Hawaiibassfishing Forum

MUCH better today! 17 fish total with one unknown little bugger

The unknown


I'm thinkin its a variant of a cichlid.



Two Biggest of the day.


Smallest of the day


Most caught were about in between somewhere in size of those posted.

All were caught on popper shown in those pics!! The lure is utterly mutilated at the moment. Missed more than I caught, a lot of thrown hooks due to the fact that I had to bend hooks back after every other fish, haha. Fished two sections of the stream, Judd trail area and the botanical garden by chinatown. All in all it was a blast.

Congrats on a great Sunday Smallmouth session. That "unknown" I call the PITA Cichlid aka Banded Jewel Cichlid. Next time you catch one throw it in bushes for the mongoose and cats to eat, they are aggressive and eat Smallmouth fry, and they are dinks. Nothing like topwater fishing for Smallmouths.

there is a buttload of crawfish/crawdads in the stream along with tons of guppy looking fish and those cichlids

JChen,

Excellent report.

Last time I caught smallies was in Idaho/Washington, many years ago. Outstanding fighters, espacially in the streams. Tough for there size.

By the way, time to invest in more poppers

Bass regards, Mel "Kahuna bass"

When the topwater slows down, try a Mepp's Black Fury or Aglia in size 0. These were my go-to lures when I used to hike up in the upper reaches of the north fork of lake wilson. A rooster tail lure will work too. Kastmasters can be effective. For weedy areas I used to use a little Slider worm. I don't know if they still make those though.

Awesome smallies! Great catch. I've lived all my life in the Kalihi/ Liliha area and have never tried those little streams other than for medaka/tilapia/crayfish. The miracle of freshwater fishing!!! I'm a little confused tho... the smallmouth thrives in the little ponds/streams but is scarce in Lake wilson? Dont they like cold water and isnt wahiawa at a way higher elevation than Liliha? Even during the slow winter months shouldnt we be catching a lot of small mouth at wilson when the water is colder??

and anyone knows how they got there? talk about "bass" kept secrets!!!!

Boatless wrote:Awesome smallies! Great catch. I've lived all my life in the Kalihi/ Liliha area and have never tried those little streams other than for medaka/tilapia/crayfish. The miracle of freshwater fishing!!! I'm a little confused tho... the smallmouth thrives in the little ponds/streams but is scarce in Lake wilson? Dont they like cold water and isnt wahiawa at a way higher elevation than Liliha? Even during the slow winter months shouldnt we be catching a lot of small mouth at wilson when the water is colder??

They are in the lake. But The average summer water temp is around 84 degrees so who knows where they go in the summer. I guess south fork?

I believe the Smallies were introduced by the State into several Oahu streams in the late 50s, and they were plentiful in these stream in the 60s, and 70s before people started dumping the small but aggressive Cichlids into the stream which compete with the Smallies. I know a few Windward streams that were excellent Smallmouth fisheries even into the mid 80s but no longer.
The only place I've ever caught Smallies with any regularity at Lake Wilson was the upper reaches of the North Fork but this was before the Cichlids arrived the last time I fished these once Smallie rich waters I caught more Cichlids than anything else.