John Day River Smallmouth

My grandfather passed away a couple weeks ago. It was pretty sad, he taught me everything I know about fishing. I grew up fishing with him on the John Day River in eastern Oregon for smallmouth bass and steelhead. So after the funeral my brother, cousin and I went down to Clarno along the John Day River. It was kind of a tribute fishing trip, a chance for us three to get together and do something we all love in a place that is very special to all of us. The fishing was pretty good. Water levels were low because it was the end of summer. But we had no problem finding bass willing to bite. We used soft plastic worms, and switched off using one of grandpa's old fly rods. We caught about 50 bass between the three of us, unfortunately none of them were over 10 inches long. Oh well maybe next time, it was still a great day to be on the river.

Cave Lake Nevada,

Had a nice camping trip to Cave Lake in Northeastern Nevada at the end of July. Cave lake sits about 14 miles south of Ely Nevada at around 7,000ft elevation. The browns and rainbows where not very big, I think the biggest we caught was about 16 inches but there were plenty in the lake! My son and nephew slayed the trout one day with night crawlers. But mostly they used kastmasters and rooster tails and did fine, averaging about 6 trout every two hour period. I mostly fly fished, having success with olive crystal buggers. But in the evening when the hatch was on I used a lite Cay hill dry fly to clean up! It matched the hatch very well. My son even caught fish by using a dry fly on a spinning pole with a bobber. Most of the fish were around 6-8 inches. I think if I would have brought my kayak I could have found some larger fish. I also had some success trying a new lure and technique. I tried some mini jigs. I tried both small marabou jigs and well as the small plastic tube baits by themselves and with a bobber. Best method I found was a tube without the bobber. I caught two rainbows on the rig with only about 1 hour of hard fishing time. The strikes were pretty savage as well.

This is a picture of my son with a nice little papio (blue fin trevally) that he caught in K-Bay on the island of Oahu. The other picture is of my daughter Marissa's first ever bone fish she caught. Both fish were caught on squid.

In the middle of K-bay there is a huge sand bar. At low tide some of the sand bar is exposed, at high tide depth on the sand bar ranges from ankle deep to about three feet. So as you can imagine many fish come up on the sand bar to feed, especially bone fish. The edge of the sand bar drops off really fast into about 20-40ft of water, depending on the area.

When I fished by my self I would walk the sand bar using a fly rod or if the wind was bad I would use a small jig and a spinning rod to chase bone fish. But when the kids came I would just anchor on the edge, chum up the water with squid over the drop off and then still fish with squid for bait. We caught bone fish, trevally, small flounder and what ever else swam by. It was great fun and a good way to fish with the kids. Plenty of action to keep them interested.

Not a great picture, but it's all I could find. This is 40-50lb Ahi (yellow fin tuna) that I caught off the North shore of Hawaii a couple years ago. A buddy of mine and myself where out fishing over some reefs in 40-70 feet of water trying to catch some medium sized GT's. We were throwing 6 inch poppers on the surface, mine was in a sardine color. About an hour into fishing I hooked this fish! I was only using 20lb line, so the fish took alot of it. He was bulldogging me and staying on the bottom, so we didn't actually know what kind of fish it was until I almost had the fish in the boat. Needless to say, it was a long fight. After almost an hour and a half of chasing the fish around in my boat and being spooled twice, I had the fish in the boat. Berkley Trilene line is good line! Man did that fish taste good on the BBQ!
In the spring in Hawaii it's not uncommon for some of the pelagic species of fish to come close to shore looking for food. So that explains how I hooked him. At the same time I was fighting my fish a kayak fisherman was hooked up as well. His Ahi was taking him for a sweet little ride in that kayak! Good times, I really enjoyed fishing in Hawaii when I lived on the islands.

Not a bad fathers day. High winds kept me off Lake Mead, so instead my son and I went to Floyd Lamb State Park. Great little spring fed urban fishery in North Las Vegas. We only caught two fish, but they were nice. My son caught his on a chartreuse power bait grub and I caught mine on a green pumpkin 6 inch worm rigged on a stand up jig head shaky head style. The pond has a water inlet right next to some reeds. Looked like a great spot. And sure enough it was. We caught both of our fish in the first 40 minutes of fishing. The rest of the four hours of fishing was slow.

Another Fine Peacock Bass!

This is my son Jared with his first fly rod caught fish. Of course I had to cast the fly, but he did all his own stripping, hook set and fighting of the fish. This peacock was caught in September in Lake Wilson Hawaii off of a main lake point. The fish where stacked up like cord wood. We literally almost caught a fish every cast. He caught the fish on a clouser minnow. But not any clouser, the color had to be just right. In my experience the peacocks in Hawaii like gold, yellow and purple more than any other colors. So that is the color combo I tied the clouser minnow in. For that pattern I used a yellow belly, purple back with gold flashabou in the middle. I also used chartreuse green barbell eyes and chartreuse thread.

Lake Wilson Hawaii Largemouth

Lake Wilson has some nice largemouth bass as well. This is my son with a nice one caught on a carolina rigged lizard. Although I never found the largemouth to be anywhere in numbers. The most I ever caught in a day was five. The water is pretty dirty in the lake so dark colors are a must for plastic lures. My favorite method was to carolina rig a lizard, either in black with blue metal flake or black with red metal flake. Crank baits worked well too. I would crank the points with deep divers and this would produce most of the time, and you always had the chance of hooking a peacock with a crank bait as well.

Lake Wilson Hawaii Peacock stories!

My favorite way to fish Lake Wilson is fly fishing,
which also happens to be my newfound passion.
Although it could be difficult to do without
a boat or kayak, it’s extremely effective. I have
found that baitfish imitation flies draw far more
strikes than the surface flies you usually see on
fishing shows. I like to fish on or around points,
schooling fish or any fish I have found along the
shoreline. Sight fishing is possible if the weather
cooperates and is really fun.

If you fish in the spring when the bass are
spawning, be prepared to go “bassmaster” on
them. The peacocks will be in pairs along the
shoreline and sitting on their nests. They will
bite, but you have to put the lure right into
their nests and entice them into biting by
making them mad. It’s the same principal that
the professional bass fishermen use to catch
spawning largemouth bass. I learned this technique
when I lived in Texas and did a lot of
bass fishing.
I like to use some kind of brightly colored
plastic bass lure like a tube or small grub in this
situation. It has to be bright so you can see it
on the nest as well as see when the fish takes it.
My favorite fly pattern to fish is the Clouser
minnow. I have caught everything from salmon
to bonefish with a Clouser, and the fly did not
disappoint me on Lake Wilson. I tie my own
flies, so I had to experiment with the color
scheme of the fly. I came up with a combination
that outfishes any lure or fly I have fished with
on Lake Wilson. The fly is tied with chartreuse
thread and has chartreuse lead eyes. The body
has a yellow belly/bottom and purple back/top
with a few strands of gold Krystal flash running
down the sides of the fly. I like to make the fly
about 4 inches long, because I can start fishing
it at 4 inches and then cut it down to a shorter
length if I feel the need to downsize my fly.
This fly just slaughters the bass, especially
when they are schooling and get stacked up on
the points. I have had days where I caught fish
on almost every cast on certain points around
the lake. I fish this fly on a sinking tip line, but
you don’t have to because the lead eyes will
sink the fly. You just may need to use a longer
leader to get the fly down to where the fish are
if you don’t opt for the sinking tip. I usually use
around 2 feet of 8-lb tippet with a 3-foot
section of 20-lb shock leader.
The retrieve of the fly should be short quick
strips of about a foot to 11⁄2 feet. This style of
retrieve has been the most productive for me,
but don’t be afraid to experiment, especially if
you are not getting any strikes. I hope this info helps anyone going to Hawaii that wants to catch a peacock bass. It is alot of fun!

Lake Wilson Hawaii

Who says you have to go to South America to catch peacock bass! We lived on the island of Oahu for three years, and caught many peacocks just like this one. There is a small lake next to the town of Wahiawa on Oahu that has great peacock bass fishing, as well as a few largemouth and smallmouth bass. If you go there are a couple of guides that work the lake and a quick Internet search can help you find them. It is a great time. This fish is a six and a half pounder my son caught. I had a fiberglass replica made and the fish is now on our wall! If you go make sure and bring gold kastmasters, they are money! Small top water lures work as well. But the best lure I found was a purple and yellow clouser minnow with chartreuse eyes and gold flashabou. That fly produced for me on slow days when nothing else would.