Bonefish #4 - Pretagged

I went fly fishing after work yesterday. I had the Epic 888, Allen Kraken XLA 4, and a ROI Bonefish (long belly) 8wt line setup. I ended up hooking up with Bonefish #4 (o'io). It took a clouser minnow tied to resemble the baby goatfish swimming around (o'ama). I had the bite guard on and it still took the fly. That was probably due to the early evening low sunlight. Whatever it was, I'll take it! I had my tagging kit, but this fish already had a tag on it too - 14068. I scraped all the algae off so hopefully it'll have an easier time swimming. Funny how when you are trying to catch one fish, you totally catch another. I was fishing for barracuda... I did go flyfishing again this morning. I saw several large bones, but didn't draw interest from them - I bet it was the bite guard...

Kaku Candy and Versatile Bite Tippet

On one of the fishing outings, I tied on the mylar tubing baitfish. And after three casts, I felt pressure come on, and then suddenly slack. That means only one thing - barracuda on, barracuda off after it cut through the leader. Good news - I stumbled on a fly that kaku hit without hesitating. Bad news, I didn't have any more tied up so time to do something else. Moving on - here are the reinforcements. I tied these with lead wrapped around the shank to help it drop through the water column. Stripping will bring it back to the surface so these should cover more water and find more fish. To address the cutoffs, I also got some tiny snaps and swivels and wire tippet. I have been tying on flies or kastmasters for barracuda using the wire tippet and 12# fluorocarbon joined by an Albright knot. The problem with those setups is you can't change out the fly or lure. I didn't use snaps before because the ones I had were too big and not conducive to fly casting. With these small bite guards and lightly weighted "kaku candy" flies, fishing this weekend should lead to some catching. I hope. More to follow...

Papio Dinner

Whoa! Late posting... been trying to work paperwork for closing on a house, looking for transportation options, and making bacon at the office. Sorry for the lack of posts folks out there who care. I have gone fishing a couple of times since the last Saturday at the Holoholo, but I didn't catch anything so I went sans post. I'll start posting more since a major effort at work has subsided. Starting here - this was dinner last Sunday - the two papio I caught at the fishpond. Really delicious fried crisp with only salt and pepper as seasoning. I was thinking about making some gyotaku out of these, but I got hungry.

Small Baitfish Fly

Tied up with the cord braid I bought from JoAnn's back in Tacoma. AWESOME!!!

He'eia Fish Pond Weekends

Oops - I been swamped at work and haven't been out fishing, surfing, or doing anything amphibious. But I did go and volunteer some time at the Fish Pond helping out. Last Saturday I went to the Community Volunteer Day. We moved rocks, more rocks and some rocks. Then we got to start placing rocks. Way harder than it looks. Lots of constructive criticism - hopefully next time I can do a better job... Nonetheless, I couldn't stay for the after work session kalua pig - had to get to work. Today was the last of this year's Holo holo (predator eradication days). I got two papio to hand, lost a third and had a kaku staring at me the whole laughing at my lures. The catching slowed down towards noon so I started packing up. But not before taking a closer look at what all is really in the pond when the water is up. Crabs of all sorts and a species of shrimp (opa'e). I really enjoy helping out at the He'eia Fish Pond!

Big South Swell on 9/5/2015

White Plains Beach at Kalaeloa. 10 - 15 foot faces on the outside. I think I have found the limit that the ULI GLX2 can handle. Between the air blowing up the face and this swell pushing faster waves, I had a harder time making the drop. On the outside break just to west, the barrels were way overhead. I also know there are more sharks there. With no locals surfing that spot, I'd say we were all thinking the same thing (better safe than sorry). Last few times I've been in the sun, I've been torched. I caked on the sunscreen and even used some brown/tan Zinka on my face and shoulders. Smelled just like surfwax - ahhhhhhh! After a few on the outside, I paddled to the second reef break and surfed the more mellow 6 footers. Checkout the small water droplets on this picture - miniature globes!!! Fun session - I really need to get out more (so I can lose my belly fat).

Super Skunk Streak

I went fly fishing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons and got skunked the either weekend. I did force myself to use a different setup than I have been - Epic 888 with a RIO Bonefish WF8F line on the Kraken 4 XLA. By moving to a fiberglass rod and longer belly line, I am practicing casting by 'feel' more. It took a bit, but by the end of the ultra-skunking I felt I could get more line out further than when I first started playing with this combo. Changing the line out especially helped. What didn't help was getting refusals when I know the fish was near the fly. I did see a lot of aquatic life. Multiple snowflake eels, a bunch of humuhumunukunukuapua'a, a spotted eagle ray, a several bonefish. And on Saturday, I did catch something - this plastic jug went floating by and I cast the fly to it - good shooting if I do say so myself! And it did offer a 'fight' as I was trying to pull it through the current. Oddly enough I didn't see any papio being caught. I think the water is actually warmer then the fish like. Maybe they have swam off to deeper water or places with more water exchange on the tides. Among all the 'looking' I did find this tiny crab in some dead coral - acropora crab species. I'm going to tie a few more different flies to see if I can the fish to take - three days is a long time to not play tug-o-war... Good thing I like practicing my casts, or this weekend would have been a bust. Oh - one last thing, I found this at one of the local fishing supply shops (McCully Bike - they offer 10% military discounts so I picked it up). It works great!!! Now I can start fishing even more off the beaten path spots and not have to worry about my OCD and keeping the 4Runner clean! Holds 2 gallons and sprays it out just like the hose at home! Now if it would just wash off the skunk.

Trigger Happy on Sunday 8/30/2015

I went spinfishing yesterday - chucked squid out and pulled in four humuhumunukunukuapua'as to hand and one big one dove in some rocks and managed to get unhooked. I also tried to catch some o'ama, but after chasing two separate schools, I couldn't get a single one to bite. The water was clearer than Saturday, but it was even warmer than just the day before... I remember Oahu 20 years ago - I'd get cold in the water. Constantly in the 70's. Not anymore.

Flyfishing on Saturday 8/29/2015

The low tide was around 10 am so I decided to get a later start than normal. Sleeping in on the weekends is a luxury that I have forgotten about. I decided to stick to fly fishing for o'io and lined up the Orvis Helios 8wt with a RIO Bonefish Quickshooter 8wt and tied on a lightly weighted "Spam and Eggs" fly. I got two bones to dig for my fly, but I tried to strip set to soon and ended up empty handed. There is nothing like that split second when you've got a big fish trying to eat your fly and you have to determine when to set the hook. I still have the shivers.... After that I tried to see if the papio would take on a yellow on white clouser I tied up. No takers. I called it after that as I had to spend some time at work. On the way in I checked the spots where I've seen the o'ama schooling up. Sure enough they were there in force. The water was not as clear as it usually is - with all the rain and runoff, it had a distinct 'brown' shading to it. That definitely shortened up the sight fishing - I couldn't see the fish so far out, and they couldn't see me up close either. Too bad I couldn't connect the dots... I also noticed the water has been getting a lot warmer - this coral head looks like it is expelling it's zoothanthelle... Nice day on the flat!

More Art from the SEA-TAC Airport

This rather large gyotaku is up in the passageway or Terminal D. Very impressive three panel work. This makes me want to dig out some of my unfinished work...

Happy 125th Duke!!!

August 24th is the Duke's 125th birthday!!! Google acknowledges his birthday with this banner! Take a lesson from this Ambassador of Aloha and be better than you were yesterday today, and take that further tomorrow. We could all give more aloha in today's world where there are more people and more challenges. Aloha Duke!

Bass Pro Shop Pilgrimage

Even though we've been in here a bunch of times, I just had to do it... I love this setup - some day... That said, I don't buy everything at BSP - I got this from Jo-Ann's across the freeway. $2.50 with a 50% off coupon!

Another Cool Fly Shop

Cool shop full of cool guys that love fly fishing (and GT and Bonefish). Stop in if you're passing exit 130 on the I-5 around Tacoma. I found four unique flies that I picked up - pretty good ratio for walking into a new fly shop. I also picked up a new Fishpond Sushi Roll to hold my flies while on the water. I'll be back!!!

Noe's New Skateboard

We've been a longboard skateboard family forever. Until now - Noe decorated a shortboard deck at an art class this summer and she has been waiting for me to help her get it set up. Here she is in her pirate skater garb. The kiddoroosters also found the land-paddling stick I made back in Gulfport. Skaters rule!!!

First Post from Guest Poster

Hello!  I'll be posting stuff with my Dad so that Dad can keep up with what we are doing.  We went SUPing last Tuesday at American Lake, Washington.  There were a whole bunch of the helicopters.