A report from SteveL
Jin came in on Saturday with his entire family and in-laws. On Sunday they headed off to Bishop Museum and the beach and Jin went with me to fish.
We fished two windows, the rising tide in the late morning and the dropping tide in the afternoon. It was a blustery cloudy day and there were times when entire flats were covered with white-caps. Jin used his shrimp pattern that was a copy of the fly he got from Dick Brown at the fly fishing show in New Jersey in January. Just before noon he gets hammered with a strike.
The fish just wanted to head out to open sea through the reef pass but Jin was able to turn it and fight it in close. It was a fiesty 3.5 pounder. I tagged it and he let it go to fight another day.
We fished the falling tide at the reef pass in the afternoon, and even though we got no strikes, it was a good day to fish. We ended our day over a couple of beers with some spicy fried jalapenos.
EQUIPMENT: We used 7, 8 and 9-weight rods rigged with floating line and flies from size 2 to 8. You must be able to cast in high wind because it can really blow on the flats. Trade winds can gust from 15-20 mph and the deep valleys funnel the breeze straight out over the water, so you've got to have equipment and the technical know-how to lay that line out there.