My latest trip to Kona was a productive sashimi-fest with some great action on tuna, marlin and various reef species. I don’t have time to do a big-ass report so I’ll just let the photos tell the story. Before the bluewater trip, I had a few days to chase my usual mix of strange and bizarre reef creatures. I’ve spent a couple years working out some specialized techniques for parrotfish on the fly, which is funny and pretty wacky considering they are s'posed to “only” eat coral polyps. Sometimes it helps to ignore their “usual” behavior and treat them like any other fish. They put up an incredible fight for their size and have their own interesting beauty. They will hit northwest cutthroat flies like reverse spiders. Allen reels are great parrotfish reels. They really have the special sauce and gearing to stop a parrotfish in his tracks and keep it from busting off in the bommies. And plenty of pugnacious damselfish and other shit too…………..good times. Then we had a great time chasing sashimi. Our good buddies Scott and Doug joined us for a day with our friend and awesome Kona guide Russ Nitta. We’ve had some great trips with Russ over the years and this was no exception. The only problem was a pesky marlin that interrupted our sashimi trip. I had to deal with the interloper and whip his ass so we could release him and resume our hunt for fresh sashimi. After we dealt with that creature,we settled in for some fun times battling good-sized yellowfin feeding betwixt and between pods of porpoise…….here we go………………
Mingo those are some fantastic pics. those colors on the tuna are flat out spectacular do you have more closeups of the black to blue to iridescent?
Did you get any off-shore species on the fly? Sick pics- I'm headed back in February and am going to chase some bones and peacocks. Maybe I'll bring my 5wt to the reefs after some inspiration...
No offshore fly action this trip Jordan. My buddies don't flyfish and I just went with the flow. We were green-sticking for the tuna. If you've never seen this, imagine dapping for fish that can weigh over 200 pounds and will come completely out of the water to attack the rubber squid dancing on the surface. The takes are incredible.
James Prosek's new book Ocean Fishes comes out next month, it's got some killer paintings in it, real nice one of a yellowfin. I'm lusting after it, even with an artist as talented as Prosek (see: http://magazine.nature.org/features/water-colors.xml )the real thing remains stunning. Thanks for posting...
Wadin' boot: I can't wait for that book and thanks for the information on it. The video of Prosek is amazing. Kinda-like Jackson Pollack in his East Hampton studio (minus the booze and dangling cig tho...). In case I forget please post again when the book is available. Mingo: Great post and especially like the photos. Reminds me of the several trips I've taken off Kauai. Fishing at the FAD in 9000ft deep water with the island barely visible was amazing. Lots of mahi mahi, tuna, ono, and even a whale shark next to the boat.
