Finally the Curse has been Lifted!!!!!!

I took Marlon fishing at Hickam Flats this morning. The weather conditions were average low tide and just a slight breeze. The sun was mostly out, but every now and then a cloud would roll in. We waded out to the edge of the flat and started casting. After a few casts, this papio hit and the curse that has been around my neck for the past several months has finally been broken!!!! Marlon followed this up with bringing in a roi. He got a big strike on the line - a good sized papio, but he had asked me to crimp the barb on his hook and the fish managed to get off just as Marlon got it to his feet. And then he landed a hinalea. I picked up this kona moano pretty close to where I was standing - I drug my line three times through the spot and each time I saw a different fish go for the ika on the hook - a big humu was first, followed by a papio - then this guy was the unlucky one. And then the fish that really made the statement my curse was gone and replaced with lots of fishing mojo - this guy was pulling against the drag for quite awhile and gave a great fight!!! So much fun today and so glad to have the curse lifted!!!! All fish were released (we were going to eat the roi and the big papio, but the make shift stringer I made broke - better for all I guess).

Catching with Bait - Sunday

Yeah I caught with the 3/8 ounce Kastmaster on Friday, but I definitely got skunked on Saturday. I figured if I was going to go back out, I wanted to catch so I brought out the ika. I also switched out my J hooks for smaller circle hooks. Way easier to get the hook out now for better catch and release. At least three types of sea urchins clustered here - rock boring urchins, vana, and pincushion. Super dense too (nice sign of decent health) I ended up catching two coronetfish and five papio.

Fishing Report 8/3/2014

Not skunked!!! Three spots and three whiting - I could have eaten dinner if I kept them all. Used the St Croix 4 piece 10' Triumph Surf Rod (nice!) and a pompano rig with a 2 ounce pyramid sinker. Casts a mile!!! The takes on these fish on this rod are very subtle, even though in a medium power rod this is one of the softer rods out there (with the exception of an Ugly Stik). Fun afternoon at the beach!!! This wasn't fishing - it was catching!

The Usual Suspects

Here are a few more of the fish that were willing to play - another Large Mouth bass, one of the Bluegills I landed and a couple of the Green Sunfish. I think my totals for the day were 4 Large Mouths, 5 Bluegills and 5 Greens. I had several others get on the line but quickly get back off - one of the flies I was using had a chemically sharpened size 14 jig hook and if the fish was able to pick up my slack, it was able to come off the hook (good for them - you can't win every battle). If I haven't already mentioned it - I am casting the Barclay 3wt really well now. I don't know if it was the practice casts, or watching others cast it - possibly a bit of both mixed in with the new RIO Perception WF3F line - but in any case the Barclay is working for me now. There is very little that is more satisfying than watching loops fly by, slowly unrolling and 'placing' the fly where you just sighted some fish. There is the take, the fight, casting flies that you made yourself, (there's also catching a sweet wave and getting barreled), and watching a released fish swim away are close seconds and thirds, but hey - whatever the list, right now properly executed casts are high up on the list for me. Nearly all the fish I caught were on the little micro-gurglers. The wind was up a little, but that didn't stop me - after the bite started to slow down, I started making my way back and stopping only to practice cast - sweet rod and fun fish (especially in the middle of winter).

Catch and Release (not by choice)

This is a picture of the fish I have not been landing. For those that don't know, this is a coconut crab.

I will list, in bulletized format, the fishing encounters I have had since this past Friday:
Friday
- Flyfishing at O'Club - landed a small Dart and lost a bonefish (weak tippet)
-Late night fishing at the POL Pier Head. Lots of Big Eyed Scads
Saturday
- Skunked at the POL Pier (but was involved in losing a GT that Mike pulled in)
- Lost two Big Trevally at South Point (the first rode a wave off the treble hook; the second charged me, hooked my surf trunks with the second hook and started to shake until it literally unhooked the treble off the lure - if I didn't have it happen to me, I wouldn't have believed it...
- Lost a third Trevally when it broke off the leader on a coral head and had a barracuda jump until it finally cut the line
- Late night fishing at POL Pier again; a few Big Eyed Scad, then caught a few Soldier Fish that on the fly that were feeding on the surface
Sunday
- Skunked at South Point (despite losing two lures - one to a large steady fighter and a second to a hard hit and dragging through coral)
- Landed two smallish groupers (and let them go) at Donkey Gate
- Landed a medium sized snapper at POL Base; it was neat that before I picked him up, he was being tailed and watched by a medium sized trevally
Monday
- Late afternoon run down to South Point; lost another lure to what was probably a big snapper, then I got a hit off a topwater lure (the teeth marks are pretty gnarly) but no taker

I was paying for some really bad activity in a previous life - in total, I lost 5 lures and landed a minuscule percentage of the hits I had.

That's fishing....