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Holoholo: Bouncing a tiny jighead for big oio

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Accomplished whipper and new fly fisher, Jeremy, returns to his fishing roots.

Jeremy: Since I’m still working from home and traffic has been good, I’ve been trying to get in a short session before my workday starts.  I get to the beach around 5:30am and need to leave by around 7:15am, so not much time to fish, but it’s a nice way to start my day.  I’ve been fly fishing a lot more recently and been in a dry spell, so I decided to switch it up and bust out the spinning gear again to help increase my chances of catching something.  On this day, I decide to try out a spot where I’ve been lucky in the past and where I know the grounds really well.  Tide is a little high, so I decide to just work the inside reef.  I wade out a bit, to around thigh deep, and begin casting.  I’ve seen fish in this particular area in the past, so I fan out my casts to really comb the area and hopefully find a hungry fish.  And right around 6am, I get lucky.  I’m slowly bouncing my jighead on the bottom and feel some slight resistance. 

I lift my rod tip and feel something on, but it feels like only a nibble.  I rapidly crank my reel to try to set the hook, but the fish is swimming towards me and I’m just hoping he doesn’t spit.  After what feels like a few seconds, he finally realizes he’s hooked and takes off on a blistering run.  Yes!!!  Finally hooked a fish and I can tell it’s a good sized one.  He takes out about a 100 yards on the first run, I gain line back, and he makes another screaming 100 yard second run.  

It’s a back and forth battle and after 7 minutes, I get him close and finally net him.  Chee!!!  Big boy! 

I take a measurement, get some quick pics, and release this beautiful 25″ o’io.  This matches my personal best for biggest o’io, which I guess to be around the 8-9lb range since this bugga was FAT!  I’m super stoked and luckily I got this one on the GoPro so I can relive this moment over and over, LOL.  Awesome scrap and it’s always a nice feeling to see the fish strongly swim away.  Hopefully I can catch him again when he’s double digits.  

Holoholo: First fish on the fly gear!

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Accomplished whipper Jeremy recently picked up the fly fishing game. He landed his first fish on fly gear this Saturday, and followed that up with a solid catch on the spinning gear Sunday. He’s making it look easy during the “off season”.

Jeremy: Had a good weekend of fishing. 

Saturday morning:  Winds were projected to be light, so I decided to bring out the fly gear.  I’m still a beginner and I need the lighter winds so I can practice casting.  Fly fishing, especially the casting, is the hardest type of fishing I’ve ever done.  I still suck at it, but can’t get better unless you practice, so my buddy and I headed out just as the sun was coming up.  We split up and started looking for tails.  My primary goal was to get in casting time, so I blind casted as I made my way onto the flats.  I still haven’t caught anything on the fly gear, so catching any fish would be an added bonus. 

I slowly walked and looked for tails and every so often made some casts into “fishy” areas.  At around 7:15am, I made a blind cast, slowly stripped in my fly, and about halfway into my retrieve, I felt a small tap.  I set the hook and there wasn’t much movement, so I figured it was a really small papio.  But after about 5 seconds, I think the o’io finally figured out he was hooked and took off on a blistering run.  I stop the initial surge, got him turned, and then he decides to swam almost directly back to me!  I tried to crank my reel as fast as I could to keep tension on the line, but it felt like he spit the hook.  Just as I’m about to give up hope, I feel tension again on the line.  Yes, fish still on!  He made a couple more small runs before I finally landed him.  Chee!!!  My first fish on the fly setup!   Took a few pictures and released him back.  

No other action for the rest of the session, but I was stoked.  Landed my first fish and got to get in some much needed casting practice time.

Sunday morning:  Winds were slightly stronger, so brought out the spinning gear.  No action in the first hour, but around 8am, I felt a small tap on the line.  I set the hook and it felt like I was stuck.  I maintained tension and then it took off.  Scrapped the fish for around 5 minutes and landed another nice o’io.  

No action again for the next hour, then I get another slight tap.  Set the hook…Hanapa’a!  Small one, but it’s a beautiful 13” omilu.

Awesome weekend for me.  Landed some nice fish in this “slow” period.  But, one thing I’ve noticed recently is the strikes are really different.  I’m not getting any of those hard hitting ones.  Almost all my bites in the past couple months were really small taps or felt like dead weight, like I was dragging in seaweed.  It’s like the fish don’t really know they’re hooked for the first few seconds.  So my tip for the week:  set the hook if you think you felt a bite and keep constant pressure for a few seconds, even if it feels like seaweed.  It might actually be a good sized fish ?