It's All About The Smell

Back in the 80's I met my Brother and Sister-in-Law in Honolulu, Hawaii. We planned a week on the islands with three days in Honolulu and 2 days in Kauai.

Our hotel was the Outrigger Waikiki. The Outrigger has two options for rooms. Ocean view and partial ocean view. We had a partial ocean view room, but all you had to do is walk out on the balcony and you could see the ocean instead of seeing it through  the sliding glass doors.

OK, for a little 90 degree turn here, while we were in Honolulu, two things happened. These are things I forgot to put in the book when I wrote it.

By the way I still have a few copies left for the mere price of $10.00 and a little postage if you want to get a copy. Email me at mkautz@volcano.net and if you're out of the country I can find out from the Post Office what the postage would be and if you approve, I can send you a Paypal invoice.

Back to Honolulu. We went out deep sea fishing for Marlin one afternoon. We didn't catch a marlin, but we did catch a bunch of little tuna's. When I say little, I'm thinking 15 to 18 pounds, but when you're using a rod and reel designed for marlin, reeling in a 15/18 pound tuna is like reeling a 6 inch trout on 4# test line. All you do is skim it across the surface, that is unless it was the size of the one that swam right by the boat. As an estimate, I would say it was about the size of a Volkswagon Beetle. We chased it for a good bit of time, but could never get it to take the bait.

One other thing about this fishing trip, was sitting up on the flying bridge with the captain. Every so often he would duck his head. Couldn't figure out why he was doing that until the third time I got a face full of water. OK, I got it then. 

The other part of Honolulu was my Brother driving down Moana Lane in downtown Waikiki and had stopped at a stoplight. A motorcycle officer pulled up on the passengers side and tapped on the window. My Sister-in-Law rolled down the window and the officer asked for my Brothers license. He asked if my Brother noticed his seat belt was not fastened. Now remember, the was the 80's and most states didn't have seat belt laws except Hawaii.

So my Brother being a judge, handed his wallet with his badge (officer of the court and all) to the policeman. "A Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles Huh" the officer said. "Yup" my Brother said. He was going to get out of this one.

By now you're wondering what all this babbling has to do with fishing. Well, I'm not quite there, yet.

On the island Kauai, we stayed at the Kauai Hilton. They have three types of rooms. Ocean view, partial ocean view, and the one we stayed in that was ocean smell. Stand out on the balcony the inhale the smell of the ocean. Wasn't quite a nice as a partial ocean view, but you still had the smell and it's all about the smell.

Which brings me to today. Out the door and after a coffee stop in the dark. Cook's generator must have been out because I poured coffee by flash light. Then up the hill to Silver Lake.

Out to the spot I've been fishing the last few times and out with two rods of rainbow Power Bait. 

Chair was on the rock to the left, not in the Cubby

Sunshine and blue skies as you can see in the picture below.

Sunrise in your eyeballs

I sat there for a good hour and had nothing to show for my troubles. I was obviously concerned since the last few times I've been here it's been fish after fish.

I reeled in one rod and with new bait I added a bit of Pro-Cure sweet corn. A half hour later I reeled in the other rod and with new bait and a dab of Pro-Cure Garlic sent it back out. Within minutes I brought the first fish to hand. A small (9 inches) rainbow released for another day.

I put the rod back out again with garlic and again within minutes the second came to hand. It too was small and went back for another day. Then I put both rods out  with garlic. Half our later and nothing to show for my efforts, reeled in one and put it out with a dab of Pro-Cure Anise. Almost as soon as it hit the water I had a bite, but missed it. New bait and again a hit almost as soon as it hit the water. This time it was a Rainbow about 12 inches. I was not planning to bring any fish home today so he went back too.

Between the garlic and the anise, I caught and released five with one additional short distance release at my toes, and 4 or 5 missed bites, it turned out to be an "It's All About The Smell" kind of day.

Oh, and my Brother and the seat belt, the officer said  "You should know better" and wrote him a ticket.

I will be out again on Thursday. I taking Juan Breaking The Bank Blog up to the "Secret Lake" for some fly fishing practice. Should be interesting.

Till then.

Mark