dropping water

 the lake levels have been dropping steadily the last few weeks, its been pretty steady at 6" a day or so. thats a lot of water going down stream when you think about the size of the impoundment. just the last week or so though they have been speeding up the  water flow to almost 12" a day, i don't know why the sudden rush  but its getting low fast. couple of things are happening out there. one is the bass have moved and people say the fishing is really slow. another is the tucs have moved up and are capitalizing on the baitfish left out of the weed lines . i have had reports that  the tuck are prowling the shorelines hunting the  easy baitfish with no where to hide. there have even been reports of schooling tucs busting shad this past week, thats nearly unheard of this early in the season. didn't get out on the lake this weekend like id hoped so i can't say for sure , but i do have a couple of theories as to where the bass are and whats going on.first the tucs, the baitfish is the easy one, they are always patterned by the bait PERIOD i don't care what people say in my opinion if you find the bait you will find the tucs. no surprise they are active in hunting the baitfish exposed by the dropping water. also i can't say this week but last week the water had actually gotten warmer! 3 degrees over the week, it dosent seem like much but to a fish thats a lot, enough so as to make them active again obviously. now the bass, a bit harder to pattern than tucs. if i were to be out or had been out today i would key on the same areas they were on last week, points and steep bluff banks. they key would be the depth. i think the deeper points and the deeper the water at the bluffs the better they would be. most guys will still be  tossing into 4-6ft of water along both areas wondering where the fished have moved. more than likely they just went deeper and your sitting over them as your casting into the "new" 4-6ft depth.dropping water always puts bass in a negative mood. but when it stabilizes they should be pretty receptive to a lot of bait offerings!

crankbait rods

well i have had my duckett rod long enough now to make some  observations about it and compare it to my kvd crank bait rod. first lets identify the exact rods, i started out with the kvd signature series kvdc705cb 7' rod with a kvd signature series reel with a 5.1.1 gear ratio and 10 bearings. i got it on sale 2 couple of years ago when they were switching to the new maroon models he now uses. the other rod i have to compare is the duckett micro magic crank bait rod dfmm70cc 7' crankin model with a daiwa exceler 100p reel in a 4.9.1 ratio with 9 bearings in it.  i believe the whole kvd setup came as a package and was bought on sale for 149$ the duckett was mix and match and was  89$ for the reel and 149$ for the pole itself.  i use the suffix deep cranking line on both reels. first the kvd rod and reel. first impression is that its very whippy, almost parabolic. it is an s-glass rod and its heavier and more substantial than the duckett by far. when i first got it i was unimpressed. after the first few casts i begin to appreciate  that you could really feel the lure on the end of the line. surprisingly sensitive i could really almost always tell what kind of cover i was bumping over and work the lure over limbs and rocks. even the heavier crank baits work very well on this pole. honestly for the price i am kinda pleasantly surprised in how well it works. i have caught many bass and a few tucanare on it and it has performed well, alot of give on the initial impact and it really helps in the fight. the reel also works well for the price, although i imagine a better real would make the rod perform even better. it casts fairly far with a full spool and can really load up on the back cast allowing more distance.  I'm not sure if this model is still available in the new line but i highly recommend it if it is, i think the new rods go for 149$ like the ducketts now but I'm not sure, i believe my particular model sold for 79$ at the time. the rod is worth the price. the duckett rod at first feel is amazingly light! like a carrot stix if not lighter. the  rod is a carbon blank not a fiberglass blank, so the first thing you notice is it is much stiffer. still it has a pretty fast tip on it and about a quarter of the way down it starts to get its backbone. the micro guides are awesome as well. i was shocked however to find that the sensitivity of the rod was much less than the cheaper kvd glass rod. i can hardly feel what I'm cranking over. in fact on the glass rod when a fish hits you know right away! on the duckett rod theres a second or two of "is that a fish?" i recently caught  a 7 lb catfish on it and it held its ground, although it has yet to get a tucanare( the real test) it also has several bass under its belt and had performed well although i have  more fish with it, possibly the s glass is more forgiving in the fight. the micro guides are great, they say it will add 12-15% on the casting distance. id have to agree with this, the first few casts i was like whoaaaaaaaa!! it does cast very far, and I'm sure the daiwa reel is a bit of that too. over all id recommend either rod. the glass rod and the duckett both have a place on a boat, if i was strapped for cash and could have only one, id go with the glass rod and put the daiwa reel on it. the 4.9.1 ratio is great and dosent overpower the action of the lure. rod wise  the s glass has my heart but the duckett has my interest hahahahaha

wired to fish prizes here!!

the berkely havoc lures i won on the wired to fish website are here, just in time for a good try on saturday!!! they aren't berkelys usual fare. they are unscented and each is designed by a pro staffer. skeet reese has a few, gary klein has some,bobby lane and mike iaconelli also. very interesting looking lures and colors. will give them a try this weekend hopefully and then write a report!

changing split rings

 one of the best things you can do to any hard bait besides tuning it. is changing the split rings.  the oval shaped rings available at most tackle shops are 100% better than the round ones when it comes to the line tie. for the hooks the round ones are great, but  the line tie should be oval for sure!  the oval split rings run about 2.99$ for 20 -30 rings. thats 20 plus baits you won't have to worry about having your knot slide into the split. i have noticed a difference in the way baits run when the knot is or isn't in the split. often the wobble or the pull of a fish will work the knot into the split. and there will be a noticeable effect on the way the lure handles. the oval split ring eliminates this. tying knots is easier as well, no worries about trying to make sure you not in the split as you tighten the line. i cant say one ring will make it wobble better or add action over the other but there are enough positives to make it worth the money and effort to change!  many of the "premier" or "pro" baits now have these oval rings already on them. for the price they very well should! i try to change mine out every time i pull a lure out i intend to use , if its still got a round split on the line tie i change it to an oval, much less tedious that way. especially if you have a large tackle collection. I'm not good on what sizes are what i think they range from 1-6. buy a few different sizes across the spectrum and when you change them try to match the size to the round one your replacing as close as you can and that should be alright!

my personal best largemouth

january 16th 1996...... seems an age ago and a world away, it was the day i caught my biggest largemouth bass. luckily though at the time i didn't really pay much attention to keeping records of fish, this one was significant enough that i jotted down some of the details. a lot of it is still very clear in my memory. it was a cold chilly hawaii winter morning. back then my fishing partner and myself fished off of a 14ft hobiecat. the mast had broken off and we used it as a kind of pontoon boat. it worked very well actually, light and maneuverable easy to paddle . i can't recall if we were still on paddle power or had the electric trolling motor hooked up yet. in any case we did the majority of our fishing up into south fork. it was closer and in our range with a battery or paddle. and of all of south fork we enjoyed fishing what we then called the "cove" now better known as rose street slough. we had many fish stories in that place and often as other boats ran down into the main basin or up towards north fork we would have the whole of south fork to ourselves. all of my biggest fish have come from south fork. one friend that accompanied us out on a trip made the comment " turn the corner and your not in hawaii anymore" he was right it was our escape. this particular morning we had run up toward rose street slough and being the "fisherman" we were we  knew we had only a limited time to get up there for the morning bite ( don't fish always magically bite at first light hahaha) we pulled up into the opening of the slough and i had rigged up a flat sided bassproshop coffin billed crankbait. made out of  jelutong wood, basically a different kind of balsa. it maybe had a max depth of 6ft. silver sides with a light chartreuse back. we usually turned to the left as we fished the slough, our best spots were to the left. for some reason we turned right this particular morning. there is a small point directly to the front as you enter the cove  and we started there. i can't recall what my friend was throwing but i was determined to use my new crankbait.   we did a lot of run and gunning those days, just run down a bank casting never hitting the same spot for more than a cast or two. we had made about 3 or 4 casts a piece. i was on the right pontoon, we stood on the pontoons like casting decks. it put us literally at water level.  there was a downed ironwood tree just off to my side about 30-40ft away and i had the first cast to it. i had read that anytime you cast a lure out you were supposed to let the bait sit there for a bit, maybe a few seconds and let the rings go out, this was supposed to give the fish a chance to look at it. i dunno if its a bunch of crap or not but i was in my learning stages still and it seemed plausible so i did it on every bait i had that floated hahahaha. so the bait sits for a few seconds, and back then the water was always high and super clear with all the grass beds up there. i started to wind it down and it got down to just before you lose sight of a crankbait, maybe 3ft or so and a huge black and green swirl grabbed it! i had a few seconds of a fight and man it felt big, but it took drag and in those days our reels were the cheapest baitcasters you could get here in hawaii, they were no match for a fish of this caliber. it was soon quite tangled in the tree. at first i could feel it, then nothing......... at the time a 4$ crankbait wasn't worth losing to us impoverished surfer dudes. the fish was lost but i was damned gonna get my lure back!! so i stripped down outa my sweats, i had board shorts on underneath and proceeded to stick my leg into the chilly lake water.  brrrrrrrrrr........ my whole leg submersed and still couldn't get ahold of the branch the lure was on. jumped in ( young and brave aka stupid and poor lol) i swam myself to the tree and went under feet first several times trying to get to the branch my lure was on. no luck, dove under head first finally followed the line down but still couldn't find the right branch. it seemed the line was wrapped around several. i finally was ready to give up and break it off. my close friend and partner decided he was taller and i was having wayyyyyyy to much fun so in he dove to assist. what a site that woulda been, two dumbasses diving under the water trying to find something.......... in the south they call it noodling!! hahahaha thats gonna piss someone off.anyway he managed to get his toes on the line and make several attempts into the tree limbs. finally on one he came up shouting there was something still on the line!!  no sooner had he said it than this behemoth  fish surfaced not 12in in front of me and started to slowly swim away!! i was in shock all the while my friend screaming  to get my pole!! get on the boat!!! its still hooked!! i snapped out of it grabbed my pole still in the water and pulled myself onto the pontoon. another great thing about the hobie cat was it was very easy to get back onto. i didn't get much of a fight but dragged the surfaced fish over onto the boat just as my friend flipped himself onto the trampoline . i couldn't believe the size of this fish!! by far the largest we had caught in the 4 years of frenzied bass fishing we had been doing. at the time i thought maybe  id catch more like this, that this wasn't an anomaly but rather a progression of our prowess. i know now how rare such a fish is in our little lake. its been 16 years!!!!!!! and i have a few 5lbers and several 4lbers and quite a few 3s but nothing this size since!!! one has to wonder if our cheap scale was even right on the weight, i wish we had taken dimensions to check with that equation that determines weight. just to see if we were close. it seemed so huge and still dwarfs a lot of pictures of bass i have seen that claim to be 10lbs!! alas we shall never know. we took a few pictures and hastily returned to mammoth to the lake hopefully to breed and multiply. it was very stressed and wore out after being stuck for 15 to 20 min around those tree limbs. 16 years is a long time. between giants, recently there have been more reports of big mamas being caught. several in the 6lb range a couple of 8 pluses. and a 7lber last year in a tournament with pics to prove it!! i have been hurling swim baits and big bass baits trying to find my trophy but to no avail yet, it all comes down to time on the water i know i can get one with enough time on the water!! its not uncommon to see 5lb tucs and the occasional 6lbers maybe even 7lbers. but any bass over 3 lbs here is a hawg and anything over 5lbs is a trophy!! the quest will continue!! hell it took that very same partner of mine 16years to get his 6lb 9 oz trophy , on another island !! hahaha same exact weight how do you like that!!! it turned out to be a magical day with my friend out fishing me in numbers it seemed the lake was on fire with fish biting every few casts. in no time we had boated 25 fish between us. nothing so large as the first one but  at several points my friend had more weight than i he was doing so well!! alas the trip ended early around lunch and lord only knows what we could have done if we had stayed out all day!! a magical day none the less and a fish i have yet to best!

peacock bass spawn

 the peacock bass spawn usually starts around late march or early april, it can begin later or earlier depending on the water temp and weather. the bass spawn here  is very different than the peacock bass sawn. the largemouth actually need the water temp to drop in to the 60s for the spawn to start, the tucanare won't start till the water temp climbs into the mid to upper 70s.  the tucanare  also spawn in a much longer pattern, the bass might spread out the spawn over a months time but the peacocks will go several months and may very well go from march into june! after the peacock bass have picked a site, usually under a lay down or next to a rock. they luv wood cover nearby! the pair will lay and fertilize the eggs. nests like the largemouth nests tend to be in 1-3 ft of water and appear  as bowl shaped cleared out spots with the white eggs visible from the surface. the mated pair will viciously guard this nest and their eggs, even more so than largemouth do. there has been a very popular trend of nest fishing aka site fishing here in the past few years. many anglers have no problem  throwing  live bait or a lure into a nest and its almost a guaranteed hookup every time. and often a 3-5lb fish too boot. the fights aren't long and  as dramatic as usual seeing as sight fishing  is usually almost a pitching technique. many videos on you tube of peacock bass fishing in hawaii are of nest fisherman. i refuse to nest fish here, maybe on a 78.000 acre impoundment where millions of tons of fish are spawning, or if it was an elite tournament with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line. but our little lake has so many problems and putting more stress on the fish seems irresponsible. people say that as long as you release them right away they go right back on the nest and its ok, what they fail to mention is often you can catch the same fish several times as it protects its young and nest. and often catch both fish off the nest in very short order. even if they return  right to the nest and the other predators haven't raided it yet, you have stressed a fish during the fight and cost it valuable energy which it cannot replace as it won't feed again till the fry are several weeks older. in typical human fashion we seem to too more damage than good during this spawn. even a boat on full plane can damage a nest and eggs irreparably. there is a period after the water temp reaches about 75 degrees or so in march that  they will go on a serious feed in order to store for energy for the spawn. thats the time you wanna get them, the big ones and small ones roam in wolf packs looking for anything they can overtake. top waters rule the day during this time period, but often any lure tossed against a bank with peacocks sitting just offshore can illicit a tremendous explosion! any type of jerkbait , soft plastic stick baits, prop baits, will all get some good action. and often at the end of a longer cast, allowing for many jumps and surges. the kind of action you wanna see from such a gamefish! as a bonus the fish is full of food and energy, no nest to guard or fry to worry about. and when released it will go right back out and eat some more. this is the time i recommend whole heartedly as a angler who would like to see the fishery grow.

dropping water

 as i had mentioned in saturdays post the fish had moved from the prior fishing trip.  previously i had found many of my fish around lay downs and other wood cover. the weather has been stable, cool nights often in the  low 60s or upper 50s had dropped the water temp to 69 making me think the spawn was going to happen any day. the daytime temps although mild seem to have made the water temp climb a bit, back up to 71.5 by saturdays trip. the water level had dropped nearly 4 ft over the 2 weeks and is continuing to drop at the rate of 6 inches a day. the dropping water seems to have been a major factor in where i found the fish on saturday, although the local hot stick seems to have found and fired up some very large peacock bass during the tournament on sunday, i didn't have such luck. its been my experience that bass will find  a comfort zone very close to deep water as the level of the lake drops. for instance steep bluffs or points, somewhere they can still move shallow to feed yet have the comfort of knowing they aren't in danger of being high and dry. they seem to abandon coves and shallow wood cover unless the water level stabilizes. grass beds as well seem to become ghost towns. on the opposite end of that i think the peacock bass will sit just outside the grass lines waiting for the falling water to flush the smaller fish out into the open. we have all seen the pods of little talapia in the muddy shallows being rampaged by hungry tucs! for some reason the bass don't seem to key on this feeding bonanza. hopefully the water will stabilize soon, because temp or not mother nature will start the spawn in ver short order  and without a constant water level the nests will be destroyed.

saturday jan 21st 2012

 near blue bird skies. light winds from the northeast at 10-15mph, lighter in the morning more prevalent by afternoon. water temp 71.5 at launch.barometer 30.01 and steady. misty passing showers till 9 am. lake level at 74.5 on the usgs gauge. air temp was 69 at launch with mid 70s by noon, although with the breeze in the shade it felt much colder at times. water clarity ranged from 1-2ft, much more stained in south fork much clearer in the main basin. the moon was just a sliver off the new moon phase, i believe sunday will be the new moon. started the day out round the bend into south fork as we have on our last few trips. water level is visibly down about 3-4ft since last time. i was throwing a big balsa red crank bait with a square bill, dived to about 3-5ft. my son id in love with his buzz bait, its very visual for him to watch it gurgle along. its also very weedless/treeless hahaha good for me. its getting good at casting it and it has a special blade that floats so its perfect for him, id hate to try to find another if he ever loses it hahaha. it also has caught fish for me in the past so it has a good track record  that could lead to his first fish he hooks on his own! it didn't take long maybe 10 casts or so down the bank to get a red devil, not what i was hoping for but a good start anyway. we worked  the whole perimeter of the cove area with no further success. worked the steeper side of the straightaway. i had switched to a strike king wake shad along the grass edges hoping to lure up a giant mama bass or tuc. i was alternating  between the crank bait and the wake shad. right before the gravel patch on the straightaway( i really need to name these areas and make a map) the crank bait loaded up with something huge! fought it for a few seconds and realized it was fighting like a tuc or bass. tried to give the pole to my son but it nearly pulled him and the rod overboard hahaha got the net and landed a nice 7lb channel catfish. it really pulled and fought! quite a thrill even though not our target species. we worked  the grass banks all along the next few straightaways and did manage one nice little largemouth on the wake shad, unfortunately my son didn't keep the pressure on the fish and it got off right at the boat.. fished the ironwoods pretty thoroughly with a jig and craw. went up into rose street slough fished it with the crank and some jig and craw, nothing. went up to the old military bridge and fished some lay downs as well as the bridge itself. water level is perfect right now to get under the bridge even for a larger boat, and there is a lot of flotsam and jetsam along the bridge itself. but no fish seemed to be there, perhaps a penetrating bait of some sort with some heavy flipping line might have done better in the mat. worked as far as the east range bridge and even into the cove along the other old bridge pilings up there. had a hit on the jig and craw at one of the pilings but the bass struck at the boat and only had the trailer. turned around headed for the boat ramp, fished a lot of the way back with no luck. it was nearly lunch and time to trade the lad out. south fork has been getting better potential wise, still not to where it was in the days before the salvinia and hyacinth invasions. a lot of the lay downs and grass beds were cut and taken out to combat the weeds. i really need to work on adding cover and it could make a big difference. all of my biggest fish have been from south fork. ran down to the main basin and fished the ironwoods by pink retirement condo, used the crank and a texas rigged worm alternating. with no luck. moved down to the coves along county yard . was hoping to get them on the outside points staging before the coves but they went there. ran down to boy scout island and threw at the long ridge that runs out along the kunia side. i held out on the deeper side and threw a poes 400 in green and chartreuse , first cast caught a nice little largemouth about 1lb. as i was unhooking it a boat with some new people in it ran right between myself and the point, you'd think common sense would dictate etiquette  about that, after all they had just seen me catch the fish and still ran right over my spot!! tried several more casts and switched to a drop shot but no more luck. ran down and drop shotted the cove right after miki miki flats. no success. ran down to kemo'o island fished the saddle and a couple of small points around the island alternating a deep diver crank and the drop shot. nothing there. ran across to kemo'o pub side of the bluffs and worked it along with a tube bait texas rigged but got nothing all the way to condo loin. switched to a black and blue 3/8oounce jig with a mister twister black 4 tail grub trailer on it. didn't take long to hook a bass on condo point. nice little 1lb largemouth.  ran along the condo cliffs facing mauka into the straight and wind. caught  several more pitching it right along the cliff face. including a nice tagged 4871 largemouth, it was kinda skinny and should have been much bigger but the scale registered 2.4 on the boca grip and 1.13 on the rapala digital. it was nearly 19 in long and should have been a 3 lb fish! after the first pass turned back and tried again with storm storm tube texas rigged but drew nothing. time was running out so i headed back and threw at boy scout island point a few more times. no luck. ran back up to that large tree that is in the water near the bridge into wahiawa. worked the perimeter with cranks and a spinnerbait. finally pitched a tube into the innermost branches and caught a 1.5lb largemouth , nearly didn't get him out!! that was a braid situation for sure hahaha i was brave throwing 10 lb mono in there. I'm sure i could have flipped that tree apart but it was late and ending the day on a fish is best! all in all a great day, but then most fishing days are!  couple of red devils, some nice bass, and a monster catfish. if i had to fish it again on sunday id say throw a topwater till 9 am, maybe a rebel pop r or a small buzz bait around the grass edges. switch to a creature style bait or a jig and craw afterwards. a dark color would be best, i don't think it needs to be a specific color. i had lost my camo jig earlier on a hangup and the switch to the black and blue seemed to work just fine. i think the dark color and the trailer are more important than the color. the trailer just needs to have a action of some sort, wether it be a thumping rage craw or the squirming mr twister trailer, as long as it moves i think it will work. the fish had moved exactly where they should have with the dropping water, they were off on points and vertical banks. they wanted to be able to move up and down quickly and i think most bass i caught were in the 5-8ft range of depth. there was another piece of the puzzle i didn't quite get fit it, but not all banks and points held fish even with the depth right. wind might have been a factor. cover didn't seem to be. tried out the go pro camera today, battery dosent last long, will  have to dial it in to get it right, but video will be coming soon!

lake wilson hawaii species

 well lets see......... there are northern strain largemouth bass, smallmouth bass although quite rare in the warm lake waters. there are butterfly peacock bass, a smaller version of the amazon ones so many people drool over, not to worry ours still attain a doable size and fight just as hard.there are oscar,tilapia, and channel catfish. there are pongee aka snakeheads, no not the giant northern ones. although now rare as well, i hear they are good eating if your brave enough lol just watch out they got serious teeth on them. there are bluegills that are coming back after a near extinction during the salvinia invasion. recently within the last 12 -15 years red devils and many invasive cichlids have been introduced. we have  plecos aka armored catfish that  would fill a whole fish tank they are so big. their are red eared turtles now as well. freshwater needlefish a very small type of gar. their are mosquito fish and thread fin shad. and every once in awhile someone will fish up a pacu or some other strange or dangerous fish. its a very diverse fishery and it has suffered do to peoples carelessness. the game fish have really taken a hit with all the aggressive invasive species. hopefully they make a strong comeback!!

Lake Wilson Hawaii

 lake wilson aka wahiawa reservoir was created in 1905-06 for irrigation purposes. mainly for the wailua sugar plantation and dole pineapple. with a water capacity of 3 billion gallons at full pool,19miles of shoreline, and 350-400 acres of surface area. the lake is the largest freshwater body on the island.  it was made be damming the convergence of the north and south forks of kaukonahua stream. with earthen and rock dam which is roughly 83ft high from the floor of the valley below, not sea level. one of the main misconceptions is that the usgs gauge is registering the height of the water level in the lake. but when its reporting 82ft the lake depth is closer to 56ft at its deepest, and i have sonored 65ft in areas nearer the dam. there is one public park and boat ramp located in wahiawa town proper. the hawaii state freshwater park. it is run by DLNR or dept of land and natural resources and their officers, all 3 of them allocated to the north shore. do make their presence known from time to time. checking on vehicles  and regulations being followed. the ramp and lake itself are the property of DAR or division of aquatic resources. confused yet? we anglers are hahaha never know who's in charge anymore these days. the damn and the lake were part of  a trust that has very recently dissolved, and hence dole pineapple ran the lake and controlled its resources under that trust. another player in the confusing who's in charge of what. the lake is old and most of the cover now consists of lay downs along the bank and grass along the rim when the waters high. structure is the same as on any lake with points and steep bluffs,humps, and contour changes. much of the old stream channel has long ago silted in and no longer is definable in most places of the lake. most banks drop away rather quick and shallow water areas are quite limited. shoreline access is abundant, especially during periods of low water. check the gauge at the usgs link below. around 70ft it starts to get very accessible around the perimeter. but of course a boat does allow many more options. do to the koloko damn disaster on kaui in 2006 the state and dole have decided a good water level for the lake would be at 65ft. a bit low by most of us boaters standards. the ramp becomes quite long and tricky and north and south fork become nearly unfishable. at 55ft the ramp becomes unusable and above the water line. anything below 62ft is quite tricky when launching as there may only be 2-3ft of water at the end of the ramp. most areas of the lake are a soft red mud and heavy rains or runoff can quickly turn the lake orange. there are some harder types of structure but again limited.there are several islands and many many points and coves to fish. as small as the lake is it would be quite difficult to fish it all in one day thoroughly. a height of about 75-72ft is perfect to get the mix of grass ,lay downs and deeper structure for good fishing, at least in my opinion. an entry permit is needed by state regulations and all persons must have a PFD with them to utilize the lake. a freshwater license is needed to fish and is available at most sporting good stores , satellite city halls and even online at the hawaii DLNR website. price varys but its between 5-15 dollars depending on resident or visitor status, actually a very good deal considering its good for a year for residents and 30 days for visitors. the entry permit can be had at any sporting good store and most satellite city halls. often the DLNR rangers won't check for the entry permit just the license.surrounding wahiawa town, the lake is ringed by homes and condos. 2 bridges pass over it on each side of the town. the north fork ends in a forest reserve and the south for in a military reservation. there are supposedly fishing boundaries but again enforcement is lax at best. turn the corners into either fork above the bridges and its like a whole different place, quiet green, relaxing. what better way to spend a day!

helping fellow anglers

one of the reasons i started this blog was to have my own freedom to voice opions and not worry about whom i ticked off or offended. i used to post on the hawaiibassfishing forum all the time, and still do although not in the detail anymore that i once did. i lurked for several years gleaning what little info it yielded about conditions and where the bite was. then i joined spurred by my sense of being to add or contribute what i had learned over the years. id put detailed accounts of what where and how i fished and what was working. tips id learned or just basic bass fishing sense. i got some positive feedback at times, at other times i think people thought i was some jerk thought he was hot shit....... course i did and still do at times hahahaha. but the forum has grown  quite a bit. a lot of regulars  there and on the lake now. not everyone as pleasant as you'd hope.  just in the very recent  few months the reports have been very vague, people saying caught 20 fish! killing em. or skunked today blah blah blah. no real information. nothing to help form a pattern or give a clue as to where to look. there are a couple of hot sticks, and rightly so they can flat out fish, that post. and the posts are almost just taunting. everyone is saying how tough it is and these guys are all ya slayed em today lots of big uns, or wow couldn't help but catch like 30 fish but all small. meanwhile  all the other posts are like was lucky to get one or 2. or nothing today better luck to the next guy. you'd think you could give a helping hand to fellow anglers with just a tid bit of whats working, especially if your such a bad ass on the water. I'm sure its the same everywhere i know guys out there i have met on the forum and we are friends now and chat every time we see each other out. and others that don't even wave as they go by. our little freshwater community is so small you'd think it would be more tight knit but it has a lot of growing pains these days i guess, aka spot burn, ramp rage, over crowding. i guess its the same all over, i  have to wonder if the kvds and skeet reeses are approachable. you hear good and bad stories about all the pros. one has to wonder......... but anyway. this blog and myself will try to keep the info coming, i can't promise it will always be valid or get you on the fish. but it will give a starting point for anyone reading it to get out there and form your own patterns!

lake etiquette

well friday i guess there was an incident on the lake as evening rolled in. some guys bank fishing said a boat came in full plane, probably in a rush as it was 530 pm and getting late. washed a pretty good wave up on the bank soaking their chairs and equipment. I'm surprised there wasn't some kind of confrontation. hurry or no hurry the bank fisherman mostly deserve not to be washed away by a wake. to make it even worse apparently after the guy had left, another boat came in, a smaller fiberglass sears game fisher type with two very wet pissed off guys in it paddling by hand. apparently the first boat which was described as a 16-18ft fiberglass bass boat with a bow pedestal seat on it and a very large outboard. had hurtled by them causing them to flip over in the ensuing wave. now, we have a very very small lake, often a mixed bag of kayaks, rafts, small johnboats, and it seems more and more real bass boats. i have had ocean sized boats go by with twin 150s blazing and have seen and had huge wakes pound me before. most of us out there follow simple etiquette , straight-aways if you plane and no one is around ok, corners and blind spots slow down. other boats on the water, wether fishing or running, slow down to pass, nearly an idle if they are fishing. bank fisherman deserve not to be waked as well slow down. a lot of guys think on plane a boat makes less wave and pushes less water, maybe but the energy of that wave travels a lot farther before running out. banks are steep and muddy on our lake, they have enough to deal with besides the waves, we were all bank fisherman at one time!! besides that often there are kids on or near the water and i have NEVER seen one wearing a floatation device. one errant wake and that kid could be lost, how would anyone like to live with that. as far as bank jumping, theres room for a lot of boats out there, if someones in the spot you wanna fish come back to it. i have had guys ask me to jump in front of me during tourneys, i have said yes but  being i was there first id be hopping them too, its only fair, just cause its your money on the line its a public water get in line right. i have had boats literally pull right in front of me like 20 ft on my bank and start fishing, thats just asking for a confrontation and a total lack of class in my opinion. i have seen guys fishing and had another boat run between them and the bank, a big no no!! i personally had 2 guys trolling with hundreds of feet of line out and cut right in from of me on a point, wrapping their line and lures all over my boat and lower unit!! i cut the lines and they never slowed down!! thankfully  i haven't seen them since or  i may have had to really given them something to think about, took me awhile to untangle the line off my boat! launching too, don't hog the ramp, trailer up launch set the boat up before you do so you don't take too long to get it there. if your in line ask if you can go first if they are still setting up. don't park in a trailer stall if you don't have a trailer. i could go on and on and on and on!! bottom line is use common sense!!!!! theres an extreme lack of it these days. you and i are not the only people out there and everyone can make it a better time for themselves and others if we just do a little self policing. otherwise more rules and enforcement will happen because a few idiots.

Peacock bass fishing in hawaii

figured id touch on the subject briefly to fill in a space. yes sir we got peacock bass here, aka pavon, aka tucanare. they are in their off season right now but come march they will start to fire up big time. we have the smaller butterfly peacocks here on oahu. although they still average 1-4lbs. and the 2-3lbs are quite common. 4,5,6lbs are trophy size and 7,8,9 lb are not unheard of! any peacock will fight, straighten hooks,break poles,snap line, like a fish on crack. ultra aggressive especially toward top waters. their explosive hits will put your heat in your throat every time. a largemouth will often slurp or pop a bait on the surface, maybe crush it every once in awhile. but a tuc (we here  call them tucs,pronounced tukes) will slam a bait like a bowling ball dropped from a ladder into the water every time! no half hearted tries, no slurps or pops on the surface. just huge violent slashing explosions that often belie the size of the fish hahaha. i have seen hits on a prop bait that looked like a 10lb fish should have made them and pulled in a little 1lb guy full of attitude. even the misses will nearly have you shaking on the bottom of the boat. introduced around 1956-58, the tucs have really done well and complimented the fishery  the state record is a 9lb 4.2 oz peacock caught on kaui 11/5/90.being somewhat tropical fish, the tucs will spawn in much warmer water than largemouth bass. the mid to upper 70 range will usually trigger them sometime in march through june. then they settle into a schooling pattern  and chase the pelagic shad around till they go on a heavy fall feed, and then a sort of winter  hibernation later on as the water cools. we will go further into hawaiis peacock bass patterns as they happen. hells yes always a big big thrill to catch one!

memories

 this weekend was the tournament of champions for the hawaii freshwater fishing association. hence i didn't feel like jockeying for position with 10 other boats at the ramp. so no fishing report today for this weekend. i really should join the club though their next tournament is the normal january one i think on the 21st. every year i say i should join and every year i kinda let it pass, guess I'm not driven to compete like some other people. i was filling the fishing void though by watching saturday morning shows and hank parker was being philosophical , he posed the question what makes a good fishing trip? a lot of people he said would awnser that it would be the amount of fish you catch. another might say it would be a lunker you  caught on a trip. perhaps still another would say it was winning a competition at the lake. then he said well. there was this one time........... and he proceeded to tell a story about a memorable trip with his 7yr old son. a trip that had stuck in his mind to this day. i won't be able to paint the picture in as much detail as he did but ill give a brief summary. a beautiful morning, spring possibly early summer, light just coming up as they sat on the bank. deer just walking around the edges of the pond. ducks and other birds flitting about and making their early morning calls. basically god had painted a scene that city people only view in paintings or pictures. and yet they were in it, breathing it,feeling it,living it. and his son overcome by the moment looked at him and said "dad i always want it to be like this " powerful stuff for sure. well i thought about my own reasons for fishing and my most memorable trips. of course a lot involved quanities of fish, a few involve big fish. but the best and most memorable ones always involve my son. i find these days i really can't feel the same way on the water unless he's there with me. i often find myself thinking " son i always want it to be like this".............

pre spawn pattern

well the temps right, the weather is right, the moon phase isn't but in a few weeks it will be. but the fish are right where they are supposed to be these last 2 weeks.the last couple of weeks the bass have been up in the wood cover, often snuggled up right to the bank. its a classic early pre spawn place for them to be. its kinda funny , here in hawaii the water has to cool down to activate them, on the mainland it has to warm up hahaha. they are lethargic still right now. mother nature hasn't tripped the trigger to start the feeding frenzy. although they have been fairly co operative with very slow moving baits dragged around lay downs and  under ironwood roots and branches, they haven't turned to the aggressive feeding to fatten up pattern yet. i predict it will happen soon, i tried several secondary points outside of the coves to check for staging bass but with no luck. that will be a bonanza for anyone that lucks into the few days they are there preparing to move into the coves. its also a good place if a cold front comes thrue. they will pull back out to deeper water unless they are on the nest. the big females will be there before and after the spawn. always check em this time of year!!  ohhhh man i wanna be out on the water this weekend so bad dammit!! hahaha

27$ crankbait vs 3.99$ crank bait part 1

ok here we have 2 crank baits as similar as i could get them. the megabass cyclone mr 7 on the top and a bass pro shops xps on the bottom. pretty close. not an exact match but pretty close. shame shine similar color and size. hooks are different. I'm just curious although its not an exact match i guess i was wondering  if the 27$ is worth it. so far the fish haven't cooperated on either lure. the mega bass has a slight advantage of running deeper. maybe 8-10 ft the xps runs about 6-8ft. i haven't ever really thought the red hooks made a difference but one never knows. my experiment is a bit flawed. i don't have identical poles to throw them on and although similar they aren't exact matches in color and action. still when the cranks start working I'm gonna have to test them against each other. the cyclone when run at the tip of the pole in the water does leave a nice little almost vapor like trail of water movement behind it. it also has very little resistance to it,like a much smaller crankbait.will the cyclone be worth the money? we shall see!!

ethanol free gas

 was reminded just the past few weekends about the great side effects of ethanol gas on our outboards. i have run ethanol free gas in my own outboard since acquiring the pro team 165 tracker boat about 3 years ago. another boat on the lake sputtered by then died, had to be towed in by a passing boat. id have helped but he was already in tow. last weekend outboard fixed he was out on the lake once again. fouled plugs supposedly. maybe cheap oil maybe no fuel filter,bad mixture? more then likely bad gas!! ethanol wrecks havoc on older outboards. i run a 2001 mercury 25 hp and it needs all the t.l.c. it can get. so i compiled a fast list of some if not most of the ethanol free pumps on the island. if anyone knows of anymore feel free too add to my list for the benefit of everyone. they aren't all conveniently located but in most cases there will be one close enough. i usually fill a 6 gallon can  whenever I'm running low and know i will be near a station with  ethanol free gas. a 6 gallon can will usually get me 3 -4 trips out on the lake before it runs out. the hassle is worth not melting down the outboard. the list 1) the fuel dock, in the ala wai boat harbor2) aloha gas in kahaluu, right across from the hygienic store3)the deli at heeia kea small boat harbor 4)kaneohe shell station 5)union 76 station in pearl city 6) aloha gas in waianae 7)freedom gas in waianae 8) haleiwa small boat harbor. if any have changed or you'd like to add to the list please feel free to comment. and keep the outboards healthy!

berkley havoc contest

ohhhh yaaaaaa  apparently i also won  a bunch of soft plastic berkley havoc baits in a contest put on by the site wired2fish. its a great site, very well put together with tips and information. how many Facebook pages that you "like" aka join send you a welcome letter with 2 stickers in it!! yep great site very professional and not that I'm biased now ( ok maybe a little) lol but they run lots of contests and give away tons of cool stuff, before this it was a few very extensive tackle packs and a couple of hd5 lowrance depth finders with side imaging. very cool to have won, and i highly recommend you get on Facebook and like/join the site or join them at wired2fish.com!

I kam Extreme

well i think it cost me around 99$ bought it just for the very purpose of creating a video blog about fishing or whatever. the concept is solid and i have to say it worked fine for the first 3 or 4 times i used it. hardest part was it only had about 45min of filming and you had to remember whatever you looked at it filmed!! so needless to say it was taking a little getting used too. i made sure not to get it wet or over charge it , made sure it was  empty before the next use so it wouldn't run out of space.all well and fine then it started turning itself off. it would start fine and then shut off after 20-30 sec i ended up with a lot of very very short vids. made sure it was empty and made sure it was charged. it worked fine at home after i did that. then i got a 8gig  micro card to try and i put it in and that was it. its totally screwed now. won't turn off, completely locked up. both lights on have to reset in order for it to shut off. .website says to reformat it, thats fine but it won't even be recognized by the comp, i have tried a mac and a windows system. it just stays on and it won't connect to the computer. apparently after reading many many many reviews , this is a common problem. one that the company that makes them seems  to be satisfied to accept, i haven't tried to contact anyone but from what I've read they resolve the issue by offering another pair at a discounted price. of course who wants another piece of junk for  a few less dollars. ohhh well like i said i like the concept, guess  i will have to try a one of those go pro hd hero2 cameras. at least then i can take it out on my board and get some surfing footage too!! hell i don't even think they were uv protected anyway. had to wear em  for all day and got headaches the times i did! ill be glade to file them in the trash!!

january 7th 2012

 well  i kept thinking to myself i could leave half my gear at home and still be set. i knew the conditions were about the same as last week and i knew the water was comparable, very stable weather. i should have listened to myself i coulda had a lot more room on the boat hahaha. well started out gorgeous morning, clear skys very brisk  though with the air temp at 61 at 7 am. only us in the parking lot. sun coming up just a beautiful time to be out on the lake. we headed up around the corner in to south fork. my son calls it the big circle. we started out with spinnerbaits and buzz baits working the perimeter. few crank bait casts to the submerged hump. nothing there. worked the grass well up the strait away, was disgusted at the amount of garbage floating around. we started fielding as much as we could and fit in a large plastic bucket we found. i keep a wide gap net for garbage collecting on board. i know its a bandaid but every bit helps, and it teaches my son  good habits and right and wrong about tossing garbage into nature. fished up onto the old gravel bank and had my braid snap on one cast tossing my nice manns clacking buzz bait up into the forest somewhere. it broke behind the leader which i usually have just to prevent such an occurrence. so much for that. switched to the spinnerbait full time with no success. fished every nook and cranny deep and shallow around the next corner till we got to the ironwood bluff on the next straightaway. made a few casts with the spinnerbait then switched up to the jig and craw i had used last week, no success. ran upto the old bridge and threw a senko along the pilings. no luck ,but lots of cover and its too high to go under to low to go over . no access to upper south fork. 75ft is a good height to get a boat past it right under the top horizontal member. at 72ft theres another member that will block it.there are a couple of ironwood groves along the bank that showed promise but my son was impatient and demanded a run toward the main basin. i managed to hold him off long enough to make a few casts with a senko in camo color (green mottled with yellow) up to some lay downs and caught our first fish of the day. a typical 14in 1plus lb largemouth. made the run down to the main basin and fished the huge new lay down right after the  wahiawa bridge, nothing. ran down further to the ironwood bluff next to the retirement condos, nothing. worked the county yard cove and points, nothing. there cranks,spinnerbaits, bit of senko and jig mixed in. tried a white pearl 4" tube texas rigged, its got great action but drew nothing . ran down to boy scout island and saw tons of baitfish pods on the graph at 8-12ft and so we stopped and threw some drop shot along the boy scout island point that extends to kunia point,worked along the grass in the boy scout saddle area too with a spinnerbait to no effect. it was a very chilly slow morning. by lunch it was time to take the kid in and pick up lunch. still the only one out at 12 noon. went back out with renewed determination, the bluff/cliff pattern  had to still be going so i went back to the jig and craw i had used last week  a 3/8 ounce brown jig head in cammo color with a filthyfisherman  craw cut in half for the trailer in green pumpkin. awesome combo! worked several bluffs with the tube first but they just werent there or weren't  interested. drop shotted the kemoo island saddle and cranked it a bit with a deep diver, to no avail. finally had a hit on my drop shot rig on one of the smaller hidden points off kemoo island. lost it  though before i got to see it, felt pretty good anyway. then nothing else.finally said hell with it, ran upto kinkaids to fish the steep bluff side with the jig. bout the 3rd or 4th cast caught a little 8 in haterchey fish, good news they are growing and are just about big  enough to take a bait!! good sign i worked every limb and piece of wood in the water i could find, ironwood roots rock of course! largemouth luuuvvvvv em!  caught another tagged fish about halfway down the bluff. 4260 weighed in at 1.4lbs and 14in long. ok I'm back on last weeks pattern. ran up the bluff side then down the other side. caught another cookie cutter bass just as it turns into tuc bay across from morgans point. decided to run to condo cliff. time was 3pm or so and running out i wanted to hit vertical so i moved . i felt wood wasn't as important as depth but a few other fisherman seemed to think the wood was the key. 3 boats out by this time. myself,john, jeff. jeff doing pretty good with marcus and caught 9 i believe on his agent utah bait along wood cover. i managed another small 1plus lb bass along the north side of condo cliffs. then finally just as it turns into the military housing on the straightaway i got a nice 2.2lb bass to finnish out my day. it was late and chilly i had put my jacket back on and was ready to head in. stopped at the boy scout island point one last time. cranked it and drop shotted it, nothing. ran upto county yard and fished the bluffs opposite it, nothing. ran into the straightaway just before the bridge and fished some of the lay downs along the bank. had one hit on my senko but missed it. finished off my day fishing the step bluff along the old water trestle just before the ramp, nothing. all in all a great beautiful day. i had 6 fish with a nice 2.2lber to anchor it. it was tough i might have done better had i used my pattern from last week sooner . i was looking for something better but it wasn't there.the days go by so fast it seems now,was nearly 5pm by the time i came in. water temp is very close to spawning range, and theres a very strong cold front coming in on thursday. it should drop the temp in the lake to trigger the spawn. the pre spawn areas i fished had nothing there yet. cold water and next full moon will be key!! monday is januarys full moon and the cold front will be thur/fri/sat. so hopefully febuarys full moon and the 1 or 2 weeks prior will be the key to catching the big ones this year!! i know i will be throwing a big ole swim bait my next few outings!!! 2 things. first notice the color change on the bottom of the ironwoods, the water is dropping 4-6 in a day since last week. secondly i noticed i have been calling my yum dinger a senko, its got a hook notch in it which senko dosent have, its a dinger from yum and I'm noty  going back and editing it all back out hahaha. and i didn't realize the last pic was a video. i forgot my phone takes video, i know I'm techy challenged! i will try to shoot more video from the glasses as soon as i get them working

the line i use

ok well the very first basic thing to start with is gear. i thought to myself  should i start at rod,reels,lures.  but  then superseded it all with line. a lot of people and i know I'm one of them, struggle to keep line choices simple and not to complex........... problem is there are sooooo soooo many to choose from with every one claiming this and that. where does one start!! most of us aren't even sure what diameter works for what and how to even spool a reel. ok first off I'm not being paid a sponsorship , wish i was but i have some pretty good lines i really like and I'm gonna share these with you all. i have gone thrue many many lines as anyone who fishes does and have learned a lot, especially from other anglers. there are basically 4 main types of line. monofiliment,fluorocarbon,braid, and hybrids. the monos have great stamina and tend to be more castable and limp than the fluoros. of course the fluoros are nearly invisible under water and have great sensitivity and very low stretch. braids have incredibly strong abrasion resistance  no stretch and cast very well, as long as its not into the wind hahahaha. the hybrid lines combine various qualities of  the lines depending on what they are mixed with. all of them seem to have a place and time where the excel. a lot of line fads seem to come in and take over, when braid first showed up it was on every real of every pro. touted as the superfine to replace all others. it didn't last long as most fads tend to do.  it  floats so its not good for finesse where you need little or no weight with the lure. it tends to be brittle and sudden jerks or impacts will snap it. casting in any kind of stiff breeze is a nightmare, and the birds nests are multiplied but 10 in the severity!!still there is a place for a braid in my reels.fluorocarbon was the next huge craze. for awhile everyone touted it as the line to beat all lines! it was and still is much pricier than mono and even braid, its got  terrible memory and tends to jump off spools causing twists and backlashes  the abrasion resistance isn't the best, it tends to get a small nick or rub and thats all it'll take to snap it. even tying knots will burn the line enough when you cinch it down no matter how much spit you put on it hahahaha. again they get better every year and there are applications that it excels in.mono the old standby, often overlooked now but  ever faithful and cheap. a no frills line with mediocre abilities but a good place to start. the hybrids are the new darlings out, not so much a fad as braid and fluoro but its catching on among the pros.  i have been three so many lines and its really tuff because you can't tell till you get a few trips with it if its gonna be one you hate, love , or can live with. as far as monos go i loved the tri max from trilene but it was done away with and most of the new stuff  I'm not impressed with. stern has always left me sour. tried some of the really expensive japanese line and they just went good enough to justify the cost. i have settled on suffix as my mono. i like the cast ability ,abrasion resistance,smooth off the reel and it fishes well. it won't break the pocket and it is all around. haven't really notice much of a difference between the siege and elite, but i think i have more elite than siege on my reels. as for fluoros, i have tried berkley vanish,seaguar,pline.again some really expensive japanese brands and can honestly say i haven't really noticed much of a difference from the ones i have tried. there is a huge difference between fluoro and mono but  between brands i haven't really notice much. i really need to try the suffix brand of 100% fluoro.  i think right now i have seaguar on my reels.braids have come and gone but there are still some standards. spider wire still is pretty good id say my braids are tied between spider wire and fire line. the suffix braid seemed more brittle and some of the other lines i have tried caused so many backlashes i tossed em. the hybrids are what I'm really digging now! i have converted most of my main reels over to yo zuri hybrid. its awesome for all aspects i am really digging that line, great strength , cast ability, abrasion resistance. its kind of a chartreuse color not to gaudy but pretty visible and it turns totally clear into the water like fluoro so you can watch for line movement. its very sensitive. i highly recommend a try, i think once you do  you will load it up. its made for spinning gear but works equally well on bait casters. I'm also digging the suffix deep cranking line, its a crank bait must. way better than fluoro i assure you. is a mon with lower stretch and  higher density so it sinks like a fluoro getting you deeper. and its excellent abrasion too, i rarely have to retie when hitting cover unlike fluoro which really needs to be checked so often when its being used. i was gonna go into knots and spooling but I'm kinda tired will have to save it for another post later. check out those line! man i need a sponsorship hahahaha

discovery

so the lakes been very high at full pool the last couple of weeks, although they are slowly draining it. and there is trash floating everywhere! i mean tons of it so much it would take several days and 10 yard bins to haul it all away. i try to do my part by picking up small bits of flotsam and jetsam but its a bandaid on a jugular.the homeless people just throw most of their stuff down into the lake, the rains wash a lot of clutter in from the streets. and the sad thing is the people that live along the lake just chuck whatever they don't want to haul away down into it too. hell last week i hauled in a 6'10" john carper surfboard its a peter mel machine. little beat up not to bad some patches and 3 fins and it is ready to surf, kinda a ugly design on it but hell surfboards these days run several hundred $ even used! then  this past outing i find a rubber made tub with a big ole hole in it and start filling it up with all sorts of trash as i fish along and i find this unique looking crankbait. it was just floating there all black with algae and hooks rusted off. scooped it up threw it on the bottom of the boat and kept fishing. today i was cleaning up the boat and i found it  sitting there almost forgotten. got some goo begone on it and cleaned it up took off the  rusted split rings put some new red hooks on it and wow its pretty nice looking! its got these weird water vents in it and says 7th anniversary korea megabass on the top. its a green baby bass color and its got a chartreuse bottom. so i go online and research it. damn thing is a 26$ crankbait!! megabass is a japanese company that makes very high end baits. its a cyclone mr 7 and  i guess they are hard to come by. damn if i had hung that lure up id have been diving for it!!! lol thats some serious tears for one bait!! all the more reason i carry a lure retriever. i had a few seconds of maybe i should post it so it can be reclaimed but then the devil on my shoulder  was all like hmmmmmm lets see how it fishes first hahaha hell will it out do a 6$ strike king  curious minds want to know!

evolution

so as we progressed in skill soon bank fishing lost its allure, actually i don't think it ever had any but being somewhat monetarily challenged  boats were kinda out. but as our infatuation grew so did our ingenuity! soon we had a old 14ft hobie cat that the mast had broken off of and it became a makeshift pontoon boat for the lake. we got a lot of strange looks but then being hawaii there really were no real bass boats at the time and most people fished out of any salt water or makeshift vessel they could launch. the early days of paddling that thing around  sure gave us some serious arms! eventually we progressed to an electric trolling motor and from there to a beater outboard. a lot of great memories on that boat, some not so great like the freezing cold nights trapped on the lake in the rain hahaha night fishing hasn't ever really worked out for us. soon the hobie had had its life and modifications run their course, switched to a sevlor raft for awhile , kinda scary to be in something that can puncture when you've got all those sharp hooks around. from there to a fiberglass game fisher and that died on a highway one day in a high wind.  got a 12ft topper from tracker one day from oregon and it worked great but the call of the bass boat was soooo strong!!!! i finally bought one online from oregon and shipped it over, what an nightmare that was logistically . it was and still is a great ONE person craft for the lake with  the way its setup with a small casting deck and foot pedal trolling motor,5 horse honda 4 stroke. but like i said as perfect and compact as it was it had its drawback, it was on my racks on my truck and took time to load and unload and haul to and from the water. still have it and its a backup for the times when the lake is to low to trailer launch. apparently i hadn't learned my lesson because i got another boat online and it was a real bass boat an 18ft tracker fiberglass limited  edition with a 150 blackmax mercury on it. again a total nightmare to get here and register. trailing those big boats is a nightmare! i really don't know how you mainland guys do it, although i do know theres a lot more room on roads and in parking areas that in our state. had to give it up to my lifelong friend who moved with it to kaui and there it is, i guess affectionally called the cadillac by  the other bass club guys hahaha. i was fortunate enough to come by another boat soon after that fit my garage and lifestyle perfectly.  its a aluminum tracker pro165, 25hp merc on it and its just right for our little lake. i think I'm gonna stick with this boat awhile, like any boat I've already thrown a bunch of money and time at it and still have a lot more to go but its already made some great memories and i hope it makes some more!

introduction

 I'm very new to this so bear with me as i try to grow and understand how this all works. my name is Steve and i was born and raised in hawaii. i have been an outdoorsy type for as long as i can remember. my father would take me salt and freshwater fishing on a fairly regular basis, although we never caught much the hours of cheap entertainment and quality memories stick with me to this day. the whole take a child fishing saying is no lie! i grew up fishing bobbers and catching whatever would bite be it tilapia or bluegills, maybe an occasional carp. i was always enthralled by it. salt water never held my interest as much, I'm a avid surfer and id always lose patience and end up in the water rather than fishing it. i didn't really get into bass fishing till i returned from the army sometime around 1992. again i was more of a surfer and it just so happened one summer that the surf was terribly small and inconsistent . a good friend/nearly a brother and i decided on some cheap entertainment and why not fish the lake. freshwater license and worms cost about 2 $ so why not. we fished for several hours a lot of bank crawling and not much to show for it. then as luck would have it we stumbled onto a pair of mating peacock bass next to the ramp. sitting there on a nest in 2ft of water. at the time we had no idea what we were looking at, only that it was 2 huge fish by our standards. they wouldn't look at our worms and bobbers at all. in desperation and having nothing better to do we went to the little old papa san fishing store in wahiawa and got a few different types of baits, some crank baits and a few soft plastic craws and few top waters. little did we know the lifelong obsession with tackle this would lead too hahahaha. several attempts with several different baits lead to a lot of failure. it was finally a plastic crawfish that worked and first one then the other fish were hooked as they grabbed the offending lure in the nest. both of us were hooked as well and our bass fishing infatuation had begun!

last day on the lake of 2011

friday dec 30th,  tuff day on the lake although not quite as bad as it was christmas eve, light showers till about 9am. started round the bend from the boat ramp into south fork.  cranked  a bit on the points and then a spinnerbait along some ironwoods. water temp was hovering around 70 degrees, spawn will begin as soon as the temps drop another few degrees, I'm betting the big girls will move up sometime in january. water level was 80ft and dropping according to the usgs site. moon phase and barometer i kinda missed will have to do better recording on them. moved into the grass beds and turned to a buzz bait but no success. waters been up high about 3 weeks now and as usual the bass seem to really move into the grass the first week but  after a few weeks the bass  tend to scatter and eventually the grass patterns stop producing. never the less i find myself trying it after all my last buzz bait fish a few weeks ago was nearly 4 lbs! a good size for our poor lake these days! worked several spots along the way and finally caught a small  1lb 14in bass on a jig and craw under some ironwoods. tried a few more spots with little success so decided to make a run into the main basin hoping to find more numerous fish. it was 10 am already and things were looking bleak. air temp at launch was 67 degrees at 7 am and by 10 had warmed to about 75, still chilly for us and sweats and jackets were still on. made sure to have the donor on and dialed in hoping id spot something that would give me a clue to a pattern. points seemed bare and nothing really showed deep. fished along hanging gardens and managed another small cookie cutter bass 14in or so and maybe 1lb. will make a renewed effort to keep exact size and weights now for the blog. it was caught on a sweet beaver imitation giving to me by a friend awhile back kinda bigger and not as detailed but they do catch fish. both fish were pretty lethargic so far. fished awhile more with cranks and spinners some buzz baits around boy scout island , but no luck. my son fed the geese and we headed back in for the lunchtime handoff to the wife. he's usually done by 1030-11 am but today the boring seemed to fly by and neither of us were actually ready to call it quits hahahaha. we did the trade off , kid/for lunch and i made a run down lake to try  a more serious attempt to set a  pattern. our local hotstick had mentioned he had a 21 fish day on thurs and as usually that  was the extent of his report. so far i wasn't seeing it, but every day is different. i knew from that report that whatever he was fishing it wasn't a slow pattern, i know he dosent get out on the lake early and dosent stay out very late, hence 21 fish in maybe 6 hours or so of fishing. leads me to believe he had some kinda run and gun join. something fast with retain strikes. i followed suit but it proved elusive.  my donor showed a lot of shad pods at the 8 ft lvl around boy scout island and there were some plops and splushs here and there, but nothing substantial.i threw a  short fluke bait for awhile but  had a few short strikes nothing  worth continuing to chase, basically fan casting hoping to  draw anything up. burnt a lot of time in that area, after i gave up out in the open i drop shotted,spinner baited,and cranked the whole area around every piece of structure and cover i could find. again nothing!tried kemoo island and the saddle. slow rolled spinnerbaits, drop shotted,cranked but nothing there.worked condo cliffs with a senko and crank bait but nothing. finally at 3pm with time running out on my day i picked up a camp 1/4 jig with a filthyfisherman craw trimmed to fit as a trailer. tossed it to the vertical bluff and off it swam! nice feisty 1lber. ok I'm seeing something the lights going on seeing as the 1st 2 fish of the morning were on similar structure and caught with similar lures. worked the bluff face and hooked and lost 4 more in short order! dunno why they came unbuttoned but i was onto a pattern!!! had to basically bounce it onto the cliff face and let it fall vertical, they were nose to the bluffs. anything farther away got nothing. 50% took it on the fall the other 50% grabbed it on the first or second pop of the bottom. i had a strong power finesse pattern going! i was able to duplicate it in several more spots and quickly got 4 more bass all in the same size range. if i saw a bank that had what i needed i stopped and casted to it , working my way back into the ramp. by 4pm i had to go in and as usual had a real good pattern join, if only i had found it much earlier i may have given that 21 fish day a run!! had a great uncrowded day on the lake and tried out some of my new christmas gear. can't complain seeing as the rest of the country is so damn cold, hope to get out again soon!! keep it reel!!!