After

I prefer them fried crisp and served with freshly cooked rice :)

Look Who I Went Fishing With!!!

One of my former employees from Diego Garcia was in town! Dante was one of the first guys to show me where the good fishing spots were and most notably, he showed me how to prepare bonefish (of which I made lots of fish lumpia). Check out the posts from 2011 to 2012 and he should be in a few of the pictures. So what to do with a person who you've gone fishing with before??? Take him fishing of course!!! I picked up Dante from b=his hotel and we were on the flats within 30 minutes, right around the bottom of the low tide. I hooked up with a decent sized roi (peacock grouper) on one of my first casts. Dante got a good sized papio (talakitok in tagalog) for his first. From there we both caught other fish - saddle wrasses, a snapper, a hawkfish (first one I caught out here I think - chubby guy!!!), papio and Dante caught the Hawaiian State Fish - humuhumunukunukuapua'a While fishing for oama I caught one of the smallest fish I've caught on a hook (size 20 limerick) - another Sergeant Major. When the kids get out here, it'll be fun to raise a few of these in an aquarium. I also got a picture of an oama - I had a great time fishing with an old friend!

Bait Fueled Saturday

Bait definitely works better than lures. I caught a coronet fish, a roi (peacock grouper), a papio and a snapper (no picture). This coronet fish was actually putting up a fight - it was swimming backwards and thrashing it's head. The roi was real small... These fish are labeled as invasive so the thought of killing it crossed my mine - but then my values kicked in (don't kill unless you're going to eat it). Also - the fear of contracting ciguatera is limiting my reef fish intake. So this guy lives... It has been a while since I've caught a papio - my rig was close enough for me to see this guy take, so there wasn't much of a fight (better for the fish - swim off strong and live to fight another day). I'd fish with bait more, but I can't get the dead squid smell washed off. But it sure is fun! Also of note - these guys were taken on a low tide (note for me so I can be more efficient with my time - "don't go at the peak of high tide dumbo").

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!!!