[SilverFly]

My first trip to the islands did not disappoint. Spent a busy, but fun week on the north shore of Kauai with the in-laws. Still managed to squeeze in some fishing between touristy stuff like zip lines, kayak tours, and the all day trip to Waimea Canyon (wow).

Fishing was limited to the beach by the resort. Some serious elevation drop from the trailhead to the beach.

Not sure what i would find, I made mistake #1, to check out the beach sans fly rod on the first morning. The trail was steep, with a Jurassic park vibe, but only a few minutes down.

Anticipation meter was pegged at this point

No rod was a big mistake. I found a beautiful classic bonefish flat, with schools of juvenile goatfish (oama) being pushed into the shallows by small bluefin trevally (papio).

The next morning I was prepared for bonefish or trevally.

No bones spotted after extensive wading so I opted to wade out a bit further to try the reef channel where I caught my first Hawaiian fish. Unfortunately, a species I was already familiar with, the cornetfish, or "nu nu".

A short while later I got a small papio on a chartreuse clouser which was the closest match to the yellow/green oama. No pic since the papio came off before I could get the camera out.

To be continued...

 

[4sallypat]

Very cool! I am looking into a fishing trip to Oahu and Molokai.

Since the guides I communicated with won't take a 2 hander out, I guess its a DIY trip like yours!

 

[WilliamThompson]

With respect to Guides and two hander fishing... In Honolulu you can go out with the incredible guide, teacher and fisherman who gets you into the big ones... And they are BIG. look up bonefish hawaii.com. An extraordinary guide not only for Hawaiian waters but the waters of the world.

 

[bucksnort]

Who said there are no bonefish in Hawaii? Bonefish guide - Oahu: Ollie Owens; Kauai - Rob Arita.

 

[Mems]

Ollie has been gone for years, that video explains why it is so tough to catch a bone on oahu.

 

[bucksnort]

That was on a public beach called 'Dry Cave' on the north end of the island. Park your car in the lot, walk to the lifeguard stand, turn left and head west for about 1/2-mile. Awesome piece of water (low tide) that goes out about 100-yards. I figure if the locals were catching bones in nets the way they were, there should be some stragglers. Another area to look for is on the east side of the island. There is a nice park just opposite Chinaman's Hat (island).