I like it.

pearl bone by Louie

Check out his work here.

Louie the Fish not only catches bonefish in those oh-so-difficult bonefish hunting ground of Hawaii.  Louie has been at it a while and he also does some pretty outstanding fish carvings.

Louie agreed to do a little interview for Bonefish on the Brain.

Louie, can you tell me about a particularly memorable fish?

I have so many fish that stand out in my memory, from my first 6 inch native brook trout in Connecticut at about 10 years old, right up to great catches 50 years later.

Here in Hawaii I have been a bonefish fanatic for about 10 years. I got my first taste of what this amazing fish can do while on holiday in the Florida Keys. I was wading around behind a friend’s house on the gulf side of Islamorada. Bonefish were everywhere, right at my feet, and they all had lockjaw. I tried every fly in my box!

Finally, in frustration, I decided to tie on a big green wooly bugger with palmered red hackle, and I waded out to the edge of the marl, and began blind casting, stripping it back, cast after long cast.

Like a cannon going off, I got a strike, that within a millisecond ended suddenly in a balled up mess of line, and a big break off.  I was clever enough to repeat the whole fiasco a few minutes later….smoked by my first encounter with bonefish!

But that experience was prophetic. A few years later I began fishing here in Honolulu, and doing what most bonefishers do, stalking bones in an attempt to catch them sight fishing. Three weeks went by fishless, and then a light went on in my brain. I remembered that blind casting got me my first bonefish bites, so I became a dedicated blind caster. I discovered many hot spots, and began catching many big bonefish. I even wrote articles about it, and word got out, and I found myself guiding anglers for bonefish. I had it down to a science, where to fish, how to cast and how to retrieve, and designed special weedless flies meant for blind casting.

A blind casting Aloha Bone

Joaquin, Louie's son and a guide, with another monster blind casting bone.

Of course like all want-to-be purists, I still leaned toward sight fishing, and when conditions were good, I did that as well. This is all leading up to my story about my most memorable bonefish.

One day I was on a flat we called Ross’s flat, since friend and fly fisher Ross had recently landed a 37 inch bonefish, estimated at about 18 pounds, an easy IGFA record, had he not released it. It was late afternoon, the easterly wind was strong, and the sun was in the west. I was wading slowly upwind, since I could only spot fish in that direction. I had many, many shots, but it was hard to cast into the wind, and I spooked bonefish after bonefish. I finally got to the top of a long stretch, and decided to turn around. Downwind it was all glare, so I couldn’t see fish, but it was easy to make long casts. The water was only about knee deep, so I put on a lightly weighted fly, my Leeezardfish fly. Three casts later, a small thump was followed by a run which gradually increased in speed and distance, until that bonefish was out of sight almost, and had almost reached the distant, coral lined reef edge.  Well several shorter runs later, and I slipped a hand under a 32 inch, very fat bonefish, maybe 13 or 14 pounds.

The battle had attracted Ross, who had a camera that got this shot, before I released my biggest, and most memorable bonefish, made even more memorable, because blind casting had succeeded where sight fishing had not!. This was just one of many double figure bonefish I have landed here blind casting. Of course by now I have landed almost as many sight fishing, but when conditions demand a change, go with the conditions!

I'm pretty sure that's a whale (actually, it is the fish from the story).

If you happen to come here to try your hand at our elusive bonefish, stop in at Hawaii’s only fly shop, Nervous Water Hawaii, and those guys, Sean and Clay, who have fly fished for bones here all their lives, will readily attest to the fact, that in Hawaii, due to the nature of our reef flats and prevailing conditions, bonefish are most easily caught blind casting.

Well… blind casting… who knew?

Saw this on the simply named Fly Fishing blog.  This pattern, called the 90 Percenter, was created by Oliver Owens out of Hawaii.  Fox Fur is the active ingredient and it looks like a fish getter.

Oliver has been guiding out in the islands since 1999 and he’s fished or guided all the Hawaiian islands except Nihihu.  I’d bet he has one or two interesting stories.

I got my May/June 2010 issue of Fly Fishing in Salt Waters the other day (took longer than usual due to the mail being forwarded to the new, Bay Area address).

Just solidness.

A story about Aloha Bones from Dave McCoy, featuring, among others, Captain Duff.

An article on Release Mortality Rates by John McMurray that helps spread the news that many saltwater anglers are having a hard time accepting… that bonefish and many other saltwater species have to be handling carefully or they either die or are eaten… quickly.

A article about reading flats fish by Captain Nick Sassic.

Print, it turns out, is not dead and Fly Fishing in Salt Waters keeps putting out interesting reads.  Subscribe.

Chris Santella has put together a few books on fly fishing, including “Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die.”  He also has some books about a hobby called “golf,” which I don’t care for in the slightest.

You may have gathered that I’m kind of interested in bonefish, so I was happy to see my Google Alert pop up with a Chris Santella story about bonefish… this time from the Aloha State.

Chris was out with Mike Hennessy and managed a very nice bone.

Chris with an O'io

The most recent issue of This is Fly is out and not only is it their longest yet, all full of fishy goodness, but it has two, COUNT ‘EM, TWO, stories on bonefish.

This, of course, meets with my approval.

The first story is about Coach Duff and those big, huge, massive, unreasonably large bones of the Aloha State.  You can find that story here.

The second story was by one of the guys behind This is Fly, Paris Fleezanis.  This story takes the TIF crew to Andros and Kamalame Cay.

Kamalame is a place that has shown up on Bones on the Brain before.

TIF, I salute you.  Keep putting out the good stuff.  They remain the leading edge of the e-zine revolution.  A lot was made of the fact that Catch Magazine came out on the same day, but they really are different fish, even if they are both fly fishing-centric.  TIF is for those who read the stories and Catch is for those that like the pictures more than the text (I like Catch, even saw some places I’ve fished in this recent episode).   TIF adds the crazy art… none of which I’d want in my home, in the homes of my friends, on the walls of my friends’ friends, but, ya know… different strokes.

To keep the paper still circulating, I recently subscribed to two magazines… physical magazines… Fly Fishing in Salt Waters and Fly Rod and Reel.  I’m doing my part… ya know, mostly.

Found a new blog called “Skate the Fly.” One of the stories there was about fishing with Coach Duff in Hawaii, pursuing those monster bones.

These fish are big, by any standard you could say huge.  In a world where Hawaiians harvest anything that moves, they didn’t get this way by accident.

Check out the whole story here.

Another massive bone caught with Coach Duff in Hawaii.  This time, the lucky angler was Richard from Seattle.  Not only  did Richard escape the gray and dreary North West in January, he stuck a 10.8 pound bonefish while in beautiful Hawaii.

Nice…

Richard from Seattle with a 10.8 pound bonefish

The little bit I know about bonefish and the little bit I know about bamboo would make me think that the two really don’t go together well.  Turns out they might go together just fine, given the right rod and the right angler.

Coach Duff out in the Aloha State recently took up the call.  Rick Sorenson of Westslope Fly was behind the challenge to find a bamboo rod capable of dealing with Hawaiian bones.  Not only would the rod need to deal with the size of the fish, but also the high winds of Hawaii.  Rick is one of the world’s top dealers of bamboo rods, those ancient and modern.

Master rod builder Rob Smith (Pentalux Bamboo Fly Rods) of New Jersey responded to the grass rod vs. Aloha bone and Coach Duff tested and fished a few different tapers in 8 weight. Rob’s first build was a parabolic design and although Coach hooked two fish in two days over 6 pounds in high winds, something much faster and far more responsive was needed. The rod would still need to have the ability to load in tight for tailing bones and “tip” casts.  Rob nailed it on the second build out.

Coach said:

I was floored with the rod’s speed, sensitivity and abilities. I threw a whole Monic Phantom tip line with two backcasts with ease the whole flyline rocketing out like a hellfire missle, showing the power was there. It was good in close, it was good in 20 mile an hour winds and overall it has forever changed my ideas of bamboo rods and their limitations.

The proof is impressive.

Coach Duff, Grass Rod, Aloha Bone

Thanks to Coach Duff for giving permission for re-use of the photo.

A full length  article should be in “Japanese Flyrodder,” which I’d bet is not the kind of magazine you find at Barnes and Noble.

I love Kalua Pig… I like Hawaii and I love bonefish… so, it is only natural that I’d love Coach Duff‘s 11 pound Hawaiian bonefish.  Read his story here.

So, to wrap up…

• Kalua Pig = Ruling
• Hawaii = Ruling
• Bonefish = Ruling
• Duff’s 11 pounder = Totally Ruling

There, that should make it all perfectly clear.