Here is a great guest blog from Matt Sharp who is the manager of Pacific Anglers Fly Shop in Vancouver, B.C. Matt is a very experienced angler and has chased saltwater species all over the globe. “Honolulu is known for epic surfing, Pearl Harbour, shaved ice and bad traffic, but for those who love warm water fishing it is known as one of the most challenging big bonefish destinations in the world. For years I have heard stories of anglers fishing Hawaii and at first I didn’t put much stock in the hype. This changed when I began to notice that all the experts I talked to got a haunted look in their eyes whenever I brought up bonefishing in Hawaii. This winter when my wife and I decided to vacation on the island I knew that I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see what that haunted look was all about. What I found blew my expectations out of the water. I expected to see a few fish each day and if I made good casts I would catch them. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was shocked at how many big fish I saw and even more shocked at how smart they were. As my guide Mike Hennessey put it “Hawaii is varsity level bonefishing. They are going to get in your head and it’s going to change you.” He couldn’t have been more right. You have to cast softer, spot faster and move stealthier than any location I have experienced. I learned more about bonefishing in two days than I have in the last five years. I saw bonefish that I mistook for sharks and the glint of one tailing fish that was so big it’s tail stood 12 inches out of the water will be in my dreams for a long time. “The Hawaiian bonefish environment seems to be hand crafted by the fishing gods to frustrate, captivate and inspire bonefishing anglers.” This report will lay out what I learned, what you can expect and a few ideas worth considering if you ever find a way to visit Oahu and want to try your luck at this amazing fishery. First thing you need to know is that the best fishing in Hawaii is on Oahu. There are a few other spots on the other islands worth looking at but most anglers’ focus on areas only a few minutes drive from Honolulu. The second thing you need to know is it is as demanding a bonefish destination as you can find. If you have never gone warm water fishing before don’t expect to be able to rent a kayak and figure out how to do this in a few days. I am no expert but I have some experience with bonefish and I was lucky enough to fish with Mike Hennessy and Lars Akerberg, two of the most experienced Hawaiian bonefish anglers in the world. We saw lots of fish but it was still the most challenging bonefishing I have ever encountered and I found ways to mess up that I didn’t even know existed. I am fairly good at spotting fish. When I am in Mexico or Cuba I feel as though once my eyes adjust I can keep up with my guides spotting fish. The bottom of the Hawaiian flats is perfect for fish to hide and Mike and Lars served me a big dose of humble pie spotting fish where I only saw shadows. Long story short, if you only have a couple days, get a guide to help find and spot the fish. There are two major fishing grounds I managed to check out while in Honolulu; Kane’ohe bay on the east side of the island and an area off the south side near Honolulu. Most of what I saw from the bay was deeper flats and it was conducive to fishing from a flats boat. The airport flats were shallower and fished well from foot. Both spots had similar bottoms, a mix of flat coral marked with sand holes, runways and coral heads. Even when we spotted fish they seemed to be able to disappear right in front of us in the constantly changing bottom colors. To make matters worse, dragging a fly over this kind of bottom was snag suicide. It was rare that you could strip more than three or four times without catching on coral. Both Mike and Lars had strategies to combat the harsh terrain. Mike liked to sneak up on the fish as close as possible with a very stealthy slow approach. Instead of casting at the fish he led them about six to eight feet trying to make sure the bonefish did not see the fly dropping to the coral bottom. We then prayed and watched, hoping the fish would naturally pass near the fly. When we thought it was close enough Mike would use a very short slow strip to puff up sand and catch the fish’s attention. The second the fish reacted to the fly he stopped stripping. With any luck the fish would charge the fly but this is where Hawaiian bonefish were different than what I have experienced from bonefish in other locations. When the fish stopped near the fly and only when the fish stopped Mike had me make a firm long strip. I learned that this was not meant to move the fly, only to keep tension. For the most part when the fish stopped it was because he was eating the fly. “You will not feel a Hawaiian bonefish bite, you will see it and then you only have a split second to get tight before he spits it out.” This makes seeing the fish stop and eat extremely important and it was a joy to watch Mike spot fish and then walk me through the process of how to strip. I missed 90% of the time but it was all worth it when the line went tight. Lars […]
↧