I really don't like getting skunked, so I decided to break out the ika strips (cut squid) to make sure I didn't have a repeat of Saturday (even though I totally get it that flyfishing is tough and there will be days upon days when there will be no tug at the end of the line). I ended up catching a wrasse, a red goatfish (that got off the hook before I was able to take a picture), a papio, and a snapper while I was at the channel edge of the flat. For bait, this was actually a slow day. I figured I'd try my luck at the runway side of the flat. I ended up catching a small lizardfish and another snapper. I thought about taking the snapper home to make some prints, but I'm holding out for a bigger one. None of the triggerfish were in the mood to play tug. I've been reading about some heightened activity from predator fish hunting on the flats, it just didn't seem to be at this flat... I'll check the solunar tables and see when the next session will be.

Observation Time on the Flats (that's what I'm calling it because the catching sucked)

I fished the low tide on Hickam Flats on Sunday. I started out casting bait (ika strips) and caught a few good sized papio and another lizardfish (they must be getting active ahead of spawning season - whatever reason, I'm catching more lizardfish). I ran out of bait and the water was still low, so I transitioned to targeting the bonefish. I used a bucktail jig and practiced overshooting the fish, retrieving the lure into sight range of the fish, and waiting for a response. I got several of the bones to turn and take interest, but I think they were intimidated by the size of the 1/2 ounce jig. Most of the interactions took place less than 40' away - all within fly casting range. I had my 8 weight in the truck, but figured I'd just study the fish behavior and not try to hook one. These fish certainly are keeping fishing interesting (frustrating, obsessive - fill in an appropriate word here).

He'eia Fish Pond July "la holo holo"

Saturday I got to fishing inside the He'eia Fish Pond. During the summer months they hold a monthly predator eradication day where they open up the pond to the community to help harvest the kaku (barracuda), papio (small trevally), and snapper so the mullet (ama ama) can grow to harvesting size. They still need to finish repairs to the last gate (makaha), but they are pretty close. The water was super low, so the fishing was tough. The first fish I caught was a lizardfish in the low water outside the wall. I did manage to get one kaku inside the wall. This is technically what the fish pond crew wanted done, but with the water levels so low, there weren't many fish to target. I did go wading outside the wall on the flat next to the second makaha - I hooked into several papio, but they were all just under the DLNR 10" minimum. That's ok - I'm in a catch and release phase anyways. A long day spent under the sun, but a great opportunity to fish a place normally off limits. Great way to help out the fish pond (normally I cut down mangrove trees by hand...)

A Really Good Day of Catching - 5 July

I used bait again - started fishing two hours before the low tide and it was four days after the full moon. Whatever factor influenced it, this day was awesome for fishing. I didn't catch any ginormous trevally that smashed my gear just by looking at it, but I did catch the most fish I've caught since I got back, and nearly every species I've seen to date (minus three). I ended up with six papio, two moanas (one was a giant), two nehu (coronetfish - one was giant sized), two species of humuhumunukunukuapuaa, a few saddle wrasses and one large lizardfish (checkout the teeth on this guy). On lightweight gear, all these fish were fun to catch. It's going to be tough to top this day...

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!!!

Other Sightings

The morning tides this past weekend were super low. That left lots of little pools of water with the usual cast of characters swimming about. I saw several Medusa Worms, a couple of Snowflake Moray Eels and hundreds of these guys - I think they are juvenile Lizardfish. I did see a solid olive green Mantis Shrimp while walking around in knee deep water - it had the attitude of "what are you looking at?" - not afraid of anything. I'd be afraid of the big bonefish if I were the Mantis...

Sunday Morning Catching at Hickam

Today was a much better catching day! I dropped down to a size 5 torpedo weight and an unweighted size 10 limerick hook. After some searching, I found an area that had some movement. First up was a legal sized omilu (blue fin trevally) - papio sized. This guy actually pulled drag!!! I thought I had seen some bonefish, but hooking into this confirmed (for me) that the papios trail the oios. I caught a couple of other papios, but then hooked into something with a little more heft - a juvenile Peacock Grouper. I caught a couple more papio then switched over to the fly rod. I hooked into another species I have not yet caught - introducing the Lizardfish Can you see the fly inside it's mouth??? And those teeth!!! Just like the Big Bad Wolf - "The better to eat you with"!!! Cool camo pattern I let all the fish swim away, despite the fact a couple of them would have made decent meals. I did not want to chance ciguatera... Really fun day fishing on the flats!!!