Hawaiibassfishing Forum

Hey fellas great forum.

I'm in town for work the next couple weeks and was hoping to catch some of your Peacocks. I brought all of my Small and Largemouth bass tackle and a 6-6 medium fast, 6' UL and a light fly rod, no flys though. I'm assuming you pretty much need to be in a boat to fly fish.

I went down to the boat launch yesterday to look around saw a few fish, a couple that I thought were Peacocks. I also saw large schools of another fish near the surface, not sure what they were they appeared light in color and about 12-14".

Would anyone be willing to share any info about fishing the park at the launch or any other spots we may want to try from the bank?

I have another question: I've seen a lot of referenced to the need to fish fairly fast for the Peacocks but I've also seen reference to using Senkos, or are the Senkos primarily if you’re going for Largemouth.

I also saw someone mention the Smallmouth up in the mountains, not really expecting much info on this but if anyone wants to share that would be great to.

Thanks for the help,

Brian

Welcome to Hawaii! I hope you enjoy your stay here.
I think the schools of fish you saw were tilapia. Schools of large tilapia are rare nowadays, but I think that's what they were, unless you were seeing schools of tucs (peacocks), but then you would have seen the stripes and the spot on their tails.
Just try walking the bank at the park and throw a small lure and work it fast. You cannot reel too fast for the peacock bass. You are trying to imitate a fleeing baitfish. Peacocks feed exclusively on other fish, unlike black bass.
Senkos can work if worked erratically. Do not dead-stick it if you are trying to catch tucs. They will ignore it. Honestly, your chances will more than double if you use a live minnow.
While you are casting for tucs or bass, one of you should have a line out with a bait like worms or shrimp to maybe catch a channel cat or two.

If you are staying in Waikiki, I would highly recommend you try the Ala Wai Canal for some barracuda. It's a lot of fun!

Thanks for the info Skunked. I gave it a shot yesterday at the park but had no success. I saw plenty of fish, they do seem pretty spooky, I'm sure there were a lot more fish around than just the ones I saw.

I found it a bit difficult to find spots to cast parallel to the shore. I know depth varies but in general how close do I need to get. I also had a tough time keeping the grass and stuff in the water from fowling my lures, maybe just the spots I was fishing.

I went around the back side from the launch, should I have tried the area closer to the launch or further up, I was not sure if there was any access up there.

I also ran in to Stan and Chris at the launch, nice guys, thanks for the info too.

If anyone has any plans to visit Oregon and wants to swap trips let me know, I'll be in town for another week or so. I have a 14' Cataraft for river Smallies and an 18' G3 for lakes and larger rivers.

Thanks,

Brian