Hawaii Bass Blog

january 7th 2012

2012-01-08T18:32:00.000-08:00

well i kept thinking to myself i could leave half my gear at home and still be set. i knew the conditions were about the same as last week and i knew the water was comparable, very stable weather. i should have listened to myself i coulda had a lot more room on the boat hahaha. well started out gorgeous morning, clear skys very brisk though with the air temp at 61 at 7 am. only us in the parking lot. sun coming up just a beautiful time to be out on the lake. we headed up around the corner in to south fork. my son calls it the big circle. we started out with spinnerbaits and buzz baits working the perimeter. few crank bait casts to the submerged hump. nothing there. worked the grass well up the strait away, was disgusted at the amount of garbage floating around. we started fielding as much as we could and fit in a large plastic bucket we found. i keep a wide gap net for garbage collecting on board. i know its a bandaid but every bit helps, and it teaches my son good habits and right and wrong about tossing garbage into nature. fished up onto the old gravel bank and had my braid snap on one cast tossing my nice manns clacking buzz bait up into the forest somewhere. it broke behind the leader which i usually have just to prevent such an occurrence. so much for that. switched to the spinnerbait full time with no success. fished every nook and cranny deep and shallow around the next corner till we got to the ironwood bluff on the next straightaway. made a few casts with the spinnerbait then switched up to the jig and craw i had used last week, no success. ran upto the old bridge and threw a senko along the pilings. no luck ,but lots of cover and its too high to go under to low to go over . no access to upper south fork. 75ft is a good height to get a boat past it right under the top horizontal member. at 72ft theres another member that will block it.there are a couple of ironwood groves along the bank that showed promise but my son was impatient and demanded a run toward the main basin. i managed to hold him off long enough to make a few casts with a senko in camo color (green mottled with yellow) up to some lay downs and caught our first fish of the day. a typical 14in 1plus lb largemouth. made the run down to the main basin and fished the huge new lay down right after the wahiawa bridge, nothing. ran down further to the ironwood bluff next to the retirement condos, nothing. worked the county yard cove and points, nothing. there cranks,spinnerbaits, bit of senko and jig mixed in. tried a white pearl 4" tube texas rigged, its got great action but drew nothing . ran down to boy scout island and saw tons of baitfish pods on the graph at 8-12ft and so we stopped and threw some drop shot along the boy scout island point that extends to kunia point,worked along the grass in the boy scout saddle area too with a spinnerbait to no effect. it was a very chilly slow morning. by lunch it was time to take the kid in and pick up lunch. still the only one out at 12 noon. went back out with renewed determination, the bluff/cliff pattern had to still be going so i went back to the jig and craw i had used last week a 3/8 ounce brown jig head in cammo color with a filthyfisherman craw cut in half for the trailer in green pumpkin. awesome combo! worked several bluffs with the tube first but they just werent there or weren't interested. drop shotted the kemoo island saddle and cranked it a bit with a deep diver, to no avail. finally had a hit on my drop shot rig on one of the smaller hidden points off kemoo island. lost it though before i got to see it, felt pretty good anyway. then nothing else.finally said hell with it, ran upto kinkaids to fish the steep bluff side with the jig. bout the 3rd or 4th cast caught a little 8 in haterchey fish, good news they are growing and are just about big enough to take a bait!! good sign i worked every limb and piece of wood in the water i could find, ironwood roots rock of course! largemouth luuuvvvvv em! caught another tagged fish about halfway down the bluff. 4260 weighed in at 1.4lbs and 14in long. ok I'm back on last weeks pattern. ran up the bluff side then down the other side. caught another cookie cutter bass just as it turns into tuc bay across from morgans point. decided to run to condo cliff. time was 3pm or so and running out i wanted to hit vertical so i moved . i felt wood wasn't as important as depth but a few other fisherman seemed to think the wood was the key. 3 boats out by this time. myself,john, jeff. jeff doing pretty good with marcus and caught 9 i believe on his agent utah bait along wood cover. i managed another small 1plus lb bass along the north side of condo cliffs. then finally just as it turns into the military housing on the straightaway i got a nice 2.2lb bass to finnish out my day. it was late and chilly i had put my jacket back on and was ready to head in. stopped at the boy scout island point one last time. cranked it and drop shotted it, nothing. ran upto county yard and fished the bluffs opposite it, nothing. ran into the straightaway just before the bridge and fished some of the lay downs along the bank. had one hit on my senko but missed it. finished off my day fishing the step bluff along the old water trestle just before the ramp, nothing. all in all a great beautiful day. i had 6 fish with a nice 2.2lber to anchor it. it was tough i might have done better had i used my pattern from last week sooner . i was looking for something better but it wasn't there.the days go by so fast it seems now,was nearly 5pm by the time i came in. water temp is very close to spawning range, and theres a very strong cold front coming in on thursday. it should drop the temp in the lake to trigger the spawn. the pre spawn areas i fished had nothing there yet. cold water and next full moon will be key!! monday is januarys full moon and the cold front will be thur/fri/sat. so hopefully febuarys full moon and the 1 or 2 weeks prior will be the key to catching the big ones this year!! i know i will be throwing a big ole swim bait my next few outings!!! 2 things. first notice the color change on the bottom of the ironwoods, the water is dropping 4-6 in a day since last week. secondly i noticed i have been calling my yum dinger a senko, its got a hook notch in it which senko dosent have, its a dinger from yum and I'm noty going back and editing it all back out hahaha. and i didn't realize the last pic was a video. i forgot my phone takes video, i know I'm techy challenged! i will try to shoot more video from the glasses as soon as i get them working

the line i use

2012-01-06T00:44:00.000-08:00

ok well the very first basic thing to start with is gear. i thought to myself should i start at rod,reels,lures. but then superseded it all with line. a lot of people and i know I'm one of them, struggle to keep line choices simple and not to complex........... problem is there are sooooo soooo many to choose from with every one claiming this and that. where does one start!! most of us aren't even sure what diameter works for what and how to even spool a reel. ok first off I'm not being paid a sponsorship , wish i was but i have some pretty good lines i really like and I'm gonna share these with you all. i have gone thrue many many lines as anyone who fishes does and have learned a lot, especially from other anglers. there are basically 4 main types of line. monofiliment,fluorocarbon,braid, and hybrids. the monos have great stamina and tend to be more castable and limp than the fluoros. of course the fluoros are nearly invisible under water and have great sensitivity and very low stretch. braids have incredibly strong abrasion resistance no stretch and cast very well, as long as its not into the wind hahahaha. the hybrid lines combine various qualities of the lines depending on what they are mixed with. all of them seem to have a place and time where the excel. a lot of line fads seem to come in and take over, when braid first showed up it was on every real of every pro. touted as the superfine to replace all others. it didn't last long as most fads tend to do. it floats so its not good for finesse where you need little or no weight with the lure. it tends to be brittle and sudden jerks or impacts will snap it. casting in any kind of stiff breeze is a nightmare, and the birds nests are multiplied but 10 in the severity!!still there is a place for a braid in my reels.fluorocarbon was the next huge craze. for awhile everyone touted it as the line to beat all lines! it was and still is much pricier than mono and even braid, its got terrible memory and tends to jump off spools causing twists and backlashes the abrasion resistance isn't the best, it tends to get a small nick or rub and thats all it'll take to snap it. even tying knots will burn the line enough when you cinch it down no matter how much spit you put on it hahahaha. again they get better every year and there are applications that it excels in.mono the old standby, often overlooked now but ever faithful and cheap. a no frills line with mediocre abilities but a good place to start. the hybrids are the new darlings out, not so much a fad as braid and fluoro but its catching on among the pros. i have been three so many lines and its really tuff because you can't tell till you get a few trips with it if its gonna be one you hate, love , or can live with. as far as monos go i loved the tri max from trilene but it was done away with and most of the new stuff I'm not impressed with. stern has always left me sour. tried some of the really expensive japanese line and they just went good enough to justify the cost. i have settled on suffix as my mono. i like the cast ability ,abrasion resistance,smooth off the reel and it fishes well. it won't break the pocket and it is all around. haven't really notice much of a difference between the siege and elite, but i think i have more elite than siege on my reels. as for fluoros, i have tried berkley vanish,seaguar,pline.again some really expensive japanese brands and can honestly say i haven't really noticed much of a difference from the ones i have tried. there is a huge difference between fluoro and mono but between brands i haven't really notice much. i really need to try the suffix brand of 100% fluoro. i think right now i have seaguar on my reels.braids have come and gone but there are still some standards. spider wire still is pretty good id say my braids are tied between spider wire and fire line. the suffix braid seemed more brittle and some of the other lines i have tried caused so many backlashes i tossed em. the hybrids are what I'm really digging now! i have converted most of my main reels over to yo zuri hybrid. its awesome for all aspects i am really digging that line, great strength , cast ability, abrasion resistance. its kind of a chartreuse color not to gaudy but pretty visible and it turns totally clear into the water like fluoro so you can watch for line movement. its very sensitive. i highly recommend a try, i think once you do you will load it up. its made for spinning gear but works equally well on bait casters. I'm also digging the suffix deep cranking line, its a crank bait must. way better than fluoro i assure you. is a mon with lower stretch and higher density so it sinks like a fluoro getting you deeper. and its excellent abrasion too, i rarely have to retie when hitting cover unlike fluoro which really needs to be checked so often when its being used. i was gonna go into knots and spooling but I'm kinda tired will have to save it for another post later. check out those line! man i need a sponsorship hahahaha

discovery

2012-01-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

so the lakes been very high at full pool the last couple of weeks, although they are slowly draining it. and there is trash floating everywhere! i mean tons of it so much it would take several days and 10 yard bins to haul it all away. i try to do my part by picking up small bits of flotsam and jetsam but its a bandaid on a jugular.the homeless people just throw most of their stuff down into the lake, the rains wash a lot of clutter in from the streets. and the sad thing is the people that live along the lake just chuck whatever they don't want to haul away down into it too. hell last week i hauled in a 6'10" john carper surfboard its a peter mel machine. little beat up not to bad some patches and 3 fins and it is ready to surf, kinda a ugly design on it but hell surfboards these days run several hundred $ even used! then this past outing i find a rubber made tub with a big ole hole in it and start filling it up with all sorts of trash as i fish along and i find this unique looking crankbait. it was just floating there all black with algae and hooks rusted off. scooped it up threw it on the bottom of the boat and kept fishing. today i was cleaning up the boat and i found it sitting there almost forgotten. got some goo begone on it and cleaned it up took off the rusted split rings put some new red hooks on it and wow its pretty nice looking! its got these weird water vents in it and says 7th anniversary korea megabass on the top. its a green baby bass color and its got a chartreuse bottom. so i go online and research it. damn thing is a 26$ crankbait!! megabass is a japanese company that makes very high end baits. its a cyclone mr 7 and i guess they are hard to come by. damn if i had hung that lure up id have been diving for it!!! lol thats some serious tears for one bait!! all the more reason i carry a lure retriever. i had a few seconds of maybe i should post it so it can be reclaimed but then the devil on my shoulder was all like hmmmmmm lets see how it fishes first hahaha hell will it out do a 6$ strike king curious minds want to know!

evolution

2012-01-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

so as we progressed in skill soon bank fishing lost its allure, actually i don't think it ever had any but being somewhat monetarily challenged boats were kinda out. but as our infatuation grew so did our ingenuity! soon we had a old 14ft hobie cat that the mast had broken off of and it became a makeshift pontoon boat for the lake. we got a lot of strange looks but then being hawaii there really were no real bass boats at the time and most people fished out of any salt water or makeshift vessel they could launch. the early days of paddling that thing around sure gave us some serious arms! eventually we progressed to an electric trolling motor and from there to a beater outboard. a lot of great memories on that boat, some not so great like the freezing cold nights trapped on the lake in the rain hahaha night fishing hasn't ever really worked out for us. soon the hobie had had its life and modifications run their course, switched to a sevlor raft for awhile , kinda scary to be in something that can puncture when you've got all those sharp hooks around. from there to a fiberglass game fisher and that died on a highway one day in a high wind. got a 12ft topper from tracker one day from oregon and it worked great but the call of the bass boat was soooo strong!!!! i finally bought one online from oregon and shipped it over, what an nightmare that was logistically . it was and still is a great ONE person craft for the lake with the way its setup with a small casting deck and foot pedal trolling motor,5 horse honda 4 stroke. but like i said as perfect and compact as it was it had its drawback, it was on my racks on my truck and took time to load and unload and haul to and from the water. still have it and its a backup for the times when the lake is to low to trailer launch. apparently i hadn't learned my lesson because i got another boat online and it was a real bass boat an 18ft tracker fiberglass limited edition with a 150 blackmax mercury on it. again a total nightmare to get here and register. trailing those big boats is a nightmare! i really don't know how you mainland guys do it, although i do know theres a lot more room on roads and in parking areas that in our state. had to give it up to my lifelong friend who moved with it to kaui and there it is, i guess affectionally called the cadillac by the other bass club guys hahaha. i was fortunate enough to come by another boat soon after that fit my garage and lifestyle perfectly. its a aluminum tracker pro165, 25hp merc on it and its just right for our little lake. i think I'm gonna stick with this boat awhile, like any boat I've already thrown a bunch of money and time at it and still have a lot more to go but its already made some great memories and i hope it makes some more!

introduction

2012-01-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

I'm very new to this so bear with me as i try to grow and understand how this all works. my name is Steve and i was born and raised in hawaii. i have been an outdoorsy type for as long as i can remember. my father would take me salt and freshwater fishing on a fairly regular basis, although we never caught much the hours of cheap entertainment and quality memories stick with me to this day. the whole take a child fishing saying is no lie! i grew up fishing bobbers and catching whatever would bite be it tilapia or bluegills, maybe an occasional carp. i was always enthralled by it. salt water never held my interest as much, I'm a avid surfer and id always lose patience and end up in the water rather than fishing it. i didn't really get into bass fishing till i returned from the army sometime around 1992. again i was more of a surfer and it just so happened one summer that the surf was terribly small and inconsistent . a good friend/nearly a brother and i decided on some cheap entertainment and why not fish the lake. freshwater license and worms cost about 2 $ so why not. we fished for several hours a lot of bank crawling and not much to show for it. then as luck would have it we stumbled onto a pair of mating peacock bass next to the ramp. sitting there on a nest in 2ft of water. at the time we had no idea what we were looking at, only that it was 2 huge fish by our standards. they wouldn't look at our worms and bobbers at all. in desperation and having nothing better to do we went to the little old papa san fishing store in wahiawa and got a few different types of baits, some crank baits and a few soft plastic craws and few top waters. little did we know the lifelong obsession with tackle this would lead too hahahaha. several attempts with several different baits lead to a lot of failure. it was finally a plastic crawfish that worked and first one then the other fish were hooked as they grabbed the offending lure in the nest. both of us were hooked as well and our bass fishing infatuation had begun!

last day on the lake of 2011

2012-01-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

friday dec 30th, tuff day on the lake although not quite as bad as it was christmas eve, light showers till about 9am. started round the bend from the boat ramp into south fork. cranked a bit on the points and then a spinnerbait along some ironwoods. water temp was hovering around 70 degrees, spawn will begin as soon as the temps drop another few degrees, I'm betting the big girls will move up sometime in january. water level was 80ft and dropping according to the usgs site. moon phase and barometer i kinda missed will have to do better recording on them. moved into the grass beds and turned to a buzz bait but no success. waters been up high about 3 weeks now and as usual the bass seem to really move into the grass the first week but after a few weeks the bass tend to scatter and eventually the grass patterns stop producing. never the less i find myself trying it after all my last buzz bait fish a few weeks ago was nearly 4 lbs! a good size for our poor lake these days! worked several spots along the way and finally caught a small 1lb 14in bass on a jig and craw under some ironwoods. tried a few more spots with little success so decided to make a run into the main basin hoping to find more numerous fish. it was 10 am already and things were looking bleak. air temp at launch was 67 degrees at 7 am and by 10 had warmed to about 75, still chilly for us and sweats and jackets were still on. made sure to have the donor on and dialed in hoping id spot something that would give me a clue to a pattern. points seemed bare and nothing really showed deep. fished along hanging gardens and managed another small cookie cutter bass 14in or so and maybe 1lb. will make a renewed effort to keep exact size and weights now for the blog. it was caught on a sweet beaver imitation giving to me by a friend awhile back kinda bigger and not as detailed but they do catch fish. both fish were pretty lethargic so far. fished awhile more with cranks and spinners some buzz baits around boy scout island , but no luck. my son fed the geese and we headed back in for the lunchtime handoff to the wife. he's usually done by 1030-11 am but today the boring seemed to fly by and neither of us were actually ready to call it quits hahahaha. we did the trade off , kid/for lunch and i made a run down lake to try a more serious attempt to set a pattern. our local hotstick had mentioned he had a 21 fish day on thurs and as usually that was the extent of his report. so far i wasn't seeing it, but every day is different. i knew from that report that whatever he was fishing it wasn't a slow pattern, i know he dosent get out on the lake early and dosent stay out very late, hence 21 fish in maybe 6 hours or so of fishing. leads me to believe he had some kinda run and gun join. something fast with retain strikes. i followed suit but it proved elusive. my donor showed a lot of shad pods at the 8 ft lvl around boy scout island and there were some plops and splushs here and there, but nothing substantial.i threw a short fluke bait for awhile but had a few short strikes nothing worth continuing to chase, basically fan casting hoping to draw anything up. burnt a lot of time in that area, after i gave up out in the open i drop shotted,spinner baited,and cranked the whole area around every piece of structure and cover i could find. again nothing!tried kemoo island and the saddle. slow rolled spinnerbaits, drop shotted,cranked but nothing there.worked condo cliffs with a senko and crank bait but nothing. finally at 3pm with time running out on my day i picked up a camp 1/4 jig with a filthyfisherman craw trimmed to fit as a trailer. tossed it to the vertical bluff and off it swam! nice feisty 1lber. ok I'm seeing something the lights going on seeing as the 1st 2 fish of the morning were on similar structure and caught with similar lures. worked the bluff face and hooked and lost 4 more in short order! dunno why they came unbuttoned but i was onto a pattern!!! had to basically bounce it onto the cliff face and let it fall vertical, they were nose to the bluffs. anything farther away got nothing. 50% took it on the fall the other 50% grabbed it on the first or second pop of the bottom. i had a strong power finesse pattern going! i was able to duplicate it in several more spots and quickly got 4 more bass all in the same size range. if i saw a bank that had what i needed i stopped and casted to it , working my way back into the ramp. by 4pm i had to go in and as usual had a real good pattern join, if only i had found it much earlier i may have given that 21 fish day a run!! had a great uncrowded day on the lake and tried out some of my new christmas gear. can't complain seeing as the rest of the country is so damn cold, hope to get out again soon!! keep it reel!!!