I spent the first 6 months of the year on Oahu, my wife and I had a chance to work remotely so we packed up the kids, rented a small apartment, and lived a different life for a bit.
While there, I chased bonefish a bit, and being somewhat stubborn and having what felt like enough time, I decided I would DIY it and see how that turned out. I had never fished bonefish before january. Yes, I know I would have caught more and learned more with a guide or two, but Hawaii was already pretty darn expensive for us and I just got stubborn about it all.
Below is the long report, but I posted a short intro trip report early this year:
pnwflyfishing.com
My end of trip report is basically that over 6 months of DIY trying to catch large, wary, educated bonefish, I scared, at a minimum, 750 bonefish on the flats in the process of landing about 15 of them. I was going roughly once a week, so maybe this is 20-25 days or so? Its entirely possible I scared well over 1000, so my ratio of fish landed to fish near you is incredibly low. Bonefishing there seems to be seeing them (I didn't find it too hard to sight bonefish), then interacting with them intentionally or accidentally until some of them just get too damn close to you, or figure out you are there. At this point, they explode off in a cloud of mud and righteous anger at you. You can essentially expect this to happen all day if you are in the right places. Maybe its from fish you see and maybe get to cast to, but often its fish sneaking up behind you that you didn't even know about until they loudly flush the toilet 6' behind you.
Mostly I tied and fished stuff like this:
What was hard:
1) The fish are big and wary. They have been fished over, speared, and netted for 1000 years, and it shows. Most Oahu fish are essentially urban bonefish, they know all about fisherman, fly fishermen, and people dangers. Hawaiins also fish all the time, every day too. The entire island seems to be ringed with fishing lines at all hours and locations. At least where I was fishing, you sort of cannot cast within 10' of them, or they immediately spook. You sort of usually cannot move your fly, or they will spook. Almost none of that Bahama's or Xmas island strip type thing, that's nuts for many Oahu fish unless you are interested in watching them spook. You cannot stand tall, or make noise, or make a shadown, or look them in the eye, or they spook. So you end up trying to predict where they go, casting way in front of them while crouching small, and maybe doing some tiny 1-3" drag/twich once. Or just leave it and let them find it themselves. But probably they still spook.
2) Bonefish are WAY powerful. They are by far the most powerful and strong fish I have ever tangled with. They made all other fish species I am familiar with look like total slow weaksauce, and its not really close. Their initial acceleration and burst is incredible, and incredibly destructive to your plans and ego. They often made me feel like a rookie, especially with respect to tying a knot. I broke many fish off in some fashion for the most trivial things, like trying to touch or slightly pinch your fly line as they ran. These "mistakes" ended badly and quickly.
3) Learning them: In february, my first couple fish were caught blind casting the edges of flats. I sort of evolved over time to often fishing near the edges of flats where I could both cast to fish cruising the edge, and also keep an eye out on the shallows to catch "real" bonefish feeding up in the shin deep shallows. They are both sight fishing, so thats cool, but the edge of flat fish are substantially easier because you sort of have their depth and direction much easier. Its easier to cast way in front of them and have them get close enough to see it. Shallow flats fish can sort of go in any direction, they often change direction unexpectedly, plus they are incredibly cautious and wary, so getting an eat is very, very hard in the shallows. Over the 6 months, I would say 30% of my hookups came blind casting (early on, and what you do when its cloudy), 55% edge of flats sighted fish (most of my approach), and 15% true shallow water mid flats fish (slowing walking the shallows, or chasing tails).
4) The fucking coral. I really, really, learned that edge of flats fishing puts hooked fish that much closer to their absolute best friend and your worst enemy: the fucking coral. In short, I generally only landed smaller fish of 2 or 3 or 4 pounds over my 6 months. These may or may not get you to your backing, or maybe take a few yards of backing out before you turn them and gain the upper hand. I landed a few medium to medium large fish in the 23-27" range, which maybe typically took 100 yards or less of backing out, or you hook them far enough away from the coral that you get lucky. Hooking large to super sized fish means they are always going to spin off 75-200 yards of backing and there is ALWAYS coral within 200 yards. This I learned the hard way, and too frequently. All these large fish would always know exactly where the closest coral was and head straight there at extremely high speed until you feel your leader and line start to grind and abrade. This is what end game feels like, the coral always wins. I don't think I got a single one back out of the coral. Yes, I am on my second bonefish fly line, and its frayed too.
5) Knowing when/if to set. Its hard to see them and what they are doing with the constant wind creating chop. I found it superhard to know when to set, even interested fish often hover right over your fly for 10-15 seconds before eating, or just touch it with their nose for long seconds, or circle come back to it multiple times before suddenly your line is going out at 100 mph.. I rarely could clearly see the "head shake" or obvious body movements that let me know its strike time. I often strip stuck at the wrong time, thinking an interested fish was eating when they weren't and sending them off spooked and angry at you. Wind chop often threw some slight slack into your presentation, so its not like you could tell from a tight line either.
6) The clouds. F' coral, and F' clouds too. Love them for PNW salmon fishing, but clouds ruin a lot of moments and days on the flats. There were some surprising long stretches where it got cloudy on days I could go, and you sort of need clear sun to sight fish them. So many times, some awesome bonefish is swimming in, and you are crouching and getting ready to cast, when the cloud comes over. You freeze, sitting down in the water, trying to see it. 4 minutes later, legs shaking because you are down in your crouching poop squat, trying to stay small and out of sight, with a wet ass, the cloud clears and somehow that fish is now directly behind you, 6' away, and frozen with fear before exploding off in anger. Or the sky is clear everywhere but directly over you, for like a hour at a time. You give up waiting for sun, walk over to blind cast, scare 8 bonefish along the way, and then the cloud clears and the flat is empty of fish for the next 2 hours and you go home. I sort of hate clouds now. Wind is also difficult, but usually much more manageable to fish against, even at 30 mph gusts.
What was challenging and fun:
1) The power and those runs. Damn. Given their size and speed, you have some amazingly exciting 8-15 seconds of contact before they make the coral and break your heart. No other fish species has ever dumped the backing off my fly reel quite like bonefish have, and I have caught some pretty darn respectable fish of various species. I learned that if it has a forked tail, expect to get your ass way kicked. My favorite run had to be something around 150-200 yards out over like 10 seconds.. That fish got to the orange backing (55 lb gel spun multicolored), inside of the second blue strip of backing, in close to the center of my reel before it reached the coral.
2) Sight fishing. So fun, so addicting. So often close range and exciting. Seeing a large large fish coming in, tailing along the way, maybe even getting 3-4 casts at it at various positions around you even within 15 or 20'. You are crouching down, then sitting in the water lower and lower as it comes closer and closer, staying small and playing bonefish peek-a-boo the whole time. Almost always nothing happens till it spooks when it gets too close, but once in awhile you get the eat.
3) The flats. Pretty neat and different from any of my past fishing experiences. Also caught some smallish blue fin trevelly out there, plus some barracuda. Got a couple chances to cast at what I think were medium sized GT of 5-10 lbs, but no love.
4) Hawaii. Was a ton of fun for us, time at the beach, in the water, kids swimming, surfing a lot, avoiding this years cold and wet spring. I especially had a ton of fun snorkeling. I started a fish list to keep track of what I was seeing and to learn the fish. Ended up seeing 149 species of fish snorkeling there, with a couple dozen more possible species sightings whose identity I couldn't confirm.
5) Bonezilla. The giant green flats log. Was spotted a number of times, and even cast to a few times up on the flats. On one day, I did get Bonezilla to eat, on my third cast to her and in the shallows as a properly sighted and stalked opportunity fish. She even swam right over and ate immediately, without even questioning me. She hit the coral with about 40 yards of backing out and that was that. I wasn't even upset, it was inevitable.
5) The bonefish. So pretty, such a cool ecological niche for them. I had tons of fun learning them and just having lots of contact with them and their actions. I take very few pictures of fish at this point, especially for fish I release, but this is a medium sized one around 5 lb or so. Maybe 24-25". I think I only landed 2 larger than this one. Every now and again, you get to touch one.
While there, I chased bonefish a bit, and being somewhat stubborn and having what felt like enough time, I decided I would DIY it and see how that turned out. I had never fished bonefish before january. Yes, I know I would have caught more and learned more with a guide or two, but Hawaii was already pretty darn expensive for us and I just got stubborn about it all.
Below is the long report, but I posted a short intro trip report early this year:
Bonefish report..
Part I, I hope.. Had a chance to work remotely for a few months, and my wife has worked remotely for a few years, so we packed up the kids and are spending a few months on Oahu while we have the chance. Been doing some DIY bonefishing here, with some internet reading, google maps, and advice...
pnwflyfishing.com
My end of trip report is basically that over 6 months of DIY trying to catch large, wary, educated bonefish, I scared, at a minimum, 750 bonefish on the flats in the process of landing about 15 of them. I was going roughly once a week, so maybe this is 20-25 days or so? Its entirely possible I scared well over 1000, so my ratio of fish landed to fish near you is incredibly low. Bonefishing there seems to be seeing them (I didn't find it too hard to sight bonefish), then interacting with them intentionally or accidentally until some of them just get too damn close to you, or figure out you are there. At this point, they explode off in a cloud of mud and righteous anger at you. You can essentially expect this to happen all day if you are in the right places. Maybe its from fish you see and maybe get to cast to, but often its fish sneaking up behind you that you didn't even know about until they loudly flush the toilet 6' behind you.
Mostly I tied and fished stuff like this:
What was hard:
1) The fish are big and wary. They have been fished over, speared, and netted for 1000 years, and it shows. Most Oahu fish are essentially urban bonefish, they know all about fisherman, fly fishermen, and people dangers. Hawaiins also fish all the time, every day too. The entire island seems to be ringed with fishing lines at all hours and locations. At least where I was fishing, you sort of cannot cast within 10' of them, or they immediately spook. You sort of usually cannot move your fly, or they will spook. Almost none of that Bahama's or Xmas island strip type thing, that's nuts for many Oahu fish unless you are interested in watching them spook. You cannot stand tall, or make noise, or make a shadown, or look them in the eye, or they spook. So you end up trying to predict where they go, casting way in front of them while crouching small, and maybe doing some tiny 1-3" drag/twich once. Or just leave it and let them find it themselves. But probably they still spook.
2) Bonefish are WAY powerful. They are by far the most powerful and strong fish I have ever tangled with. They made all other fish species I am familiar with look like total slow weaksauce, and its not really close. Their initial acceleration and burst is incredible, and incredibly destructive to your plans and ego. They often made me feel like a rookie, especially with respect to tying a knot. I broke many fish off in some fashion for the most trivial things, like trying to touch or slightly pinch your fly line as they ran. These "mistakes" ended badly and quickly.
3) Learning them: In february, my first couple fish were caught blind casting the edges of flats. I sort of evolved over time to often fishing near the edges of flats where I could both cast to fish cruising the edge, and also keep an eye out on the shallows to catch "real" bonefish feeding up in the shin deep shallows. They are both sight fishing, so thats cool, but the edge of flat fish are substantially easier because you sort of have their depth and direction much easier. Its easier to cast way in front of them and have them get close enough to see it. Shallow flats fish can sort of go in any direction, they often change direction unexpectedly, plus they are incredibly cautious and wary, so getting an eat is very, very hard in the shallows. Over the 6 months, I would say 30% of my hookups came blind casting (early on, and what you do when its cloudy), 55% edge of flats sighted fish (most of my approach), and 15% true shallow water mid flats fish (slowing walking the shallows, or chasing tails).
4) The fucking coral. I really, really, learned that edge of flats fishing puts hooked fish that much closer to their absolute best friend and your worst enemy: the fucking coral. In short, I generally only landed smaller fish of 2 or 3 or 4 pounds over my 6 months. These may or may not get you to your backing, or maybe take a few yards of backing out before you turn them and gain the upper hand. I landed a few medium to medium large fish in the 23-27" range, which maybe typically took 100 yards or less of backing out, or you hook them far enough away from the coral that you get lucky. Hooking large to super sized fish means they are always going to spin off 75-200 yards of backing and there is ALWAYS coral within 200 yards. This I learned the hard way, and too frequently. All these large fish would always know exactly where the closest coral was and head straight there at extremely high speed until you feel your leader and line start to grind and abrade. This is what end game feels like, the coral always wins. I don't think I got a single one back out of the coral. Yes, I am on my second bonefish fly line, and its frayed too.
5) Knowing when/if to set. Its hard to see them and what they are doing with the constant wind creating chop. I found it superhard to know when to set, even interested fish often hover right over your fly for 10-15 seconds before eating, or just touch it with their nose for long seconds, or circle come back to it multiple times before suddenly your line is going out at 100 mph.. I rarely could clearly see the "head shake" or obvious body movements that let me know its strike time. I often strip stuck at the wrong time, thinking an interested fish was eating when they weren't and sending them off spooked and angry at you. Wind chop often threw some slight slack into your presentation, so its not like you could tell from a tight line either.
6) The clouds. F' coral, and F' clouds too. Love them for PNW salmon fishing, but clouds ruin a lot of moments and days on the flats. There were some surprising long stretches where it got cloudy on days I could go, and you sort of need clear sun to sight fish them. So many times, some awesome bonefish is swimming in, and you are crouching and getting ready to cast, when the cloud comes over. You freeze, sitting down in the water, trying to see it. 4 minutes later, legs shaking because you are down in your crouching poop squat, trying to stay small and out of sight, with a wet ass, the cloud clears and somehow that fish is now directly behind you, 6' away, and frozen with fear before exploding off in anger. Or the sky is clear everywhere but directly over you, for like a hour at a time. You give up waiting for sun, walk over to blind cast, scare 8 bonefish along the way, and then the cloud clears and the flat is empty of fish for the next 2 hours and you go home. I sort of hate clouds now. Wind is also difficult, but usually much more manageable to fish against, even at 30 mph gusts.
What was challenging and fun:
1) The power and those runs. Damn. Given their size and speed, you have some amazingly exciting 8-15 seconds of contact before they make the coral and break your heart. No other fish species has ever dumped the backing off my fly reel quite like bonefish have, and I have caught some pretty darn respectable fish of various species. I learned that if it has a forked tail, expect to get your ass way kicked. My favorite run had to be something around 150-200 yards out over like 10 seconds.. That fish got to the orange backing (55 lb gel spun multicolored), inside of the second blue strip of backing, in close to the center of my reel before it reached the coral.
2) Sight fishing. So fun, so addicting. So often close range and exciting. Seeing a large large fish coming in, tailing along the way, maybe even getting 3-4 casts at it at various positions around you even within 15 or 20'. You are crouching down, then sitting in the water lower and lower as it comes closer and closer, staying small and playing bonefish peek-a-boo the whole time. Almost always nothing happens till it spooks when it gets too close, but once in awhile you get the eat.
3) The flats. Pretty neat and different from any of my past fishing experiences. Also caught some smallish blue fin trevelly out there, plus some barracuda. Got a couple chances to cast at what I think were medium sized GT of 5-10 lbs, but no love.
4) Hawaii. Was a ton of fun for us, time at the beach, in the water, kids swimming, surfing a lot, avoiding this years cold and wet spring. I especially had a ton of fun snorkeling. I started a fish list to keep track of what I was seeing and to learn the fish. Ended up seeing 149 species of fish snorkeling there, with a couple dozen more possible species sightings whose identity I couldn't confirm.
5) Bonezilla. The giant green flats log. Was spotted a number of times, and even cast to a few times up on the flats. On one day, I did get Bonezilla to eat, on my third cast to her and in the shallows as a properly sighted and stalked opportunity fish. She even swam right over and ate immediately, without even questioning me. She hit the coral with about 40 yards of backing out and that was that. I wasn't even upset, it was inevitable.
5) The bonefish. So pretty, such a cool ecological niche for them. I had tons of fun learning them and just having lots of contact with them and their actions. I take very few pictures of fish at this point, especially for fish I release, but this is a medium sized one around 5 lb or so. Maybe 24-25". I think I only landed 2 larger than this one. Every now and again, you get to touch one.
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