Biathalon

For the first time in months I managed to fit in a morning of fishing. Chris, a classmate from the academy, joined me for the short drive to one of my neighborhood spots.

The plan was to look for bonefish but after 30 or 45 minutes of fishing in poor conditions I suggested that we instead take advantage of the low tide and wade out towards the edge of the reef to try fishing for papio. We made it to the break and fished hard for a while. The surf wasn't big but when the sets came through it felt more like we were swimming than fishing! Despite the challenges we had a great morning and I managed to hook up one nice little fish.

It felt healthy to take a break from work and remind myself of the reasons I live in Hawaii. I believe Chris felt the same and I think it's likely we'll be out on the water again soon.

Sole Searching

My parents spent the holidays with Tara and I in Hawaii. We had good luck with the weather and were able to get plenty of beach time in, including an afternoon at one of Hawaii's most famous snorkeling spots, Hanauma Bay. The bay is a nature preserve and has been closed to fishing since 1967 so despite being consistently crowded with beach-goers, the fish are bold and plentiful. Some of my most memorable wildlife encounters occurred there and nearly every visit I spot something rare and wondrous. Ironically, this always leaves me excited to get out and fish. This time, within thirty feet of dry land I discerned an irregularity on the sandy bottom - Hawaii's master of disguise, the peacock flounder:

I have never caught a peacock flounder before but I did have a memorable flounder fishing experience back in 2007. It was our first Spring in Nashville and Tara and I were so beach-starved that we drove 1000 miles for a single morning at the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I waded out with a light spinning rod and some bait and was soon catching little Atlantic croakers.

Every ten or so croakers I would feel a heavy tug and then ... nothing. It felt like being firmly hooked to a shag carpet. If I kept the pressure on, and changed the direction of my pull slowly then eventually, with no warning, the shag carpet would start swimming and fighting for all it was worth!

I probably landed half a dozen flounder that morning. Only about one fish for every three hours of driving, but well worth the trip!

Pele's Bounty

Our trip to the Big Island of Hawai'i, while short, was packed with fun. As I had expected, much of the coastline was rocky. Unfortunately, much of it was a little too rocky and fairly inaccessible for fishing.

I did fish in a few sheltered harbours, including Hilo Bay, where I hooked a hungry lizard fish right before sunset.

The Big Island

I've been fishing for bonefish with my new reel. As with fly fishing, there are two basic techniques: sight-fishing and blind-casting. I've tried sight-fishing but my lures are too light to cast well. My birthday is at the end of this month and I have my fingers crossed for some bonefish jigs that are a bit heavier. I spent a couple of hours blind-casting today with no luck, but towards the end of the day I switched things up and managed to catch a small papio in the shallows. 
Papio are fast and always hungry and this little fish got me excited for our upcoming trip to the Big Island. Naturally, our priority is checking out Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, but I'm confident there will be a little bit of time to do some fishing. The Big Island of Hawaii is geologically much younger than Oahu so it's coastlines are steep and often rocky. Not ideal for bonefish, but possibly great for papio.

Pennsive Angling

I didn't post last month. I didn't catch any fish, either, though I did go fishing, once. The lack of activity is due partly to general busyness, but also to a nagging rotator cuff injury. Even though I hurt myself on dry land, the whole affair has made me re-examine my fishing style. Shoulder injuries are becoming more commonly recognized among fly anglers. It appears that the repetitive high arm casting motion makes us prone to pinching tendons.
I am a confident fly caster in freshwater, with small flies and casts up to about thirty feet but when it comes to salt water fly fishing, especially here in Hawaii, the flies are heavy, the wind can be fierce and distance does matter. Moreover, a strategy of longer and more frequent casts greatly increase the odds of catching fish. For a mediocre caster like myself, this is a perfect recipe for shoulder injury.
I have always believed that spinning reels are the ideal tool for long, repetitive casting and so I wondered: can I replicate that style of salt water fly fishing using conventional spinning tackle? The answer seems to be yes. The major difficulty lies in casting a very small lure as far as possible. The best way to accomplish this is by using a very light line on a very good reel. I knew that a braided line would be very lightweight yet still strong enough to handle even big saltwater gamefish, but what reel to put it on? My friend Kirk, who swears by Penn reels, referred me the site of spinning reel aficionado, Alan Hawk. From his lists of "best general use saltwater reels" I selected the sturdy Penn Battle BTL4000 and loaded it up with some 15lb test TUFLINE.
Now it's time to go catch some fish...

Tide Pool Treasures

Big treasures, small pools

The smell of sunscreen and squid

An island morning

Bristling red and gold

Perched precisely; poised for attack

Too late, it's a hook!

 

 Salty and crunchy

Waving up at the surface

The algae beckons

A tug on the line

It's a tiny Christmas Wrasse!

A gift all year round

Shiny and patient

Hiding deep upon the reef

Waiting for high tide

Burrowing through stone

An indomitable spirit

That's the urchin's life

 

Black-Ops

I met up with Kirk sometime before sunrise on an unspecified date and headed off to do some top-secret fishing. Our mission was to attempt to make contact with a very large, very elusive Hawaiian bonefish: The O'io.
After a supply stop for coffee we went in search of a shady character known as "Mr. Crabs" who would we were hoping would help us locate The O'io. We cast a wide net and soon flushed Mr. Crabs from his hiding place. Our plan was to lure The O'io in with a trusted intermediary. Mr. Crabs initially balked at being used as bait but our methods were very persuasive.
From the staging area we headed warily into to AO. Conditions seemed favorable and right away we saw signs that The O'io was in the area. I was bringing Mr. Crabs back in for a status update when the ambush hit. Mr. Crabs never had a chance. The battle was furious and at one point I was certain we weren't going to make it but somehow we did.

Our best sources indicate that The O'io weighs in around 20 pounds. Intelligence analysts estimate that this fish might be somewhere north of 10 but that The O'io is still out there.