Fly Fishing Kona - Redux (Part 2 of 2)

Link to Part 1/2

My final day trip was to the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park. This park is situated to the north of the modern Honokohau harbour, and encompasses an ancient Hawai'ian harbour and at least three ancient fish ponds. It has an interpretive site and a recreation of a traditional Hawai'ian boat storage hut, but for the most part it is still fairly natural with the exception of the port-a-potties at the south end. The ancient harbour is a shallow bottomed area protected from the sea by a natural point and an ancient man made sea wall. There are two rock pens that were probably used at one time to hold the daily catch. A mile or more of lava shelves and tide pools stretches to the north of this area and just inland are two ancient fish ponds--at least one of which (the Kaloko Fishpond) is being fully restored.

The ancient harbour bed is home to good numbers of bonefish, but the bottom is not very fly friendly. In fact on my day trip visit and subsequent shorter trips I continually lost fly after fly. It didn't seem to help if they were heavily weighted or unweighted, the fishing gods demanded a sacrifice of flies. It was only during my last stop at this spot that I was able to find a fly that wouldn't catch on every cast--the bendback. These had to be properly constructed, but my losses dropped substantially--even if my catch rate didn't go up. Here again I had to make do with catching a few small trevally and the omnipresent cornet fish.

Outside of the ancient harbour, the mile of beach to the north offers lots of possibilities. Provided the wind is low and the surf is manageable you can wade out some distance and cast beyond the reef edge into deeper water. It's also fun to chase the small trevally, coronet and various reef fish that haunt the flats. Oddly enough small orange and gold flies work well as attractors here as do the usual subdued streamers I favour. On most weekends this area is frequented by locals using lay nets and spinning gear.

Small Trevally

This year, for the first time I took a trip to the Kaloko fish pond at the northern limit of the park. I've walked down the beach towards the pond in the past, but had never actually reached it. I discovered that there is a rough access road off the highway just before the Costco turn-off heading north. The areas where you are allowed to fish are very limited and the water is shallow and brackish, but the pond is choked with milkfish and bones. I was only able to spend an hour here, but aside from snagging the usual fly-eating lava boulders I was finally able to hook up with my first serious gamefish of the trip--a milkfish. Now I can almost hear the snickering, but the milkfish (similar to ladyfish in the Caribbean) are incredible fighters and leapers and every bit as powerful as the bones I later encountered. I was fortunate enough to tag two of these brutes in the 8-12lb range, but unfortunate to have them both shake the fly after some tremendous leaps. A word to the wise about these fish: there are two species, only one of which will (reluctantly) take a lure. So if you find a large concentration and don't get a hook-up or even a follow, you may be calling on the wrong party.

Big Fish Story

East Dock

The last three outings of my trip were early morning affairs and involved getting up before dawn and heading to Honokohau Harbour. There, well away from the surf and in between the docks and charter boats, I found pods of milkfish, goatfish, trevally and big mostly solitary bones cruising just above the bottom. This is not my idea of a "destination" fly fishing spot, but time was tight and the fish were there. For the next three days the ritual became get up at five, fish by six, and back by ten.

The water in the inner east end of the harbour is relatively shallow--in the range of 18' to 25' depending on the tides. There are really only two good spots to get a somewhat clear cast in this area: from the shoreside connecting arm of the east dock or the end of the far eastern finger of the dock.  Here it's necessary to use either a full sink, a sink tip or a shooting head system. I used a 15' type VIII sinking tip and a narrow running line with a countdown retrieve at both locations. Weighted bugs as opposed to streamers were the order of the day, but even here with the mixed mud bottom the snags were such that if the fly touched down there was at least a one in six chance of losing it to a snag--as typical of most harbours, this one has a range of debris waiting to grab the unsuspecting fly.

East End

Until I got the gauge of the depth and how long I needed to count down the best I was able to manage was to interest a few of the colourful reef fish to follow and nip at my fly, but once I got the depth, fly and retrieve figured out I was rewarded with a tantalizing quick tug. Upon retrieving my line I saw that whatever had hit, had hit hard enough to part the 8lb mono tippet I was using. At that point I should have jumped up significantly, but instead I switched to 10lb fluorocarbon. After three or four casts I had another fish on, this one ran about 5 yards before the leader let go. Keep in mind that I had only enough drag on the reel to stop it from backlashing, so it was only the drag of the line in the water that was allowing the fish to break off. With my good flies lost to fish or snags and the time nearing ten, I returned to the condo and went surfing with my kids.

Barred Goatfish

I came equipped for my second visit to the harbour armed with heavier tippet and another four of the successful fly patterns from the previous day. After losing my second fish so quickly, I immediately went with four feet of the 12lb Ultragreen mono. It was tough getting any action in the early hours, but fishing off the eastern finger I was finally able to hook into something with a bit of strength--a 12" barred goatfish. This well marked fish is very similar to bonefish in terms of its feeding habits (mostly crustaceans) and overall shape. I was pleasantly surprised but its dogged fight--a bit like a fighting a large powerful brook trout with lots of fast downward pulls. I picked a second one up before returning to the spot I had fished from the previous day and finally tagged another bonefish. This time when the bonefish took the fly the line didn't part and the fish took off like a rocket. It made it about 40 yards when suddenly the line went slack. Now I'm not a religious man, but I'm surprised the gates of hell didn't open under my feet and suck me down given the amount of swearing I was doing. When I finally retrieved my line I discovered that the leader had held just fine but the #6 Mustad 3407 hook had straightened during the blistering run. Resigned I returned home to tye a few flies and take another crack at it the following morning.

Opened Hook (after attempting to reshape it)

Day three came and I was sure I had the equation solved, I had tied a half dozen flies on the heavier and larger Tiemco 811s hook. The drag was non-existent on my reel and all knots tested and tight. Again fishing in the early hours was slow with only two lost hooks to show for my efforts. I returned to the eastern end of the dock and managed to catch another goatfish and a puffer fish for my troubles. When I headed back to the centre dock it took only two casts to hook into the bonefish. This time it took and didn't stop until it ran out of room at the far end of the harbour, as it slowed I applied the pressure and brought it back. Again it shot off and again I got it back. It took a third run and this time I felt it starting to run out of steam. Trembling I brought it back towards me, prepared for another run but hoping that the fish was ready to come to hand. As I began to lift the fish slowly towards me, it found its wind again and hurtled off snapping the twelve pound leader cleanly at some invisible weak point. This time there was no swearing, just shocked silence. I reeled in and went back to the condo to have a cold beer and pack.

Puffer Fish

Final Notes:

Overall the vacation was a success but the fishing obviously less so. It may have been a question of timing, tides or temperature, but the fishing seemed slower than on previous visits. Tagging into the bonefish and milkfish were a real treat, but that trophy shot eluded me. Maybe next time...

The lessons learned on this trip included using stronger and sharper hooks, more bendback patterns (both bugs and streamers), stronger and more varied leaders, and to generally spend more time on the water.

I will detail my "Leggy Blond" bonefish pattern in a subsequent post, in the meantime below are a few general shots from around the island.

Aaron

South Kiholo Bay

Beach Access to Kiholo

Sargent Fish

Typical Fly Eating Lava

Hibiscus

Wrasse

Family Hamming it up with Papya in Front of Fish Pond