Small Stream (part 2)

[Stan Wright]

I got the call right in the middle of the playoff game... but I could hear the pleading for help, and the excitement in John's voice.

Grabbing a camera and a digital scale, I headed back to the small stream where a that big smallmouth bass had busted John's 4# test line the day before....

John is still fishing, so I'll let him tell the story in his own words when he gets home tonight... because knowing John, he'll be fishing till dark
LOL
Stan

[Ken]

Wow! That's a nice smallie. It's a fatty!

How big is that fish? Maybe 17-18"? At least 3lbs?

[JChen]

Once again, thank you Stan for coming out to help me with the fish and the pictures!

Now the story:

The day before this smallie decided to play the dive game and broke my wee 4# test tippet. I immediated re-tied a #10 wooly bugger onto a 8# tippet and gave it a whirl, after a couple casts the smallie came back and boiled once, then no more, a tease. So with this bothering me this morning, I set out again in the afternoon with a mission to capture this beast. I started with a small white popper and it swirled once. I casted the popper for about 15 more times but nothing from mister smallie so I switched to the ol' faithful crankbait on my spinning outfit and first cast I landed an ugly pest of a pleco, yeap on a crank. Released it and then casted again this time she followed my crank but with the big shadowy turn she disappeared into the deep. Determined I casted into the channel of the little waterfall and zang-za-dam! She takes my reel for a workout and dove for the rocks, I have 10# test on this so she wasn't getting away! After a little wrestling she went towards a block of cement and swam under to "snag" me, oh but she underestimated my hard earned title. Persistent I went all around to free my line, lure and her. Got her free and called stan. Thus another smallie, my pb in hawaii at 2.5lbs.

Fished for another hour and a half. Landed two more pleco's on wooly bugger, they seem to like them. The convicts and jewel banded cichlids were out but not too aggressive today, the water level did drop about two inches and thus slowed the water down some which helped a lot with the floating line

Didn't get a length, but that sounds about right, ken.

[adpetree]

What a great fish!! congrats man, well done.

[Ken]

Hm...2.5lb only eh? A smallie of 17-18" in Ontario would weight about 3lbs if it has a half decent girth. But your fish didn't have a big belly and I guess it's hard to see whether it has a wider body or not

My pb smallie was 16" with a 13" girth and that one was estimated 3lbs (based on fish weight calculator online).

Here's a look at my pb smallie. The picture doesn't really show the girth well though. You can see a bit of a full belly though.

[JChen]

My pb back in Cali is measly 5# off in the sutter bypass fishing for striper. Its a little tough to try and beat that here on oahu on these little streams. On the Kamoolii, there's a lot of competition for food between species and also same amongst numerous other streams on oahu. Also from what I've been told those jewel banded cichlids love smallie fry and eggs, so that really messes with the pop and sizes. Also have been told there are some big'uns in Ho'omaluhia, too bad they do not allow overhead casts or watercraft in there otherwise I'd be there every chance I get. They also have a rule where you must fish on that dam.