Sunday Afternoon Catching - Six Pack

I went fishing this afternoon and ended up catching six. Three papio, a nunu (coronetfish), a moana (goatfish), and a manini (convict tang). FUN DAY CATCHING!!!

Chee Ohhhhh!!!! Hanapaa!!!

Oh yeah!!! I was catching today - I'll let the pictures do the talking ;) I ended up with five papio, two wrasse, a huge sergeant major, one goatfish and a hawkfish - super fun day (all of the fish were C&R - so they had fun too). Oh - and Charlie caught a Popeye'd Ghost Crab

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.

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...

Spinning Tally

I got up on Sunday morning and prepared to get some errands done (laundry, haircut, groceries, gas for the truck and dropping off some recycling) before going fishing. The tide was still draining out by the time I got to the flats. I rigged up both the spinning rod and an 8wt fly rod. I figured this being my only real day off, I might as well bring everything. I ended up catching four bluefin trevallys - it's hard to see them on the flats, I think even more so than the bonefish - so all of these were caught on the spinning rod (with cut squid for bait). I also caught one of these moana (red goatfish). And the surprise of the day was this fish. I think it is a species of wrasse, but I'm going to have to look it up. I lost a couple of rigs to the reef and then made a deliberate switch to the flyrod. Next post -

Real Good Day for Numbers

Lots of action out on the Hickam Flats - and I finally caved and fished with bait (cut squid). I caught seven papio - fun little guys, nothing to get an elevated heart rate over (although a bigger fish did test my knot tying skills and took off with a good sized piece of squid and a new lip ring). What do we have here???? Do you see the 'long' piece of the rock hanging out? That's no rock... small moray eel. First of two "Moana" that I caught today Another moray eel. Here is the second Moana. These guys are decent fighters. And the first Weke I have caught out here. This species in particular is said to cause the person that eats it to have hallucinations. I ate one back in DG not knowing the issue (and didn't have any nightmares), but this one was heavier (and I didn't feel like having uncontrolled hallucinations - or hallucinations in general) and I was in C&R mode today. It didn't like the fact that it got caught and was quite the flopper. So the lesson learned today - use bait and catch fish (stop being a lure snob).