2016 Hawaii (foreword)

It has been over 6 years since I visited my Grandma and my uncles in Oahu, Hawaii. When an opportunity occurred that would take me there, it was difficult to refuse. I chose to kept the blog posts focused on fishing and scenery, so there is little mention of family and other events that also occurred.

Hawaii was the place where my species hunting began. When I was 16, I returned to Hong Kong to obtain my adult citizenship card. On the way back to Canada, I made a stopover in Hawaii. During the 1.5 weeks in Hawaii, I fished with my telescopic rod to catch a few reef fishes. That first experience opened my eyes to traveling and fishing. Since then, I had made two trips, in 2007 and 2009, back to Hawaii and caught 32 new species.

In the past, my fishing was limited by the lack of transportation. I was too young to rent a car. Fishing was dependent on the availability of my family and friends when and where they could take me. Today, I am afforded more freedom as long as I can afford a rental car. Luckily, I made all the bookings early enough before the rental price skyrocketed.

Based on the advice of Steve, Elijah and George, I decided to add a week on the Big Island just for fishing. However, Maui was an island that I had wanted to visit and hiking in Haleakala was a big bucket list item. A few day in Maui was added. Before I knew it, my 4 weeks long Hawaii itinerary took shape.

With so many days to report, the daily blog posts will be kept fairly short. I hope the pictures will do most of the talking and give you a flavour of the scenery, atmosphere, food and fishing that Hawaii has to offer.

2015 Florida Christmas (Day 9)

Our last day in Florida had finally arrived. We were initially scheduled to fish Dania Pier again, but since the pier had not yield very many interesting species, we decided to drive north to Titusville to give Michael and Bartek a chance at Sheepshead, Red Drum and Black Drum.

We were on the road by 7:30am and arrived in Titusville just before 11am after a short stop. We walked into Captain Hook's for some bait, and they had both live shrimp and fiddler crabs. I had scout out the pier beside A Max Brewer Memorial Parkway and got a confirmation that it was indeed a good place to catch Sheepshead, although it was unlikely we would find Red Drum and Black Drum. Instead the shop owner suggested the backwater creeks at Merritt Island if we wish to find the Drums.

Arriving at the pier, we found very windy condition. While Michael and Bartek fished fiddler crabs along the pylons with a simply split shot rig, I tried the sandy, grassy area to see if there were any Striped Burrfish around. I had read that Indian River Lagoon was a good place to find them. Unfortunately, in the murky water condition, not even Pinfish were biting.

After an hour of not getting a bit, I decided to try to find the Sheepshead since Michael and Bartek had even had a stolen fiddler crab yet. I knew that with the strong wind and current, the Sheepshead was likely staying close to the bottom. Their splitshot rig was simply not getting the bait deep enough to the fish. I also knew that Sheepshead generally avoid heavy current, so I started to look for the calmest areas to fish.

I tied on a carolina rig with 3/4oz egg sinker to help the fiddler crab get to bottom, but the 18" long leader should give the rig enough freedom to allow the Sheepshead to pick up the bait without feeling the sinker too quickly.

I found a nice eddy tight to the pylon, dropped down my fiddler crab and had it promptly stolen within a minute. Just as I was getting a new fiddler crab, Bartek and Michael suggested that we should fish a new spot. I simply told them they were giving up too easily.

I took Bartek with me and he finally felt the super light tap of a Sheepshead stealing the bait. Michael then came to join us and we were all feeding the Sheepshead for a while. Michael and Bartek were starting to get frustrated at these quick fish but I told them to persist on. Finally, Michael was just lifting his line and checking his bait when the rod bent and he landed his lifer Sheepshead. I decided to check out the wall by the base of the pier and caught a small Sheepshead on my second drop. I returned with another fiddler crab and yet again felt a tap, but this time the fish was much smaller. To my surprise, it was an Oyster Toadfish.

Michael needed an Oyster Toadfish and he tried for a while unsuccessfully. In the meantime, Bartek finally hooked and landed his first Sheepshead.

Someone on the pier landed a small Atlantic Stingray and I rigged up my heavy rod hoping to find my lifer. While I waited patiently for a good pull, Michael and Bartek both caught one more Sheepshead. By 3:30pm, we decided to pack up so we could fish the backwater creeks before the sun set.

We drove along a gravel road at Merritt Island, passing many cars and people along the way, until we found a spot that was not occupied. We didn't know if it was a good spot or not, but we wanted to start fishing quickly. Michael and Bartek sent out live shrimp on carolina rigs in the larger bay while I poked around the shallows behind them with the tanago rods. I only found Eastern Mosquitofish before I lost the tanago hook to the mangroves. I switched to the sabiki since I saw some small fish surfacing, but quickly lost the sabiki to the mangrove roots. Then I switched to a popper rig with live shrimp in the shallow mangrove areas and almost lost the popping cork as well. It was just not going well for me.

Finally, I gave up and joined Michael and Bartek to fish the main bay. I had a series of taps on frozen shrimp but failed to hook up. It was likely a crab stripping my bait.

Fishing was very slow until the sun was about to set. Suddenly, Bartek was hooked up and there was a decent fish on the line. After a couple of good runs, we got the fish close and it was a Black Drum. Bartek's lifer Black Drum was 17" long and a legal keeper and Bartek decided to take the fish home. Everyone got a bit more hopefully at this point, but Bartek jinxed our action by saying we are going to limit out. Never, ever count your fish before you catch them!

It was pretty quiet until dusk. Everyone had time to enjoy the sunset.

As we were contemplating whether to stay or go, Michael got excited when he landed a Hardhead Catfish. He was not sure whether it was a lifer or not. He had not update his life list or kept track of his catches Florida catches since 2013. I was pretty sure it was a lifer for him, since he had been trying to catch one on the previous two trip to Florida.

By this point, I simply wanted a catfish to pull on the rod. Finally, I felt a series of short taps on the line. I was giving the fish time to take the bait, expecting yet another Hardhead Catfish when the fish pulled out drag and made a strange run along the shoreline. At that point, I was expecting a small Red Drum when we saw something flat at the end of the time. We didn't know what it could be until it was in the net. It was an Atlantic Stingray!!!

Atlantic Stingray (Dasyatis sabina) - Species #484

I was completely in disbelief. I had been trying to find one of these every time I fished on the coast of Western Atlantic Ocean, from Nova Scotia all the way to Belize. After years of trying, I finally caught one in a backwater creek when I simply wanted to catch a Hardhead Catfish for a tug on the line.

We were loosing light and the wind had died down. The mosquitoes started to swarm and Michael caught one more Hardhead Catfish before we couldn't stand the biting bug any more. Thus, we wrapped up our Florida adventure on a good note. Michael and Bartek caught two lifers each and even I was gifted a lifer I had long coveted.

What a great trip it was! We had a great group of life list anglers between Elijah, George, Michael and I. For the first time. The camaraderie between the group was strong. Even though Elijah and I live far apart and we rarely had the chance to fish together, he felt like a brother to me every time we meet. I enjoyed the opportunity to captain our own rental boat to fish the patch reefs and Florida Bay. Elijah was a great captain and having done it once with him, I now have more confidence to take a boat out on my own next time. Although the weather worked against us the entire trip, everyone managed to catch some really exciting new species even when the going was tough. And most of all, I had the opportunity again to spend time with my family over Christmas. Florida Christmas 2015 was a success by all aspect!

2015 Florida Christmas (Day 8)

I had originally planned to have lunch with my aunt, but Michael and Bartek had to be picked up by their 11am check out time. So I bid farewell to my aunt and cousin after breakfast.

Elijah had went ahead to lunch at Chipotle. He tasked us to get some live shrimp for his later plan, and we got a block of squid and some shrimp for our later plan.

After lunch, Elijah would part ways with us. He wanted to target Striped Mojarra and Crested Goby before his flight home, while Michael, Bartek and I headed further north to Boca Raton to try for Parrotfish. All parties must eventually end; and it was quite the party fishing with Elijah!

The water was much murkier and the current was much strong than we had experienced in the past at this inlet. The poor condition simply followed us everywhere.

It was a bit of a consolation that the usual annoying bait thieves were less numerous, allowing us to get a better chance to fish for the Parrotfish. Unfortunately, the Parrotfish were nowhere to be seen in the murky water. We only spotted two Yellowtail Parrotfish under a cloud of Sergeant Major - basically impossible to fish for them.

I cast my sabiki rig into the middle of the channel and caught some Wrasse and Grunt. Then I switched to the dropper loop and caught more Grunts. Still, I had hoped to pick up a new species in the blind.

Meanwhile, Bartek spotted a larger fish among the pylons under the platform and it turned out to be a Grey Angelfish. We started to notice a pattern to catching these Angelfish...murky green water!

One surprise were the numerous Smallmouth Grunt in the area. I had never seen so many of them in one place. Michael and Bartek didn't know they were catch them until I pointed them out much later in the evening. This species was basically everywhere at this location!

Fishing was quite poor for species diversity. We had thoughts of moving but I wanted stay until night time since I had never fished here in the dark. We decided to move toward to a set of pylons by the bridge to see if we could find something interesting there. I had caught Parrotfish by the pylons in the past.

Bartek joined me later and said he saw two Spotted Eagle Ray. I had seen them in the past feeding on fish scraps, but they had refused my bait in the past...even when my bait was placed among the fish scraps.

I did eventually find a Redtail Parrotfish by the bridge. Then Bartek caught his second Grey Angelfish, followed by one on my line not long later. Michael was simply flanked out by us and he was starting to get frustrated.

By night fall, we were running out of bait. Bartek and Michael volunteered to make a run to get dinner and bait while I continued to fish. They did not miss out much during their break from fishing, since all I found were Grunts and more Grunts.

When Michael resumed fishing. He immediately caught an Irish Mojarra. I did not know they can be found far into the inlet, and I had been fishing in the same location for quite a while. I tried for a while to find my own Irish Mojarra, but it appeared the fish had moved off. I was simply catching more and more Grunts.

Bartek was having fun with some of the larger Grunts that started to bite. Michael was following a fellow angler's advice and throwing a swimbait around for Snook. I went back to the pylons by the bridge to find nothing but more Grunts. After exhausting the bait I had on hand, it was close to 9:30pm and I was ready to leave. I was walking back to pack up when I passed by Michael and he had some shrimp available. I told Michael that I have never seen as many Smallmouth Grunts in one place before, but he wasn't sure what they looked like. I put some shrimp on the dropper loop rig and caught a Smallmouth Grunt by the dock. I was just showing Michael that they could be caught in the main channel as well when there was a larger fish on the line. Oh wow! It was an Irish Mojarra!!!

Irish Mojarra (Diapterus auratus) - Species #483

I had tried to catch one in the surf zone at Dania Pier, but none were found. Elijah said someone did catch one from the pier, but they were sure no as numerous as we had seen at Anglin's Pier. Finally, when I had least expected to find one, it popped up at a surprising location. It was a great end to a day when I was expecting to go lifer-less once again.