Hawaiibassfishing Forum

With the rainy weather, I thought I'd be the only one on the lake. Boy was I wrong. SIX boats were coming in as I headed out, at about 4:30 pm.

I've gotta say, today was the best day of fishing in 2010 for me and not one single peacock bass!

I'm gonna share where the hot spot was today, but you guys can't tell no one okay?

I returned to the XXXXXX area of XXX, on the north side. I started with 25 crickets and about a dozen worms, and I used every single one!

I landed 13 assorted fishies. To be honest, I was missing them as fast as I could bait the hook! I was just missing too many. I was mainly going for bluegills. I ended up catching 2 catfish, 4 or 5 bluegills, a few red devils, some type of ciclid, and finished with a talapia.

There was one huge lunker around there. He hit my bait and took off making my reel scream!! He got about 10 yards or so before the line went limp.

I'm not positive exactly what this is. Some type of ciclid?



Last fish of the day, a talapia, caught on 1/2 dead worm!



The epitemy of peacefulness. Light fog settled on top of the water, about 6:30 pm.

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what!! no picture of the smallie! tsk tsk......smallies in the main lake again tons of bluegills in the grassbeds! monster tucs cruzing the grasslines! damn just like ole times

That's some pretty nice size fish...
Sounds like it's time to visit the pet store for crickets,
or
bust out the old flyrod and bluegill flys.

Good job! I'm not sure if you got your pics mixed up, but that is a tilapia, not a smallmouth. I have a pet salamander, so I am constantly buying crickets. I have often thought about taking some to the lake to use as bait, but I thought there wouldn't be enough bluegills around to supply steady action. Maybe I will try it now though!

Fixed it.

Fishing for the bluegills seems to be a little tricky, at least for me. Since they are kinda petite biters, some restraint/patience is needed before trying to (gently) set the hook. I probably lost 3 fish to every 1 I landed!

One of the things I learned is to put the cricket far up on the hook. I had about 1/2 the cricket hanging off. Lost many bites. They would bite the hanging cricket off the hook, just leaving me the head!

This type of fishing would be good for smaller kids since the action is fast. Most strikes were within a few seconds of the bobber hitting the water.

The Set-Up
I had great success with the following set-up. Using a #6 or #8 (preferred) hook, I set the small 1 1/4" bobber about 18" deep. I used a very small BB size split shot sinker a few inches above the hook. Almost all fish were caught about 1-2' from the grass line. Hook the cricket in the crease inbetween the head and body, moving the hook down the cricket's body, exiting out the backside. This will help hide the hook and make the fish bite the hook, not just rip the bait off the hook.

I think both fish are mozambique tilapia...but I could be wrong. It's a little hard identifying the fish from the pics.

Sounds like a lot of ultralight rod bending fun

Chris and Takamitsu fished there today and caught a bunch of small peacock bass.... lures.
I think both fish are tilipa.

I caught one ciclid looking fish. It had a purpleish tint to it with a hint of stripes and red tips on its main fin.

That last fish is a jewel cichlid the 1 inch to 2 inch ones you see on the shore that's just one of the lucky ones that the tucs didn't eat! Caught big ones like that in the grass trying for the small ones and everyso often you get a grandaddy!

bummer you gave me a heart murmur with that smallmouth report. i have pics of a friend and i catching 2-3 lb smallmouth in the main lake back in the early 90s. miss those days

There are several PRIMO spots right around BSI and The Saddle. It may take a few minutes to get them up and about, but it is well worth the time.

Sent pm instead.

Discrepancy modified. Don't want to cast a shadow over all of us.