Moray Eel

Tried out a new spot (to us) yesterday - broken pier on Hickam.  I was casting a 1/12th ounce silver kastmaster on my whipping setup, and a smaller baitcasting rig on the small St Croix.

I managed to pull up this small moray eel - wasn't even hooked - just tangled up with the leader around the bait.  We also got a cool view of several planes making final approach.

I still prefer wading and casting on the flats or the edge of the channel - but this could be a good spot when the tide is too high for wading.

Veteran's Day Fishing!

I took a nice long nap as a part of celebrating Veteran's Day - but after, I figured I'd go get the groceries (and since I would be in the area, I might as well go fishing).  I decided to just use lures (and not ika strips) since I still had to get groceries afterwards.

I didn't catch anything - but I did get a front row seat watching lightning hit the Waianae mountains (time to go...).

On the way back in I saw two moray eels just hanging out in super shallow water - it was raining when I took the pictures, but you should still be able to see the outline of the eel.

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.

Say Cheese!

I saw this snowflake eel out in the open yesterday while flyfishing. Out in the open these eels are usually really spooky and it's hard to get up close. This guy was the opposite and was really tolerant of the camera.

Lots of Activity on the Flats - Part 1

I got to cast some fly line this morning - low wind, bottomed out low neap tide, and only the flyrod out (no spinning gear and cut squid today). I wasn't getting any strikes for the first hour or so. But I did see this guy from the corner of my eye. It's because of opportunities like this, to see different flats occupants doing what they do where they live, that make fishing awesome (I still prefer catching, but I'll take what I can get).

Working Saturday -

Busy day today -

I was asked to give a tour of the Base today so early up and out.

After that, there was an operation going on that needed my attention so I've been at the shoreline waiting for the tide to come up so the op can go forward.

Well - while waiting for the tide to come up, I decided to check out some more spots that I haven't really spent time at yet. First spot was Turtle Cove. This place was named correctly - lots of small turtles, but there were also lemon sharks (I saw 3), stingrays, a titan triggerfish, several batfish, mullet schools, permit (or pompano) and bonefish. The scenic pictures are the flats (and what a flat it is - flyfishing perfection). However tempting, this is a natural preserve that needs to be respected. Still - I bet even I could catch something on a fly at this spot.

I went back to the work site and the tide still hadn't come up fully yet. So I did what I always do when at the beach with nothing to do - started looking at the beach, the water, the wildlife and anything else out there. I collected some nice shells, but more of interest was this dead moray eel. The eel must have gotten stuck on the reef during low tide. Poor SOB.

I've got a few more obligations to get to today - so much for relaxing on the weekend... (but today is still awesome).