January 27, 2016

2016 Hawaii - Oahu (Day 6)

I only had a couple of hours free today even though my meeting with Stan was canceled last minute.

Looking for something close and quick, I went to Ala Moana for a short late afternoon session. I saw a Trumpetfish (Nunu) and a Manybar Goatfish (Moana), and a few Moorish Idol that did not want to bite. I was simply poking the bait around when a female Whitespotted Boxfish took interest!

Whitespotted Boxfish (Ostracion meleagris) - Species #507

Further down the rocks, I saw some Lavender Tang but the Green Damselfish swarmed the bait and the Lavendar Tang could care less. There were a couple of male Whitespotted Boxfish around and I finally got one to take interest.

The sun was setting and I decided to go. I tossed a piece of half used shrimp away only to see a large fish picked it up. With my heavier 9' surf rod, I put a new shrimp on the rigged #8 hook and saw the large fish ate it but the hook was cut clean in half.

I had previous encounters with Porcupinefish in Hawaii; and suspected this was yet another Porcupinefish taunting my fishing ability. Once upon a time, I had one crushed my hooks repeatedly until I finally put on a metal leader and a large hook to hook it, only to lose the fish when the 8lb line snapped as I tried to lift it up a jetty. Taking no chance at all, I rigged up with 20lb fluoro and #2 hook with a whole shrimp. This time, the fish couldn't cut the hook or the line and I finally had redemption on this species...15 years in the making!

Spot-fin Porcupinefish (Diodon hystrix) - Species #508

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