Our Middle School Holoholo writer Matthew is social distancing like the rest of us, and took up fly tying! He also wanted to share how tough this Winter has been for him.
These past few months have been great for a lot of people, but they’ve been the worst four months in all the time I’ve been fishing. During December, January, February, and March, I went fishing a total of 39 times, sometimes going two different spots in one day (mostly because winter and spring break fall in those months) and only caught a measly total of 7 notable fish (not counting a bunch of Hinalea, Nunu, and Lizardfish), which were a 2-3 lb Omilu, a 2 lb Omilu, Three good size Moana, and a small Kaku. Not counting as a fish, but I did catch my first ever Samoan Crab on rod and reel. I tried a bunch of spots, deep and shallow, and tried just about every technique from flies, kastmasters, grubs, to dunking but still not much. I had the mentality, “If I keep pounding I’ll eventually get something”, but eventually it seemed like it would not get better, so I’m giving up until summer, or until this coronavirus passes, which I hope it will. On a positive note, pretty much everyone else has been catching a lot of stuff, with more Papio popping up on my Instagram feed. Certain hammahs have been catching like it’s still summer at certain deep spots, or wading.
In the downtime, I decided to pick up fly tying. I’m figuring if I can’t catch fish I might as well stock up for when the fish are actually biting. At first, I had no idea, and the flies looked horrible. I had no idea what to do, and I just used nail polish to get the flies together at the head. I kept trying, got a little better, my UV flashlight and UV resin came in, and I was able to finally add eyes to some flies.
After a lot of refining the design of the flies, I think I am starting to get the hang of it, but I still have a very long way to go to get to the level that other local fly makers are at. Eventually, I want to sell some to pay back the significant amount of money all the fly materials and tools cost. If anyone has any tips for me they would be greatly appreciated, from materials to different designs I could try, everything would help me.
Good luck to all of you guys that are still going fishing now, although it seems like everyone is doing quite fine. Stay safe and healthy during this outbreak and practice social distancing.
Admire your dedication. 39 times in 4 months, that’s more than twice a week! These days I wait for the conditions to be perfect to get out, but it wasn’t that long ago I was going for broke like you. When I first picked up fly fishing I was going twice a week, almost every week for probably a year or two straight.
Btw, really nice flies! If you like baitfish flies, check out Popovic’s surf candy and Lefty’s Deciever. You can play with the colors to match our local baitfish like nehu and iao.
A simple clouser minnow is also a great fly, especially if you want something weighted you can fish along the bottom. I like these and other weighted flies like Charlie’s and Gotcha’s because they can work for both bones and papio so no need change your fly too much.
Thanks for the feedback Uncle Jason. How’s the Oio bite right now? Hope you are doing fine. I definitely will check out the Popovic’s surf candy. I heard a lot about the surf candy style flies.
Been getting out when the weather is good. Haven’t landed a bone in about a month but I’ve still been hooking them, which after doing this for a few years, is really all you care about 🙂
Don’t give up on fishing. Fishing shouldn’t be only about catching fish. I love fishing, so even if I don’t catch, I get to just enjoy being out in the ocean, can learn more about the spot and hopefully figure out when certain spots are hot and when to avoid them. So for me, I’ll fish a particular spot for a while to learn when to go and what works there.
Your flies are looking good! Don’t worry about them being super nice…I caught lots of fish on ugly flies.
I like that philosophy Jeremy. Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously when fishing!
Yeah, a lot of guys just get too caught up in the “competition”. It really shouldn’t be about who catches the biggest or the most, but just enjoy the time we get on the water. But, don’t get me wrong, I do LOVE to actually catch fish, lol.
Yes, that is a good philosophy. I am missing the ocean so much now that I haven’t fished or even seen the ocean for 19 days. Been stuck in the house. Thank you for the feedback on the flies. I am working on getting better and trying new patterns everyday. And yes, you catch a ton of fish year round lol. You use mainly grubs and jighead?
Since the papio bite is slow, I’m primarily targeting o’ios so either jigheads and curly tails or I take out the fly rod setup. But, when the bite picks up, I’ll switch to bubble float and flies or the typical egglead setup.
Be grateful to be able fo fish during these times. Unless your fishing to survive, that’s a good amount caught.
Nice flies!
Yes, I should have thought of that earlier, thanks for helping me realize that. I am missing the ocean a lot now that I haven’t been out of the house for 19 days now. Just doing flies and working on tending a garden now.