Caught One on the Flyrod

I tied on a green micro crab remembering what was inside the BFT I cooked up a while back. I wasn't getting any interest from any fish. I switched out to a mantis shrimp fly and I still didn't turn any heads. I spent the time on the flats practicing my casts - with the wind, straight into the wind, side arm and double hauling. I was a bit rusty, but got back into the groove fairly quickly (but still didn't have complete consistency - when did I ever). After quite a bit of time, I saw a few bonefish, some smaller goatfish and a small school of papio. But it was this guy that took the fly! Obake weke (the Dreaded Nightmare Goatfish - said to give you hallucinations if you eat the head or it guts)! This fish had some fight in it! At first I thought it was another paipo, but the tugs were different. When I got it close, I then thought it might be a small bonefish, but when it got tired and I got it to the surface, I saw it was a decent sized goatfish. On the fly, any fish is a great fish! I have to remember that the New Moon and spring low tide produced these fish.

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).