Fly fishing in Hawaii

[Porkchunker]

We are planning our 25th in Hawaii. Trip will be mid Oct 2008. Will be staying two days on Oahu, 5 days on Kauai, and 2 days on Oahu before flying back.

What kind of fly fishing opportunities are there on those two islands. Based on time, it is likely that the only time I'll have to fish will be the 5 days on Kauai, or the last 2 days on Oahu.

Tips, advice welcome.

Dave

aka

[silverfish]

Hey Porkchunker,

If you are coming to Tiefest, come on over and we can talk a bit about Hawaiian fly fishing.
Silverfish

[Porkchunker]

I'll be there. Do you have a table...how will I find you?

[silverfish]

Hello Porkchunker,

Sorry I didn't reply, but I had to get up early for the run to Tiefest. I thought that I would see you there, however as you could see, it was another great show and the place was packed! I was in between Brad & Alex and Lefty.
If you shoot me an email, I'll tell you my experiences on Oahu & Kauai.

Steve Silverio
steve@silverfishflies.com

[The Old Man]

I wish I knew you were at TieFest, I did a lot of DIY flyrodding in Hawaii (including Kauai) and always caught something. Here's some stock info I have from my files:

I was on the Big Island and Kauai in September 2000, and had a load of fun blind casting the shallow reefs. Here's the text of an email I sent to a friend:

I used a 9-foot 8-weight saltwater rod with an intermediate line (and a stripping basket!) and blind casted over the near-shore reefs. In windy conditions you'd likely have to go up to a nine weight, and if you go off-shore for mahi or tuna, at least a ten weight would be required. I wet-waded a few near-shore sand flats and reefs as well, but most of my casting was done from shore near deeper reef pockets. Keep your eyes on the waves, though, which can surprise you. The rocks are sharp and tricky to wade, too.

For flies, on deeper reefs I used primarily bendbacks and other unweighted weedless streamers, and clousers in sizes 4 through 1/0. I fished one really shallow reef and used a white/pearl Crazy Charlie size 4. By far the best flies were the bendback (chartreuse over white) and the white Charlie. If you find deeper drop-offs at the outside edge of the reefs, you might have to go with a sink-tip or sinking line and weighted flies, but the intermediate worked great for me in the surf and over the reefs. In fact I started out using a sinking line, but had too many hang-ups and break-offs due to the rocks and coral. Go with 20-lb tippet at least, as I lost a lot of flies. I spoke to some locals who get into bigger jacks and ‘cuda near the deep drop-offs at the outside of the reefs, but I was too chicken to wade out that far.

Also, if you will be in Hanalei (highly recommended, very cool town, great sushi/blues joint), there are a lot of freshwater tributaries that run into the salt which are loaded with jacks running up and down the tribs. Good reefs for fishing at the west end of Hanalei bay (inside the surf break) and east of the beach at the end of the road near the Napali Coast. Don't neglect the tributaries you pass over on the way to the Napali beach at road's end! Also saw some fish that looked like bonefish or ladyfish in Hanalei Bay, but I never hooked one. One guy I saw fishing live bait caught a big ‘cuda outside of the reef, but I was too wimpy to wade out there.

I caught peacock grouper, blue-line snapper, trumpetfish, needlefish, lizardfish, and small jacks. Nothing huge (most 1-3 pounds), but still a helluva lot of fun.

-- Doug

[Porkchunker]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to print this, then Google-map the names to see where you are talking about.

Dave

aka