The Bonefish Enigma

Lately I've been fishing with a light spinning rod, sight-casting a small white jig to bonefish on the flats. The first few days after a week of stormy weather were slow. One morning I saw only one bonefish in three hours.
Two days ago I headed out on a rising tide. The trade winds had waned to 15 mph and the sunny conditions promised great visibility. Right away I spotted fish, lots of fish. There were big bones feeding alone or in pairs and I saw a shoal of 10 or 15 smaller fish cruising the sand just off the beach.
The jig did not perform as well as I had hoped. It was both too heavy and too light. Many fish spooked when the lure hit the water, even when I cast 10 or 20 feet ahead of them. On the other hand it was too light to cast into the wind with any accuracy. The weather forecast indicated that the good fishing would likely continue so I decided to try again the following day.

This time I left the light tackle at home. I brought not only a heavier rod but I also packed a net, which I used to capture a couple of crabs as I walked along the beach towards the reef where I had seen so many fish the day before. Again, I saw lots of bonefish, but instead of casting to them I picked my targets based on topography. I cast my crabs into sandy depressions or deeper channels that might attract bonefish as they moved across the shallows. Fishing with bait can be a tedious waiting game so in anticipation I packed my ipod. In the fourth or fifth such spot, with Florence and the Machine in my ears, a bonefish grabbed my bait and headed for the horizon. It's hard to believe a five pound fish could be so strong. Had I hooked it on lighter tackle, or even with my fly rod there is a good chance it would have escaped, but with a heavy drag and 40 lb braided line I brought the fish to hand, removed the hook and watched it swim off strongly.
Needless to say, I had forgotten the camera at home.

                                                                                                                                                   

Hail Hawaii

My failure to post recently is directly related to my failure to go fishing recently.
I have been doing some fishing research. Specifically I've been reading about catching bonefish on ultra-light spinning gear and about a week ago I really got the itch to get out and try some of these techniques. That's about when this happened (from Jeff Masters' WunderBlog):

A waterspout made landfall on the Hawaiian island of Oahu Friday morning on the east shore town, becoming a rare Hawaiian tornado as it moved through the towns of Lanikai and Kailua... The same storm also brought golf ball sized hail raining down for about 45 minutes on Oahu. The islands have seen intense rains... Rainfall amounts over the past week have exceeded three feet in some locations.

The storms created a flood of muddy runoff that churned around the island and ruined a lot of vacations. It also marred the waves at a Women's pro surfing contest on the North Shore (photo from Surf News Network):

I assumed that the presence of so much fresh water would temporarily ruin fishing conditions on the flats and so a I stayed home, twiddling my thumbs and checking the weather forecast every two minutes. Conditions have improved somewhat and I was debating whether or not to wait another day when I saw the most recent post on the Nervous Water Hawaii Blog. Apparently, muddy water does not ruin the fishing conditions. I guess that settles the debate. I'm going fishing!

Bearded Fish

Tara and I took our handpoles out to Hawaii Kai yesterday. We often take friends or visitors fishing at this spot which means I usually spend a lot of time tying and re-tying knots for people. This time it was just the two of us, so after a quick picnic on the sand we were onto the reef in search of some fish.

A low tide and small surf meant we could easily access the best spots. I hooked a number of fish including a nice moano. Moano are a type of goatfish, so named for the pair of sensitive barbels under the chin which the fish uses to search the sand for food. These long, colorful "whiskers" make goatfish seem especially expressive and they are one of my favorite fish to watch while snorkeling or diving.
Tara also had some good luck, pulling several hawkfish from a single deep hole:

We have been taking advantage of the Winter vacation to spend lots of time outdoors, fishing, body-surfing, hiking. We also had plans to do some surfing before Tara goes back to work but since she won't be swimming for a couple of weeks I guess we'll just have to keep on fishing!

Proof

The incredible diversity of tropical reef systems is one of my favorite things about fishing in Hawaii. I caught five fish today, all of them different species and all caught using basically the same technique. Four, a lizardfish, a cornetfish, and two papio (one white, one bluefin), were all fairly small, but the fifth was a nice bonefish that I hooked at the bottom of a steep drop off.
Different people have different criteria for when a fish counts as "caught." I reeled the bonefish in and actually lifted it out of the water in my hand before it struggled free and escaped. Many people would count that as "caught," but I always feel better when I bring home a photo.

 

what should have happened...

 

what really happened!

Nunu

 A few years back I had an encounter with a Florida Gar. I was in Miami, fishing with Cordell Baum, when I spotted a gar holding in the middle of the canal.
"Strip your fly past it," he told me "it will follow from behind, whack your fly with it's nose, then turn and take the hook from the side."
I made a cast and pulled my fly quickly back past the gar. As promised, the fish followed, but it didn't bite. Soon, the fly was near the bank and I was running out of line.
"Keep going!" Cordell urged.
In a desperate move, I stopped stripping line and used my rod tip to jerk the fly parallel to shore. The gar surged forward, swiping at my fly with it's long nose.
"Stop moving!" Cordell cried.
I let the fly go dead in the water. The fish turned in a quick circle and grabbed my fly from the side. Gar may look skinny from above but they have surprisingly deep, heavy bodies. The fish pulled hard and I held on but my hook failed to penetrate it's bony jaw and the fly popped loose.

Yesterday, during an afternoon of fly fishing for bonefish, I looked over to see Kirk with his rod tip held high, jerking his fly through the water just as I had done with the gar. His line went tight and, unlike with the gar, after a short battle he brought the fish to hand. It was, not surprisingly, the closest thing we have to gar on the flats, a cornetfish.

 

XD action

I'm finally back in action! Tara gave me a very nice 5 - in - 1 card reader by Kodak so that we can once again transfer photos from the camera to the computer. Now I just need to catch some fish. In the meantime, here are a few  pictures from my recent evening of papio fishing with Kirk:

Papio Sashimi

Last weekend I met up with Kirk for an evening of fishing near Kaneohe. I had fished the spot once before and caught some nice papio.
If bonefish are the saltwater doppelgangers of carp then I suppose trevally are the Hawaiian version of bass. Locals call trevally by their Hawaiian name, ulua, and small ulua are known as papio. These fish are among the top inshore predators in tropical waters around the world. They are are an equal mix of speed and appetite which make them extremely popular gamefish. Papio prowl reefs and rocky ledges, often attacking baitfish, or lures, right in the middle of the surf zone.
We fished with heavy jigs, casting them out and bouncing them back over the sand towards the reef edge. We reached a narrow channel just at dusk where Kirk hooked up right away. While fighting the fish, he yelled for me to come over and as I approached, he pointed to the water just in time for me to see a school of a dozen more papio speeding by. I made some frantic casts but the fish had moved on.
We fished the channel until the sunlight was gone. Kirk landed one more papio there and one more as we waded back through the shallows. I had no luck catching fish but I was lucky enough to take two of Kirk's fish home with me for a delicious sashimi dinner!

 With the camera still broken I can't upload any of the photos I took so instead 

I doctored an old photo to give an idea of where we were.