Aloha, the past few weeks ending Feb the tides have not been favorable with strong gusty tradewinds however, there have been a few number of nice sized 4 to 6 lbs bonefish. This 11lbs bonefish pictured was one that couldn’t resist one of my newly tied flies. She took the fly 15ft away from the rod tip then proceeded to rip off 220 yards of gel-spun backing before doing a 180 degree turn and came straight back at me for another 100 yards then turned around and made another 60 yard run before tiring. This fish was tagged with tag #5438 of the O’io (bonefish) Tagging Program before gently releasing it back to the ocean. Hopefully, conditions will get back to normal soon.
A couple of years ago my wife and I flew to Oahu for a week of getaway fun and I had the opportunity to fish Kaneohe Bay with a friend. When we arrived at our walkin point, my friend groaned a little and said it was going to be touch fishing because the tide was running high. Once we bailed off and I realized that seeing fish would be extremely difficult. While we did see quite a few large bonefish cruising, but the only thing that I got to take my fly was an 8 lb blue fin trevally. Since I had never caught one before, and until that time was completely oblivious to it’s existance, that fish made the day. Not only a beautiful fish, but a great fighter. Had we been able to fish from a skiff, maybe the outcome would have been a little different. Another thing that helped pass the day was watching the air exercises at the Marine Air Station. America’s finest at work.
I hope to return to Hawaii soon and this time I will plan on more than one day of fishing. That is truly one beautiful place to chase bonefish.
Aloha Steve, Mahalo for the warm welcome. Yes we do have bones in hawaii some of the largest in the world, don’t get me wrong they’re not easy to catch, you really need someone with alot of knowledge of tides, areas and accessibility to the many flats on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii. When you do travel to hawaii I will be more than happy to guide & show you our fisheries.
As far as flys are concern most guides have their own “go to” patterns but generally any crazy charlie in neutral colors work well. The bones are not particularly too finicky its more of presentation.
Aloha Chris, its funny you should mention the air exercises. I was actually guiding during the time the Blue Angels were here and they were flying overhead preparing for the weekends event. We were stalking a Monster 14 or 15 pound bonefish when the client was preparing to make a cast 3 large explosions at the Marine base FREAKED the bonefish out, It went Bezerk!! It did figure eights, not knowing which way to run then finally made its escape between my clients legs! Oh Well, what can I say he’s still out there for someone else to catch.
Congratulations on your 8lbs.blue fin trevally thats a nice size fish!
I agree with you regarding the Beauty of the windward side it is DEFINITELY my favorite place to fish!