home....home is where the heart is, and will always be. kauai is my home, and it beckons me everyday to return to her. its been 2 years since i last was there, and i was due to go back. living here in the mainland has made me, restless. impatient, unkind, and just downright grumpy, i had forgotten what the spirit of aloha was. my little fishing adventures out here has always reminded me of home. just the good times hanging out and fishing with friends and family in the beauty of the islands. so when my friend from college invited me to his wedding, noting especially to me that it was on kauai, i jumped at the excuse, no chance, at leaving work and the hustle and bustle of city life.
one good thing about kauai, it hardly ever changes; the two lane roads with a max speed limit of 50mph, no ones ever in a rush to go anywhere. or the toyota pickup trucks, with their poles and boards in the bed, ready for an pre/after work fishing or surfing sesh. and the frequent, "howzit bradah", and *shaka*, from friends and strangers alike. *sigh*...oh how i've missed you.
but i digress, on to the fishing adventures...
i already had a packed schedule, being that i was the only local of our group going to the wedding, and they wanted me to show them around to the "local" spots. i had planned my fishing adventures around the days activities; in hopes of hitting the surf, ocean, and the fresh. i was going to make it a point, to take out time to fish AND catch a fish at all locales.
upon arrival into kauai, i had a quick opportunity to fish a jetty while waiting for my parents to finish work. i packed my 2 symetre reels; 1 spooled with 20lb braid with a 15lb floro leader, and my other reel spooled with 6lb mono. i knew the typical setups used in hawaii, c-rigs with a curly tail grub used for "whipping", but i wanted to test some ideas that i had after fishing here in cali. so, i started off by tossing the big hammer swimbait. doing sort of a jigging motion in hopes of enticing some willing fish. and what do you know! hooked up to my first fish of the trip.
cornet fish on the big hammer.
haha! i figured these swimbaits would work, as they mimic baitfish out there really well. it just took me sometime to figure out the motion at which the fish wanted them. i got slammed a couple other times, that took me on some good runs, but that was the only fish i pulled out of the water. a good 30 min sesh, and day 1 of fishing came to a close.
on my second day, i woke up bright and early and went to the south side of the islands. i wanted to fish some cliffs/rocks for some papios and omilus, but the island had other ideas. a south swell was starting, so the waves were quite huge. dangerous to the point where i decided on fishing a small little boat harbor, protected from the swell. again, tied on the big hammer swimbait to see what was willing.
looks relatively flat, but when the sets came in, they were crashing on the rocks!
another cornetfish!
got into a pretty good bite once again on the bh, jigging it kind of like "whipping". caught a good 10 of those cornetfish (trumpet?). also lost some bh lead heads to the reefs. p.s. next time i come back, bring more lead heads (3/8 oz) and more swimbaits. they were getting trashed and i had only brought a limited supply, and the fishing stores here do not sell them. didn't see the papios, and my time was up for fishing that day. off to show my friends around.
took my friends to one of my favorite beaches on the island. secret beach.
day 3 was wedding day. no fishing planned, no fishing had.
na aina kai. wedding locale.
some pupus being served before dinner!
man, i wish i brought my pole to the wedding!
bright and early on day 4. back to fishing. wanted to change up my presentation so decided on throwing the mark white lure in oama color, 1/2 oz.
beautiful morning sunrise.
started tossing out the mw lure, with a fast retrieve for a bit. got a couple hits, and finally hooked up!
kaku!
had a couple other missed strikes, but the rains came and cut my morning session short. my phone also took a dunk in the water, so the following few photos were taken with my work phone. boo to bringing work on vacay...
spent the rest of the day showing my friends around the island again. once that was over, and on my way home, i decided to go fish some streams behind my house.
the locale.
tied on a worm with no luck. then started throwing the weightless fluke. as im working the bait, i see a flash! bam, fish on! then, he throws the hook. boo...i cast again, same place, and again he bites! but this time my lures tail is gone, and the bite stops. i call it a day with a stripe in the fresh. i'll be back, i told myself. i'll get you soon enough.
day 5 was ocean day. i hit up my buddy before leaving cali, and asked if he could take me out on his boat. he was more than obliging. took a late morning start, but man, was it a beautiful day.
shot of us leaving the harbor.
made it out about 10 miles off the coast to a buoy, and started trolling our jig lines. many birds out crashing on baitfish.
made a bunch of passes near the birds and started hooking up left and right on aku! ended the day with 24 aku (skipjack tuna) and 2 koshibi (yellowfin tuna).
twas a good day!
brought home 2 aku and 1 koshibi for the fam to sashimi and whatnot.
aku poke!
koshibi sashimi!
all in all, a damn good day if you ask me! awesome time out in the water, and some ono'lecious grindz!
my last day in hawaii, i had to leave at 1pm. i had one more thing to do. finish and check off my freshwater fish that i missed. returned back to the same spot, and rigged with a small curly tail grub. hooked up to a good size fish, but lost him again. then moved to another spot.
2nd locale, quite murky.
starting tossing out the grub in the stained water, and thought i had snagged the bottom. then, i see the line moving! hana'pa!!! fought the fish for a bit, and brought her up.
good size for hawaii standards!
last item checked off my list, satisfied and well fished out, i headed off to the airport. as i looked back on my trip back to kauai, my home, i can't believe i left her. but, she always welcomes me back with open arms. life in hawaii is the good life. saw some friends and family, ate some good food, and did some fishing. man, i can't wait to go back home again...
hanapa'a!!!
