Found the Flats

I found the flats in Kihei finally. If you didn't already know, Kihei is on the south west shore of the island and proves to be the only place I have found so far that has flats to fish. Flats are the places that you generally want to fish when fly fishing the ocean. this is the est habitat for your main query, bone-fish or O'io. this is the place that Terry the taxidermist told me to try. you can wade out about 100 to 150 yards off shore in water that occasionally gets chest deep. There are to real big draw backs to this location however. First, it has sea weed growing everywhere and it is crowded with sea weed pickers. I don't know why but dried out sea weed is ike candy to some of e folks out here. Bleh! The location of the flats is at an ancient Hawaiian fish pond. The Hawaiians would build a stone wall in a half moon shape from the beach out and back in to the beach. In the middle of the wall would be an opening just big enough for fish to swim into during low high tide but not out of during low tide thus trapping the fish so they could harvest them with nets. pretty clever way of getting food, I think.


Any how, I didn't catch anything again. I am going to get my self some popular patterns by calling the guys over at Nervous Water Fly Fishing on the island of Oahu. I may also try to get some tips from a gentle man who does fly fishing tours on Molokai. Mean while i will try some new spots on my own. Till then, Aloha.

A Little Break

I work for a professional baseball team here on Maui and so my summers are a little crazy. The team is back in town which means my life out of the office is essentially over. I work from about 8 am to 10:30 pm every day there is a game (except weekends thank goodness). So I have to take a few days break from the adventure to work (insert sad face here). I will be giving it another shot on Saturday morning so expect big things from me then. Between now and then I will work and watch the UTES beat the living pooh out of PITT on Thursday. meanwhile check out my post under the tips page!

Strike Three, Yer Out!

So this is where i gave my third shot at learning to fly fish here on Maui. This is 505 front street and this is one of the closest things to a flat that Maui has. I tried it for about an hour and went through all of my flies. I didn't a thing. I couldn't even catch a cold out there, and believe me tried because I forgot to bring a change of clothes and a towel so I was soaked with the air conditioner running all the way home.

My wife is such a good sport about all this and she decided that she was going to help me out with this adventure of mine. She picked up my Android phone and started a Google search of how to fish here. She came across an old blog entry from a mainland fly fisherman who talked about getting pointers from a Maui gentleman named Terry Doyle. Terry happens to be Maui's best and only taxidermist as well as a member of trout unlimited and an avid fisherman. I called upon my sales training and decided to give terry a call. From the car. Soaking wet. let me remind you I don"t know him or visa versa and this was around dinner time. Not something a sane person does on a Thursday night. "Hi, my name is Josh and you don't know me but I saw on the internet that you might know a little something about fly fishing here on Maui." Silence. Then he started giving me pointers of where to go and what types of patterns to use. Terry was awesome. I pointed me in the direction of the Kihei VFW (I am finding that the south side is a popular side to fish). He said that anything shrimp patterned seems to work well for O'io but didn't really know about catching Papio. I asked about a place called La Perouse. He never tried it. so my next excursion will be to those two places with some shrimp patterns and a couple of my own creations.

Second Try

So I tried a sunset session per the suggestion of my friends over at West Maui Sports and Fishing. No dice. I am most certain that i do not have the right equipment for casting and fishing in a salt water environment like Maui. I am using a weight forward, floating freshwater fly line with about 20 yards of 40 lb backing and a 5/6 weight rod. I need to be using at least an 8 wt rod for casting in the Maui trade winds with a heavier floating saltwater fly line. Last nights experience showed me that I don't really have what it takes to fish in the wind. Not only did I not have the right gear but the wind stayed up till after dark. Now I don't know if you know about the wind we have here but it starts at about noon and goes till about 5:30 at about 10-15 mph out of the north in most cases and sometimes from the south. Last night it was coming from the west so that was something I was not prepared for since the spot I was fishing required most of my casting to be east to west. So it was no good last night. I am not writing the Kihei Wharf off as a bad spot yet. I need to learn to strip my line faster and get the right gear for this. Second issue i had last night was that the Green Sea Turtles were ll up in my business taking over the best looking spots. I don't fish where the turtles are because they will take your lure and that is a pain in the keester. I will try again tonight or tomorrow morning.

First Attempt

So yesterday afternoon I was on the west side of the island in Lahaina and i decided to stop in at West Maui Sports and Fishing Supply. I didn't have any flies and I don't know any patterns yet so I got some from these guys. They were super helpful and had great prices on everything I needed. Doug owns the joint and and knows a lot about salt water fly fishing but had never fished the island before. he gave me few pointers on where I should start my quest and then sent me on my way. Let me just say that if you need any fishing supplies while you are on Maui or if yo live on the west side go hit up Doug at his shop.

One of the spots that Doug sent me to is Kihei Wharf on the north side of Kihei. I didn't have time to fish on Tuesday but I remembered Doug saying that to catch Ulua or Papio (trevally) your best times to fish are at sun rise and sun set so I planned my excursion for this morning at sun rise. I woke up and left the house at about 5:30 a.m. and headed down to the wharf. The water was smooth as glass and the colors of the sky made this trip one of the most peaceful and beautiful i have ever been on. Unfortunately i had no success. this trip was to find out what kind of presentation trevally like best. I didn't find out. I did have one fish look at my fly all the way to the beach but he didn't take. i fished for about an hour and tried two of the four recommended flies. I plan on trying to figure it out tonight at sunset. i will fill you in on my findings tomorrow morning.

I GOT IT!

I am a quick study and i figured out the whole tabs thing!

WELCOME!

Welcome to all you who are trying to figure out Fly Fishing on Maui. I will be your guide. There is only one catch to learning from me: you have to learn with me. This blog is about my adventures in paradise and learning how to Fly Fish it too. You will be excited to learn that my baby boy Derek and my fantastic wife Susel will be joining us on our little trips around Maui. I will update this blog as often as i feel like it (I do live on Maui after all) so don't rush me. My plan is to bring you along each Fly Fishing excursion I go on and then once weekly post about all the things I learned. These once weekly postings will be titled TIPS as soon as I figure out how to put tabs on this blog. Don't be surprised if i post stuff that ain't so related to Fly Fishing the beautiful waters of Maui. you can feel free to email me with any suggestions or questions about anything you want to know about Fly Fishing Maui. I plan on offering up my services as a guide in the near future so if you are planning a trip to Maui give me a shout and I will help make your adventure a success (after I learn how to make mine a success)!