A report from SteveL for mikescatchreport.com
Even though today was a holiday I went to the office to work on a layout, an ad for an upcoming promotion for Hawaii musicians at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Expo and to make a Monday deadline. I wanted to get this done so the weekend would be relatively free. I finished around noon but I didn't even stop for lunch. I made a bee line for home to gear up. There was a rising tide in the afternoon and I figured I would have about a two hour window to fish it.
I pulled into the parking lot right next to Ed from Nervous Water Fly Fishers. He just came in off the flats and said he caught a six pounder out there. The tide was already coming in so I didn't have much time to waste. The surf and wind were up and on this kind of rising tide and ocean conditions I like to use light colored flies.
THE CRAB
I pull out a tan Merkin Crab that I had tied the night before to give it a try for SteveT, who is coming to the islands later this month. He had asked whether I ever use Merkin Crab flies. I don't normally tie them because it's a lot of work. And why mess with success? I have had great success with what I call my "Fuzzy Fly" which is a combination of orange greenish / tan fiber. Takes several minutes to tie and you're done - throw them at a bonefish and he's yours. SteveT can attest to that as well as to my "sparse" flies.
PG-13 CONTENT
As I was tying this fly I decided to look up the word "Merkin". Did you know that a "Merkin" is a "pubic wig" originally worn by prostitutes after shaving their genitalia? According to Wikipedia - in Hollywood, actors/actresses would sport a Merkin during nude or semi-nude scenes in order not to expose themselves, thus assuring a less restrictive MPAA rating. Apparently Kate Winslet had to wear one in the movie "The Reader" because she needed to show more pubic hair than she had. No kidding. Now that I know I was throwing a pubic wig fly at these fish, why do the Permit and Bones still eat them?
THE MAIN EVENT
Back to fishing. I walked out to the reef channel. It's at least 300 yards out. There are several spots that form waist-deep channels that the fish use to move between the flats and the outer reef during the changing tides. I waded out to a shallow spot to position myself upwind to a deeper pocket. I put out 80 - 90 foot casts covering 1 o'clock, 12 o'clock and then 10 o'clock which quarters into the wind.
On that third cast I was crawling the fly along the bottom slowly when I feel something chomp on it and the line goes taunt. The fish quickly takes all the remaining coils of line out of the basket and starts a long run through the break in the reef and heads for the open ocean. It took quite a long time to land this fish as it gave me one long first run, several shorter ones then kept going around and around me at least 20 times before I could tire it out and bring it to net. I thought I was going to get dizzy. It weighed in at 5 1/2 pounds and was around 23 inches, not big but plenty of fight and probably pissed off having to spit out "pubic hairs". I tagged and released it - it seemed all too happy to swim away.
And now I can say to SteveT that I caught an O'io on a Merkin Crab.
P.S. - You know that huge fly you gave me the last time you were here - I had nicknamed it the "Hairy ****". I guess Merkins are not too far off the mark.
EQUIPMENT: Steve used a Redington Super Sport 8 weight overlined with a WF-9-F Monic clear line and a 12 foot leader with a 25 pound tippet.