October 7, 2007
Hawaii
A report from Steve L.
Went out at the crack dawn to try my “luck” out on the flats. It was a nasty morning, overcast and very windy with sporadic showers, but I had that “feeling” that only a fisherman could understand and I had to be out there.
I packed my fly rod too but decided to go to bait when I got there because the coconut trees were bending in the wind.
After catching one eel and numerous nibbles on some long distance casts, I decided to flip my bait just 20 yards in front of me. The bite came about five minutes later and the fish went on this long long run. I could see it splashing the water over 180 yards out. This was no small fish. It had my 14 foot rod bending to the max. I didn’t think it was going to stop and I kept looking at my spinning spool to see if there was enough line left.
I started to follow the fish when it slowed a bit, I cranked the drag down, started reel and pump the rod to turn it.
I fought it within 30 yards and decided not to net it to minimize the trauma. I walked it several hundred yards to shore. Earlier that morning, I bumped into a friend who lives along the beach and hoped he might be still around to take my picture. As it was, I took some self portraits and then found a lady walking her dogs and had her shoot a couple of shots. And then I walked the fish back out and we watched it tailing off in the distance and disappear.
Some dream of catching bonefish this big, I dream of catching one bigger.
September 30, 2007
Hawaii
A report from Steve L.
Yesterday I took Alan and his friend Conner out to the flats to dunk for oio (bonefish) at sunset. It started to rain when we picked Conner up and didn’t let up until we got to the fishing spot. Because of the weather, not a soul was out there, no fishermen or surfers.
Conner cast in his line and it couldn’t have been more than three minutes when he felt a tap and then it was off to the races! We never saw Conners fish but it was huge. I don’t think he had more than 10 yards of line left when the fish finally stopped his run. I could see the bottom of the spool. Conner fought the fish for a few minutes and then in it was gone. The main line cut on the reef.
I hooked into one about ten minutes later and had a great fight using light tackle. It was about five pounds. I told Conner to hold the fish for a picture. As I took the photo the fish jump out of his hands and was gone into the night (that’s why the fish looks a little distorted in the photo).
This was Conners first oio strike. We always are amused watching people hook up to an oio for the first time. They always have this surprised smile on their faces and then bewilderment on what to do. I always tell them to leave their drag loose and just let it run.
June 16, 2007
Hawaii
Eric caught a three pound bonefish while spin fishing on the flats on the west side of Oahu, Hawaii. He had the line rigged with a toughbubble adjustable float to keep the hook above the reef surface to get a good drift and cover a lot of ground.
This float allows you to adjust the weight by adding water. This gives it enough heft to throw a pretty fair distance without adding lead. I also allows you to adjust how high the float will ride in the water. Eric used a clear float on a short leader.
March 2007
Ascension Bay, Mexico
A fishing report by Jin
I fished for three days at Pesca Maya which is located on the southern end of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere (nature preserve). It's one of three lodges in the region that give anglers access to the southern Yucatan peninsula flats.
The weather was cloudy and windy on all three days, which made it tough to spot fish and make accurate casts. We fished the
mangroves the first day
looking for bones and found many small schools early
in the morning but the fish disappeared by late
morning. A typical school had about a dozen fish,
mostly under a foot long. The larger fish, three
pounds plus, generally swam in pairs. I got one the
first day but missed many strikes as I tried to set
the hook by lifting my rod versus strip setting.
We took a long boat ride over to the Tres Maria Islands on the second day and got caught in a storm. We saw less than a dozen fish and a couple that were tailing. Made some poor casts that spooked fish.
We started the third day up in the mangroves looking for tarpon and I hooked a baby one--about 10 pounds but he was gone after one jump. We went back out to the flats, chased some schools of bones but couldn't cast to more than one of them. Amazing how a school of one hundred fish just disappear. But I got two bones stripping a clouser minnow through the deeper water. In fact, we had a big problem the whole trip with fish that were well educated and not interested in eating flies.
Highlight of the trip was having five opportunities to cast to tailing permit. Imagine looking down the beach and seeing a black fin moving in the wind slowly making its way along the edge of the flats. You quickly change to a crab, while keeping your eye on the permit. Start your back cast with the permit 60 feet away. Throw the fly five feet in front of the fish, let it sink, and slowly strip the fly off the floor. Fish looks, chases the fly, but in all five cases refuses the offering.
Out of twenty anglers in three days, only one caught a permit. The 10 pound fish took him to his last feet of backing. They had to get in the boat and chase the fish down.
Final tally was 12 takes, five hookups, with three bones landed, the biggest around three pounds.
March 2007
Hawaii
A report from Steve T
I did five mornings of fly fishing for oio (bonefish). I was fishing the xxxxx and xxxx flats. I only caught two fish. The largest fish running about 5 lbs. I hooked one fish that took me way into my backing. I just couldn't stop it from running over the reef and breaking my 16 lb test leader on the coral. In hind sight I should have just held the line to stop it from running into the reef. The size 6 hook and 15 lb test line might have stopped it.
Overall it was pretty tough fishing. Steve L. thinks it's because it was a full moon. The two mornings I fished xxxx flats I had two shots at tailing oio; both times I was able to make perfect casts right on the oio's head. Of course they didn't like that very much. I met Steve L. out there one morning. He caught a trumpet fish with the orange fly I gave him.
February 16, 2007
Hawaii
A report from SteveL
After a few days of bad weather cleared Steve planned to hit the flats to try for an early morning bonefish. His original plan was to fish at a specific spot but he met fly fisher Steve T, who was planning to hit the same area, so he let him fish that area (which is really good for fly fishing) and walked further down the beach and began casting.
Steve had a new Shimano rod and was hoping for a nice fish to break it in but after an hour without a bite he decided to call it a day. Suddenly he had something big on the line.
Steve said the fish made multiple long runs and as he brought it close to net, the fish would see him then speed off again. He finally walked the fish to Steve T (who had caught a few bonefish too) who helped him land the fish to measure, weigh and release. This turned out to be a nice 10 pound bonefish (scale weighed), which was a great way to break in a new rod.
August 3-28, 2006
Hawaii
After landing lots of bones while spin fishing on the flats due to high winds, I finally had the chance to break out the fly rod when the weather changed and managed to catch a nice six pound (scale weighed) bonefish (oio) on the flats one morning.
I always get up early so I can be on the water by 5:30am. This not only allows me to beat the rush hour traffic but the bite tends to be the best early or late in the day and is especially good if you can catch the tide as its rising or falling.
I used a 9-weight rod spooled with 200 yards of backing and a Monic clear floating weight forward line. Tippet was five feet of 15 pound test flurocarbon tied onto the fly line. I used a tan and gold Christmas Island Crazy Charlie slow stripped over the bottom.
The Hawaii Bonefish Tagging Project
From 'Current Line', a Hawaii Dept. of Land and Natural Resources newsletter
By Bruce S. Anderson, PhD
The sound of the thick fly line cutting through the water as the fish rips out a hundred yards of backing is sweet music to the ears of every saltwater fly fisherman. You either love the flats–and you check the tides and your calendar everyday to see if you can sneak away for a few hours–or you can’t understand why anyone in their right mind would waste so much of their time doing something with so few tangible rewards. If you’ve read this far, you’re probably in the former group.
There are probably less than two dozen hard-core fly fishermen in Hawaii. Veteran saltwater fly fishermen who call Hawaii home, Dick Gushman, Jim Romig, Kelvin Taketa, Ron Lum and others travel all over the world “chasing” bones. Enthusiastic newcomers to the sport, like me, only dream about the Seychelles, New Caledonia, Palmyra Island and some of the other exotic destinations they have fished in their travels. One thing we all share in common is that we would rather be walking the flats anywhere than doing anything–well, almost anything else.
Some refer to them as “grey ghosts” of the flats. O’io, as they are known to most fishermen in Hawaii, are indeed grey or sometimes light green in appearance. They have shiny, silver scales that reflect the color of the bottom and the fish’s surroundings. of a bonefish Without bright sunlight to cast a shadow, they are difficult to spot even if you are looking directly at them with polarized glasses.
Next to ulua, papio and other jacks, bonefish are the most sought after inshore game fish for recreational fishermen in Hawaii. Despite their popularity, little is known about their distribution, movement, or growth rates. Surprisingly, little is known about bonefish behavior worldwide. The fact that bonefish are not a commercially important food fish is one of the reasons. From this standpoint, the species is grossly undervalued as a resource.
What we know and don’t know
Only the basic life cycle of bonefish has been described in the many books and articles on the subject. They travel in loose schools, route out shrimp, shellfish, crabs, and fish from the bottom for food, and spawn offshore. Eggs hatch into a ribbon-like larvae that metamorphose into fish-like form at about two inches; then, the fish move inshore. Mature fish are commonly found feeding on inshore, shallow flats, usually over mud, coral and grass and, occasionally, over white sand. Otherwise, little is known about bonefish movements or reproductive behavior. Most fishermen do not know that there are two species of bonefish in Hawaiian waters, glossodonta, also called “Roundjaw” bonefish, and Albula neoguinaica, called “Sharpjaw” bonefish. While the two have been unequivocally established as discrete species using biochemical markers and examining their internal skeletal structures, it is challenging to distinguish them by appearance. The only visible anatomical feature that differentiates the species is the shape of their lower jaw. The Roundjaw species generally has a broadly-rounded lower jaw. The Sharpjaw species have an angular lower jaw which is more or less pointed.
These two species of bonefish evolved in Hawaiian waters over a period of over 30 million years. They were an important fish in Hawaiian culture. However, there is little historical information that would allow a comparison of fish populations over time and there is no historical data on recreational fishing catches in Hawaii. Only anecdotal reports from fishermen suggest the numbers of bonefish have decreased dramatically over the past two decades, presumably because of over fishing and habitat loss. We do know the number of pounds of commercial bonefish landed has decreased dramatically, from 70,000-100,000 pounds per year in the late 1940’s to less than 10,000 pounds per year since 1985.
What we need to know
We have some information, but we need to know a lot more about bonefish in Hawaii if we are going to develop appropriate resource management and protection programs. We need to know about their distribution and movement to know where conservation programs would be most effective. We also need to know their growth rates to determine stock maturity and reproduction rates. This is basic information needed for any conservation program intended to preserve and protect bonefish or any other species. It is also critical that we collect this information in Hawaii. Hawaii is very different from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean where other studies are underway. The geographic isolation of the individual Hawaiian Islands and long distances and deep channels between the islands provides a very different habitat than other areas where bonefish are found. In the Caribbean, for example, bonefish have been known to travel for over fifty miles. However, this is in an area where fish could swim hundreds of miles along coastlines with similar habitat without encountering substantial barriers. The deep ocean channels between the Hawaiian Islands pose a formidable barrier and dramatically curtail bonefish movement. We will likely discover that we have much more in common with other Pacific Islands, such as Palmyra Atoll, where the Nature Conservancy has also begun a bonefish tagging project. The information we collect from this project should have relevancy elsewhere in the Pacific.
Filling the gaps
Several months ago, a group of fishermen and fisheries management experts, including Dr. Gordon Grau and Dr. Richard Brock got together to talk about ways to fill in the gaps of what we don’t know about bonefish in Hawaii. With financial support from the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, the O’io Tagging Project was born. It’s purpose is to collect information to characterize the bonefish resource to support appropriate resource management and conservation programs.
Finally, dependent on the amount of information fishermen provide, it is hoped that this study will begin to define the “catch-andrelease effort” for the fishery around Oahu. At present, there is no data available to describe fishery dynamics, the hours spent fishing, the size of the catch, or the effects of exploitation because the catches of recreational fishermen are not reported.
Tagging
The bonefish caught by those participating in the project will be tagged utilizing anchor tags and methods previously developed for the “Ulua Tagging Project” and adapted to bonefish. Annette Tagawa and Clay Tam, Education Specialists with the Division of Aquatic Resources of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, have been invaluable in providing technical guidance in this regard.
Essentially, the tagging method involves inserting a thin, polyethylene dart tag, commonly called a “spaghetti” tag, in the area high on the back of the fish. A plastic barb on the head of the dart tag keeps the tag from pulling out of the fish after it is pushed through the muscle and between the bones just below the dorsal fin. The tag has an identifying number and telephone number to call to report information when the fish is captured. After the fish is tagged, the tag number, the species, the fork length (measured from the tip of the mouth to the fork of the tail), the date and time of capture and the location is recorded and reported. Upon recapture, the same information is recorded and reported.
A dedicated telephone line has been setup at Nervous Waters Fly Fishers in Kaimuki to receive calls and record this important information. To date, 12 fishermen, including professional fly fishermen Clay Yee and Kevin Faucheux at Nervous Water Fly Fishers, have volunteered to participate in this project. Because of limited supplies and equipment that could be purchased with the grant funds, a maximum of 20 participants fishermen will be recruited the first year. Our target is to tag 1000 fish over this period. It is hoped that funds will be available to continue the project and expand the number of participants over the next few years. All fishermen, of course, are encouraged to report the capture of tagged fish. Data on the exact location fish are caught will be kept confidential; only summary statistics will be reported for areas such as Kaiaka Bay, Mamala Bay, Kaneohe Bay, etc. This will allow detailed tracking of movement without giving away your favorite fishing spots!
What we expect to learn It is anticipated that within a year or so, we will have some limited information on bonefish movement (in miles), dispersion, and, possibly, mixing patterns by species.
Preliminary information on growth from tagging and recapture data may also be available, depending on recapture rates. As more fish are tagged, we can, of course, expect more to be recaptured. We plan to develop accurate and verified length and weight curves to encourage the release of fish that are caught. Using data on the date and time of capture, it may also be possible to retroactively determine environmental factors, such as tides, phases of the moon, and perhaps other factors that may influence bonefish movements and behavior.
All fishermen who participate in this program whether tagging or in recovery of tagged bonefish will be given information pertaining to that particular fish. When the fish is first caught, this will include confirmation of the date caught, the location captured, and the fork length of the fish. Upon recapture, information provided will include the date, location, and fork length of the fish and a history of its previous captures, including the days free, distance traveled (in miles) and growth (in inches) between captures.
(Note: Due to lack of funding the tagging project was terminated in 2006)