A report from SteveL
SteveT was supposed to go home on Monday but he calls me that evening and said his flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems and he was not leaving until the next day around 2:00pm, so we made plans to go fishing the next morning.
We met around 8:30am. Fortunately SteveT still had his fly rod and reel but the airline had shipped his flies with his luggage, which was now sitting in Los Angeles. But I made him a set of flies the evening before so there was no problem. Surveying the shoreline, there were five other fly fishing anglers on our left, so we went right and made a bee-line for that secret spot.
Fishing was good and SteveT caught three Oio (bonefish) with the biggest about five pounds. We fished until 11am then headed back in so he could catch his afternoon flight. His tally for the week is 38 Oio.
After lunch I went back to catch the afternoon tide to fish the reef pass in the surfline. Another angler, MikeO, joined me out there. I hooked two small Oio in the two to three pound range. One of them did an unexpected thing--it jumped out of the water as I was fighting it.
Mike hooked and landed a four pounder then latched into a real big one that takes him into the coral heads. He waded in after the fish, untangling his line off the coral headed towards the surf line. Eventually the fish wins by shredding his fly line. That was exciting fun.
As we were walking in, Mike told me he went with a bunch of friends to Rat Island the day before and hooked and landed a 12 pounder. Looks like the fishing has picked up there too. Too bad the weather is turning bad again. Rain and more rain for the New Year. I had thought I could spend some time fishing those flats on the weekend.
So looking back on 2008; we went out with a bang and hooked more Oio in the last two weeks than we did all year. Hopefully 2009 will be as good or better!
EQUIPMENT: We used eight and nine weight rods with floating line. Reels must hold at least 200 yards of backing. More is better. Flourocarbon leaders and an assortment of flies in size 2 to 6.
