Hawaii - Part 2

We arrived in Maui Saturday afternoon armed with some information from Clay on where we might be able to score some deep water Bonefish and Trevally. Sunday morning we got to the water right about first light after walking roads for a couple miles trying to find beach access down to some rocks we had scoped out the night before. We were trying to stay away from the main beach so we ended up Rambo fishing a small cove of a set of condos. About 20 minutes in we hooked our first fish, a Moana, also known as the Manybar Goatfish. At the time we were unaware of this little fact but we later found out that the locals here love to use these as bait for the Giant Trevally. Bummer. We caught one more fish that morning called a Lizard fish, these ugly little bastards will hit anything, unfortunately he came off right as I was landing him so no picture.

Manybar Goatfish

That afternoon we made our way to one of 2 tackle shops on the island and talked to the owner about fishing the island. These Hawaiians are silly folk who use funny words to describe fishing. Fly casting or lure chucking is called whipping whereas soaking a worm would be called dunking. Anyway he informed us that the folks of this island generally use the dunking technique for the Trevally with anywhere from a 1/0 to a 16/0 hook and from 2 to 10oz of lead to keep it on the bottom. The rig is a pretty simple one that is similar to what some folks use in fresh water called a Christmas Tree rig, only slightly different in that the Christmas tree rig uses wire to keep the line from tangling and this rig just uses stiff mono tied off a three-way swivel. Well after seeing some pictures of the Trevally they catch dunking, upwards of 130lbs, we were convinced that this was our new method. We quickly got back to the beach and started throwing a single hook dunking rig. Its amazing how far you can throw three ounces of lead with an 8ft rod. Whats even crazier is the local guys use 13ft rods 100lb mono main line and 300lb mono leader and we were using 10lb Berkley Big game and 30lb Maxima leader.

Dunking

one of our dunking spots


Another dunking spot

Started fishing the next morning at a nearby beach casting to the inside of a small reef breakwall. Almost immediately I hooked up a Bluefin Trevally. He wasn’t the largest specimen but it was one of our target species nonetheless. The rest of the morning gave us an unidentifiable reef fish and the state fish of Hawaii, the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a. You really have to get creative with names in this state since their local language only contains 12 letters and an apostrophe apparently, they are everywhere.

Trevally

Oceanic Sunfish

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a


A couple days into the trip we were looking for new water. With some tips from one of the bait shops we found some good local holes where guys have come in and cemented pole holders into the rocks, much better than using sand or wedged between rocks(o r tules like Kellen can attest to when he lost a rod to a big carp/catfish on a pond over by rattlesnake mountain). These spots were very cool old lava flows that were incredibly sharp and uneven and we came out with some battle scars to show for it. In one of these spots we caught an Eel and a Puffer fish. No eel picture, those things have massive teeth and he cut the main line as we attempted to land him.


The next day we were fishing a spot called Kaanapali Point where they have landed Bonefish and Trevally along with anything else that feels like biting. We didn’t catch either of those however we did catch a nasty case of crabs… I had a very large hit on my rod which ended up coming back with a clean cut just above the hook. We were told that the large Barracuda will come in to this area occasionally so that’s what we are going with on that one. Large Barracuda.

Crabs :(

Fly fishing from the place we were staying gave us the largest(in length) fish of the trip. They might be ugly as shit but they fight well.

Trumpetfish

We broke off a lot of tackle on this adventure but finally found a couple good spots where we would be able to cast to a sand channel and not get busted off. This is when the unthinkable happened. All of a sudden chris’s rod was doubled over and his line was moving extremely quickly from right to left. I yelled at Chris and after the sketchy walk to his rod he set the hook and it was on. Not sure of what was on the line at this point I climbed down the cliff to get in position to land the beast. As it started ripping drag we assumed it was a good sized Trevally however as Chris gained ground on it we realized he has a big Bonefish on. Drama. I was screaming at Chris, Chris was screaming at the rocks and both of us were screaming at the fish. Keep in mind that at this point we are about as excited as you can get in any moment of fishing, catching a Bonefish on Maui isn’t unheard of just extremely rare so for us this was HUGE. Once all the yelling was over and I had thrown the fish to Chris we took some quick shots and sent him back to be caught again. We caught one big Eel the next day but that was it.. That Bonefish and Trevally were 2 of the 3 species we wanted to catch and we did, and in our eyes the trip couldn’t have been more of a success. It’s a great feeling to go somewhere you have never been and have it all come together for you without having to hire a guide. With that I would like to thank Clay from Nervous Water Hawaii again.. Clay has the pictures of the Bone and the Trevally and plans to include them in his blog as well so give that a look if you have a moment. www.nervouswaterhawaii.com And if you ever plan a trip to Oahu then contact Clay and that man will put you on fish!





Not sure if I will ever see Hawaii again but I know if I do I will be paying a visit to a couple special locations that are now burned into my memory.