BobW wades among the mangroves as he stalks tailing bonefish in Hawaii._____________________________________All photos by SteveL for mikescatchreport.com
A report from SteveL for mikescatchreport.com
Wow! What a weekend of fishing.
I had a furlough day to take on Friday and didn't waste it. I met BobW to fish the early morning rising tide. He could only fish until 9am so he unfortunately was missing the best part of the tide that would peak sometime in the early afternoon, right after lunch.
But Bob had a good excuse. He was vactioning with his wife - for a change - and not working. He said they reaffirmed their wedding vows after 40 great years of marriage on Waikiki Beach so it was kind of a honeymoon too.
We tried for a couple of hours but didn't hook up with anything. The area had been real hot the last week but it was pounded heavily the past few days by a couple of visiting Alaskans but I only found that out after meeting up with ET from Nervous Waters Fly Fishers just as Bob was packing up to leave.
ET and a friend that tipped the scale at 7 pounds._
After Bob left I joined ET and Mitch to fish just down the road. ET also called Doug to join us. It was a sunny day with moderate trades and the tide still had a couple of hours to rise. It was optimal sight fishing conditions.
ET and Doug walked the mid-flats sight fishing and I took Mitch out to my favorite break in the reef where we fished for about an hour with no luck before moving down the coast.
I was 100 yards outside of ET and Doug when I finally get a nice hookup. I tag and release a 4.5 pound o'io (bonefish). Soon I see ET fighting a good fish. I walk in to net it for him and he asks me to tag the fish. We weighed it and it came in at 7 pounds. As we were weighing the fish Doug hooks into a nice o'io that runs him all over the place. He finally lands a 6 pound fish which I also tag. We call it a day and go for a late lunch at Zippy's.
Doug with his catch of the day, a typical Hawaii flats bonefish._
All in all - ET caught 5, Doug one, and one for me.
The next morning I met BobW at the Hale Koa Hotel at 5:30am and we head out. Again, Bob could only fish a couple of hours. As soon as we step into the water we could see tails and fins as the fish started to move in with the tide. Bob and I tried to entice them with a variety of fly patterns but could not get a single taker. I suspect if we could have stayed longer and fished the rising tide through noon, we would have had better luck.
However it was a great weekend to fish and I would not have it any other way. - And congratulations to Bob and wife - "newlyweds" - may they have many, many more good years together.
AN UPDATE
Bob returned to the flats a few days later and caught and released an estimated 5 pound-plus bonefish on a fly Steve gave him.
"I don't want to over estimate, "reports Bob. "I have a large fabric stripping basket and the fish was almost too big to fit inside."
Another view of ET and his friend.