June 15

[Stan Wright]

Your right about the action being in the middle of the day. Hard for a largemouth fisherman to believe that the peacock bass like the sunshine and warm water. LOL We didn't get any hits till almost 10:00 also. At 8:30 AM the water temp. was 81 degrees and at 1:00 PM it was up to 83.

Clay saw and hooked 6 tukes up to 3 1/2 pounds,(landed 3) I got 2. We didn't see as many of the smaller ones (6 to 12 inch) We only caught a dozen or so each, but could have landed a bunch more.... but it sure wasn't like the 50 or 60 "Rat Attacks" of last week.
The red devils were no where to be seen.

Water level is still high, about 3 feet below spillway level.... 83 degree water temperature in the afternoon, with visibility 2 to 3 feei in most of the lake.

We got the most action on a 2 inch white streamer fly with a little bit of silver or green flash-a-boo.

[FishinFrenzy]

Nice catch Stan. I bet that's a really good battle on a fly rod! What weight and leader do you use? Do you get a lot of break-offs? Yea, it is strange to see the fish loving "bath" water. Oh, got my 2" Senkos in the mail last week! Thanks for the tip.

I have a couple of questions to throw out here. My wife and I backpacked the Waimano Ridge Trail over the weekend and I saw some really neat little fish in the streams up there. The biggest was only about 3" and they were mainly "normal" minnow color with a red stripe running along the body and a bright green swordtail outlined with black. I immediately thought they were some sort of swordtail but I'm not sure. Does anyone know what they are and if they are native to Hawaii? I also spotted a fish about 10" that looked like a catfish (the head w/whiskers) but the dorsal fin ran the entire length of the body like a snakehead and it was a pale yellow color. Any clues on that one?

By the way, if you ever want a great hike with super views, take the Waimano Ridge Trail (upper trail, not the lower) and hike it to the summit of the Koolua range. Awesome views await you. Total trip length is about 14.5 miles but it's worth the long haul!

[Stan Wright]

I wonder if that fish you saw was a Chinese Catfish?

I was using a 5wt flyrod with a 5 foot 12# test leader tippit. Chris got me using the short leaders.

I bet that is a beautiful view from the ridge... but I did my last 50 mile hike with the Boy Scouts in Philmont 10 years ago... NO MAS.

[OO7:BASSINASSASSIN]

I think the catfish you saw was a chinese catfish or puntat. It used to be common in lake wilson. It is supposed to be good eating and they make excellent bait for largemouth bass.

[FishinFrenzy]

I wonder if that fish you saw was a Chinese Catfish?

I was using a 5wt flyrod with a 5 foot 12# test leader tippit. Chris got me using the short leaders.

I bet that is a beautiful view from the ridge... but I did my last 50 mile hike with the Boy Scouts in Philmont 10 years ago... NO MAS.

A short leader huh? What is the significance of that? My leaders are pretty long. In fact, some are too long and the knot passes through the last eyelet a lot and gets annoying.

[Stan Wright]

First, the peacock bass are not leader shy, so pound test doesn't seem to make much difference. I normally use 12# test tippets.

They are also not afraid of the boat. The way we fish for peacock bass is to follow the shoreline with the electric trawling motor and cast our flys right up against the shore... then strip it back to the boat. The strike zone is any time the fly is in the water.

If your using a 9 foot rod and a 9 foot leader like I use in saltwater, that's about 18 feet of strike zone from the boat to the fly at the end of your line. If your fishing 25 or 30 feet from shore that doesn't leave much distance for your fly to be in the water (strike zone)between casts. By using a 3 foot leader, you can keep the fly in the water longer before you have to recast.

Chris found that by using a really short leader they got more strikes closer to the boat. What ever works I guess??????