Comments (2)

By Sean Fenner, November 19, 2010 10:51 pm

We’re starting off “Catch Of The Week” big with a Double Header. Louie “The Fish” sent in two photos (Left) of a nice 12 pound Bonefish and (Right) of son Joaquin with a great 10 pounder both caught out on the flats of Honolulu, Hawaii (on Louie’s home tied flies none the less). Louie bra, you’re making me want to hop on a plane and get over to the fam’s house right out of Hawaii Kai to get in some Oio Action! Captain Louie and his son Joaquin run a Saltwater Fly Fishing Guide Service on the island of Oahu  (Louie The Fish). So if ya ever in the area shoot him an Aloha, and get out on the flats with Louie for some great time on the fly!

Don’t forget to send in your entries to urbanflyventures@gmail.com along with your name and a small blurb about your photo.

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By Sean Fenner, April 1, 2010 10:00 am

My Fly Fishing experience on my trip to Hawaii came in a two part series. Part one as already described in my first post was Freshwater Fly Fishing and the second was my Saltwater Experience.

I didn’t get as much time as I would have liked on the flats, but the couple of hours during a windy morning had to do, and as an Urban Fly Fisherman I have learned to take what I can get.

First off, I am not a very experienced Salt Water Fly Fishermen as I only started testing the waters last year. Second off, I have even less experience fishing Saltwater Flats. With the entire island of Oahu surround by Flats, I had to get familiar with it quick and Chris really helped teach me alot.

It was amazing to be about 200-300 feet from shore and still standing in knee deep waters. The water was crystal clear, which was refreshing since in southern California sight fishing in salt isn’t generally an option. The chop from the wind made it a little harder than normal (per Chris) to spot fish, but between the two of us we spotted a few Bone fish, Yellow Spotted Trevally, and Mullet. The scenery and taking pictures seemed to get the best of me , and after about an hour and a half it was time to head back.

I had a chance to do a little scoping around on my own the next morning. I was able to get two hookups one of which slipped out of the fishes mouth and the other broke me off on the coral. It was an extremely frustrating, but rewarding experience. After about 30 minutes, I decided to give up and hit an little canal that emptied into Hawaii Kai just couple of blocks away.

The spot produced a colorful fish, which a local advised me was called a Wrasse (since I did not say the Hawaiian word for the fish) and a puffer fish. Now I have never caught a puffer and the teeth on that thing looked super mean, so after about 5 minutes of trying to get the fish off the line and not wanting to go near it’s mouth (with a bunch of local bait fishermen laughing their heads off) my experience had come to an end.

I can’t wait to get back to the islands and I am itching to get out on the flats again. Hopefully we will find time to get back next year.

“In the meantime Aloha and Mahalo to the Island of Oahu!”

Comments (2)

By Sean Fenner, March 20, 2010 10:46 pm

Just landed back in the Mainland last night from our trip to Hawaii. It was an amazing vacation filled with time for family, site seeing, and even some time out on the water with my fly rod.

The trip was mainly for my wife to visit her Grandparents and her Dad, and for me to visit my Grandparents. In between visit however we did manage to do some site seeing like visiting Iolani Palace and Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay.

Before I left on my trip to the islands, I got into contact with one of our site followers Chris who knows the island and the fish on it extremely well. The weather patterns have been a little strange there for the last few weeks and the Saltwater bit has been slow. So, we decided that it would be best to hit up th local  Nuuanu Stream in the morning and get out on the flats in the afternoon when the tide was coming in.

The morning started off interesting with me missing the cutoff sign for the stream, and getting lost. I found my way back to the road to find my host waiting for me on the side of the road to flag me over to my parking destination. We talked for a few minutes and he briefed me on the terrain and the equipment to use.

The fishing was amazing. We both managed a few Smallmouth Bass, I think I caught about 15 (since he gave me all the good holes to fish) within a hour or two. The hiking was a little strenuous in the rain with us (mainly me) slipping and falling all over the stream, but the results were well worth it.

I want to give a big Mahalo to Chris for showing me this little stretch of paradise!

Comments (0)

By Sean Fenner, March 12, 2010 6:00 am

We will be on vacation for about a week in Hawaii and will not be posting anything during that time. Don’t get discouraged though we should be pushing out new material by the end of next week.

-Aloha from UrbanFlyVentures.com

Comments (3)

By Dan Zambrano, March 5, 2010 10:24 pm

So every couple of years my wife and I recognize that our veterinary practice needs a “shot in the arm”, so to speak, in order to revitalize and refresh our business plan and… to keep our heads from popping off our necks.

This “shot-in-the-arm” usually comes in the form of what we call an upper-level staff retreat. Now, since we are the only two upper level staff, that usually means we go somewhere where we can relax for a bit and have some long, uninterrupted discussions and planning sessions without the day to day pressures and busy-ness of our normal routine intruding.

Last week, we had the amazing blessing of holding our “retreat” on the island of Kauai.

I gotta tell you, if you want to get away from it all, and if you want to remove yourself from the busy-ness of urban life, Kauai is definitely the place to go. It ain’t called the Garden Isle for nothin’ – sure the end of our trip had a little drama in the form of a tsunami warning and evacuation to higher ground and all but…we were still in Kauai.

Needless to say we were able to squeeze in some serious relaxation time between planning, reviewing schedules and goal setting for our business. However, as I have mentioned frequently in previous articles, I am hardly the personality type to “relax” by sitting next to some pool sipping pretty looking drinks with miniature paper umbrellas in them.

Rather, we relaxed by hiking and kayaking and swimming in flowing rivers and snorkeling over reefs and standing on the edge of immense canyons and crawling over ancient lava fields and going into caves and walking along mostly deserted, endless sandy beaches and whale watching and eating mounds of white rice covered with spam and fried eggs followed by shave ice and fresh papaya and…well, you get the picture.

The one thing we did not do was fish.

Now, I debated long and hard with myself about bringing one of my fly rods with me because I knew that of all the Hawaiian Islands, Kauai is THE island for both freshwater and saltwater flyfishing.

I also knew that there is a guide service on Kauai (www.bonefishkauai.com) that will take you out onto the flats for some bonefish flyfishing, which is supposed to rival that of the Florida Keys.

I was also acutely aware that Kauai is jam packed with Bass holding waters. Not just largemouth Bass but Smallmouths and ferocious Peacock Bass which are found in the more than 160 ponds, reservoirs, and holding basins as well as in portions of the nine rivers of the island. I also knew that Tom Christy is the guy to guide you if you want to go Bass fishing on the island (www.sportfishhawaii.com) though he does not guide specifically for fly-fishing and does not provide fly gear.

Yeah, I knew all that and more.

What I did not know was that we would kayak up rivers where massive, fly-ignorant Tilapia were lined up like salmon getting ready to return to their home waters.

Nor did I expect to see schools of two-foot long mullet hovering beneath bridges attacking every leaf that fell into the brackish waters.

Likewise, I did not anticipate snorkeling with barracuda and nervous schools of Jacks mere yards from the hotel beach.

Neither did I guess how my jaw would drop in amazement and how tears would well up in the corner of my eyes when I turned the corner and discovered the quantity and variety of fishing gear filling the sporting goods aisle of the local Wal-mart where my wife was busy clearing out the souvenir section.

Yeah, I left the fly rod at home but I still had a fishin’ adventure. And you can bet that when we return to Kauai (and we will) I will have the fly rod and I will have the right assortment of flies and I will know where to go and how to fish that area and I will have made the proper contacts and…I will have a large wild Hawaiian double shave ice with ice cream and red beans to celebrate the peacock bass that I will catch and…well you get the picture.

I love this addiction called island flyfishin’.