Fly Fishing in … Hawaii?
Posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
In our our little corner of the world, the fly fishing industry, there aren’t many places left to be discovered that will really ignite a spark. I say this tongue-in-cheek to a degree, as I have spent much of the past six plus months flying back and forth to this little chain of island in the south Pacific, you may have heard of them, Hawaii.
Yes, bonefish.
Bonefish are sometimes referred to as the best possible segue for freshwater fly anglers to catch the fever for saltwater fly fishing. However, often times bonefish are quickly left for more challenging species such as permit, tarpon and giant trevally and the reason is typically they are too easy and too small.
Well, Hawaii is about to change all of that.
Hawaiian bones are large on average, somewhere around 5-7 pounds, potentially larger, on average! Reference this against a place like Belize where they average to 2-3 pounds. Last couple of trips over have been riddled with weather issues to the tune of 25 mph winds constant for over a week and tough visibility but in the end, the smallest fish landed was 5 pounds and the largest was nearing 10, this doesn’t hold a candle to the whale sized ones that one will often see but not get a good shot at or be refused by, those are closer to 12-18 pounds and I promise this is being conservative.
Here, they are not easy either so the chase becomes much more of a game than just simply finding and putting a cast somewhere within 20 feet of them. Fly long casts at bad angles to wind and hoping you hook one far enough from the edge of the flat to stop him before he/she runs you off the edge and takes at least your fly if not your whole line!
Come and enjoy when you get the chance, Oahu is the island of choice and do enjoy more than just the fishing, there is much to do. More images here: http://www.emeraldwateranglers.com/hawaii_photos.html
Cloudveil athlete Dave McCoy is the owner and head guide of Seattle-based Emerald Water Anglers, LLC.
