First Backyard Tilapia

At the place I am renting a room, the backyard has access to the canal system in Kailua. I've posted before about the veritable plethora of fish swimming around within easy reach of the backyard. Well - I took a few minutes this morning to see if I could tease a fish into a game of tug-o-war. I did get one taker - and only one. I has a killer bug and a green weenie on a tenkara rod and got nothing but annoyed looks from scores of tilapia. It was incredibly frustrating - the complete opposite of catching bluegill back in Reston. Well - at least I got one to take the fly (green weenie). I did see a bunch of fish jumping around about a 25' cast away - maybe a barracuda accosting a large group of tilapia??? And I did get a visual on a 7" white trevally swimming around among the tilapia... So two things - first I'm going to have to figure out what the tilapia are interested in eating so I can tie up some more appealing flies. And second - I'll have to have a second rod rigged with some papio/kaku crack flies to hook into those passerbys.

Marlon and Noe's First Fishing Trip for 2014

I dragged Marlon and Noe out to 4 Mile Run today. We brought it all!!! Tenkara rods, spinning rods and a couple of fly rods. Noe said she wanted to use spinning gear and Marlon said he was in for his new tenkara rod. Noe used Gulp Crickets and was slamming the door on the bluegs and greenies. She certainly takes after her Mom (very vocal when she lands a fish). Noe did get some big ones. Marlon chose the harder route and cast the fly. He picked off several sunnies - mostly greens - surgical strikes of fishing prowess!!! We saw a bunch of large mouth bass swimming around, but we weren't able to hook up with one. With the kiddoroosters fishing, I ended up tending to their needs more than fishing. They are both getting better - only three bird's nests between the two of them for the entire three hours we were out there. Man these waders make my butt look ginormous!!! Or how's this one "I used photoshop to make my butt look huge". I did break out the Steffen 8'0" 4/5wt. Paired it with a Creek 2 lined with a RIO Perception WF5. If you've never cast a Steffen, they are the epitome of practical casting. If I had to catch fish for sustenance, I wouldn't fool around with anything else. With this rod I can feel when I make a perfect cast and when I make a mistake. I am not a great caster, but I aspire to become one - and being able to know what a great cast is by feel is an important step towards getting better. The camera battery died before I brought out the Steffen, so no pictures of that rod (yet - when the smallmouth start coming out, this rod will be out in force). Sushi??? Not from this body of water... Fishing - yes. Catch and release - of course. Dinner - no way...