Coach Duff and a big Hawaii bone. There aren’t a lot of fish there, but the fish that are there are beeg.
Archives
29
Dec 11
Godspeed Marty
Got news last night that Marty passed away. Marty was a really, really good guy. He loved fish and the places they are found. He was a real cornerstone of conservation down here in the South Bay. He’ll be missed.
Below is a post about Marty’s bolo from earlier in 2011.
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Marty showed me his new bolo from none other than Louie the Fish in Hawaii (Louie and his son guide for bonefish as well).
Nice... carved from bone, I believe.
Looking good Marty!
06
Dec 11
Some notes on my trip to Kauai
OK… if I had just slayed them, I probably would be a little more elusive about where exactly I went. However, having spent 3 & 1/2 days in pursuit of bones in Kauai, I feel comfortable revealing which island I was on.
Mainly, I feel comfortable doing so because if you head to Kauai with the sole intention of catching bonefish, you are mad… MAD, MAD, MAD!
I certainly won’t go back to Kauai JUST for the fishing. I may very well go back there. I love that place. If I go back, I’ll bring a rod, for sure. However, the fishing leaves a lot to be desired… like a lot more fish that are considerably less spooky and much more easy to find… to name a few attributes that could improve things a tad.
I wrote down a list of thoughts I had from the trip… here are a few:
- Sleeping bags in damp, warm places are not really very comfortable.
- Of the 4 shots I had, 3 were to single fish in deeper water, 3 feet or so. If that’s where the fish are hanging out, it makes more sense why they were hard to find.
- I didn’t see a single bonefish predator.
- Rain gear was essential.
- There were some bait guys out there… the kind where you stick the rod in a holder and wait for the bell to ring. I never saw them catch anything.
- The Redington Predator cast well for a big rod. No complaints.
- I didn’t see a bonefish really tail (I did see tails, but those fish, unlike the deep water fish, were in really skinny water and I think they were just so big their fins were out of the water).
- I didn’t see a bonefish push water.
- There were guys hitting golf balls out into the ocean. There were hundreds of golf balls in the sand and on the flats. Those guys are tools.
- Getting out on those big flats was easy, but walking back, when the lights went off, was challenging.
- I have a new appreciation for fish that feed readily and are plentiful.
- At the campground there were a LOT of hippies. More than a few people seemed to be living there.
- Roosters sever as the wake-up call, starting at about 5:30.
Yeah... not what you think of when you picture Hawaii.
05
Dec 11
Luckily, the trip was about more than just the fish
I’m in a cafe in Hawaii at the moment… I’m all packed up and killing a bit of time before I have to get on the flight back the Bay Area.
The trip was a good one, as long as we don’t look at it strictly in fishing terms. I had a few reasons to head here and fishing was only one of them. In many ways this was a trip to bring the last 8 years of my life full circle and I think I accomplished that. Another reason to come here was this is where I saw my first bonefish, about 4 years ago. The experience had a bit of an impact on me and I always wanted to come back to have another shot at those fish.
The first couple of days the weather was considerably less than ideal. High winds, constant cloud cover and a good smattering of rain really put the damper on things… literally and figuratively.
Hard to see the fish with out the lights on.
The weather broke a bit on Saturday and I had a good amount of time with the lights on. No bones even seen.
Sunday… Sunday was what I was really here for. I walked out onto the flat and saw what looked like a bonefish feed mark. I took a picture. 20 seconds later I saw my first bonefish of the trip and 30 seconds later I spooked my first bonefish of the trip.
Much better conditions
I came back to that spot three more times and the next two I found single fish and at each occasion the fish spooked on the cast. Fly hit the water and the fish bolted. These fish are SUPER SPOOKY. They were in deeper water, maybe 3 feet, and I was lucky to see them at all.
Later, at low, low tide, I was walking really far out on a big rubble flat and I saw tails. I don’t even think they were tailing, I think they were swiming in water that was about 5-6″ deep. I got two casts in before they bolted, never to be seen again.
Sunday was a day of shots. I had them. I can’t argue with that. I didn’t convert any, but I had shots. I found the fish, on multiple occasions. Turns out these fish are a bit tougher than I planned on.
I’ll post some more pics and go into things a bit more in the coming days.
23
Oct 11
Normalcy
Getting back to better than alright. Finally got my fly tying desk in my new place.
Time to get back to work.
Normally by this time I would have tied up a couple dozen patterns as I prepare for my next trip (this time to Hawaii). Now that I have the desk back I can get back on the search for pattern/size recommendations for HI.
Anyone have any go-to flies for HI?
06
May 11
Big HI Bone
Yeah… they get kind of big out there.
I want to catch a fish that big. I can’t really comprehend what that pull must be like.
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16
Sep 10
How big do HI bones get?
Saw his today… a 16.5 pound bonefish caught in Hawaii. It was caught on bait, so the task was a little bit easier, but when they put the boca (not recommended, encouraged or endorsed) on it, it went to 16.5#, which is really, really frigging large. I’ve seen some big bonefish in Hawaii and I’ve heard of some real pigs. A 16.5 pound bonefish is just a pig.
The report was on the Hull Truth.
That's a really, really big bone.
Captain Mike was the guide.
13
Sep 10
Kauai Bonefish Netting
I’m culturally insensitive. I say that because this makes me angry. I know they’ve been taking and eating bones for a long time (probably not with modern nets though). Still, I think it is a sad, sad thing to kill a bunch of bonefish to sell them (I have not heard of them being sold before).
A bonefish is worth more living than dead. These fish are too wonderful to end their lives in a nylon net. If thinking that makes me an a-hole, I’ll just have to live with that.
It was a good catch, they said, and then they drove off to take it to market.
via Food, people, life, stories. » Blog Archive » Pulling bonefish from the sea, Kaua’i style.
Damn.
06
Sep 10
Hawaii Bonefish Video from Mike Hennessy
A little video of a Hawaiian bonefish shot by Mike Hennessy. Notice the wind… a near constant companion when fishing in Hawaii and a reason many recommend up-weighting to a 9 wt. for O’io.
01
Aug 10
Dear Andrew Zimmerman
Bizarre Foods Guy,
You are not Hawaiian. If you were Hawaiian I would have had way less of a problem with you macking on some bonefish. However, you aren’t. Around the world bonefish are worth far, far more alive than dead. Bonefish are a source of income to a small fleet of boats and small numbers of fly fishing guides but the money spent by anglers who travel the world in search of bonefish is substantial. Other folks have figured this out and bonefish are now illegal to kill in places like the Bahamas and Belize. Sure, there are people around the world with a cultural heritage of eating bonefish, but, dude, that isn’t your heritage. Don’t eat bonefish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RotV-ANvz54&hl=en_US&fs=1
Seriously? Don’t eat bonefish.
