I have an odd shape to my head which makes it difficult to find hats that fit. Imagine taking a clay ball between your palms and smooshing it a bit on the sides. That’s my head.
Continue readingHat Trick
Navigating a Crowd
I like getting away from the crowd when I fish, but it’s not always possible. Crowded spots are often crowded for a reason. If there are a lot of people fishing somewhere it’s often because the fishing is good there! The flip side of this coin is that the fish in these areas can get a lot of pressure and become very tricky to catch. When I find myself in a busy fishing area, I try to change my approach, both mentally and in terms of fishing strategy.
Continue readingFun in the Surf Zone
For many years I neglected fishing for bonefish in the surf zone. I did other types of fishing in the waves, but the huge movement of water and gnarly topography of the reef crest never really seemed like a good place to fly fish for bones. However, it turns out that, in the right spots and under the right conditions, the surf zone can be one of the most exciting places on the flat!
Adventure is out there, so why am I in here?
After more than a decade back in Hawaii, Tara and I have quit our jobs and joined the Peace Corps.
For real.
Continue readingSuperfly Variation
This past season, Makani Christensen over at Fly Fishing Hawaii / Keawe Adventures has been developing his “Superfly” pattern. It has proven effective on the Winter and Spring bonefish, which can be frustratingly selective in what they will and won’t eat on any given day.
Personally, my go-to fly when the bonefish are being picky is any type of small, brown crab pattern. I had a number of very effective flies tied up at one point but I recently discovered, to my horror, that I was down to the last one, and I didn’t have the material to tie more!
Photo-Op
It’s hard to believe we will be leaving Hawaii in just a couple of months! (More about that later.) Tara has been looking through some old photos and noticed that we didn’t have any good pictures of one of the iconic features of Oahu: Koko Head Crater and the Ridge over Hanauma Bay.
Adventures in Bonefishing
Last year I wrote about my first bonefish of 2022. The story was published in the March issue of Hawaii Fishing News. For those that missed it, I have now made the article available on my blog:
Continue readingFirst Fish of the New (Lunar) Year
The first fish I landed in 2023 was a goatfish, a weke pueo (here is another, better photo of one). The common name for the species is “nightmare weke,” so I didn’t necessarily feel super good about that as a starting point for the year. I did land a couple of small papio after that, which was some consolation, but as hard as I tried I just couldn’t seem to land that first bonefish of the New Year.
Continue readingThe Spit Shrimp
A couple of years ago I wrote a post about fly fishing from a boat, with a nod towards SUP fishing at the end. In that post I briefly covered the importance of weighting a fly properly, basically that fishing from a drifting boat in deeper water generally requires heavier flies. This weekend I spent a couple of hours on the flat and was inspired to revisit this idea in a little bit more depth. (See what I did there?)
Continue readingSightseeing
Some days you catch fish and some days you don’t. Even when I don’t catch fish I often really enjoy my time on the water. There is so much to see out there, if you stop and look.
The Fishing Dojo 