Hawaii fishing next week: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

Well, we made it home last night after a week in paradise. Very difficult to leave, but it was time to come home.

I have to say to all you who are retired military, active military or a spouse and plan on going to Hawaii, definitely stay at the Hale Koa Hotel on Oahu. It's beach front, cheap (under $150/night, based on rank) and conveniently located to everything, just on the west end of Waikiki beach. The Hilton Hawaiian Village, right next door, charges $500/night. Don't know how you could afford to stay there for a week, but it was full of guests.

Now on to the important stuff...

We (my wife, my sister-in-law and her husband, and I) chartered with Boom Boom Sportfishing and captain Tony Brown and his mate Gilbert. These guys are top notch and I recommend anyone wanting to fish with pros look them up. We left the dock at Ko Olina resort at 6:30 and by 7:00 we hooked our first mahi fishing 12" skirts(blk/yellow/salmon with flash) w/ 10/0 hooks in just over 500 fathoms. I was about half way thru my first beer as I sat on the bridge when I saw the first one hit. I handed my beer off to my wife, hit the first three or four steps of the ladder and jumped to the deck where I began cranking in a nice 25 lb cow. Later my wife said she thought I had jumped overboard I moved so fast. But as we all know, when a fish hits it's time to GO!

After that first fish we continued trolling between 500 and 1000 fathoms, putting a fish in the boat every 30 minutes or so. It was very exciting watching the birds work overhead and in the swells we could see the mahi breaking on our lures. Blk/yellow/salmon was the number 1 color, followed closely by blue/silver. We only had one double, and brought in one mahi lip(unfortunately it was my wife who reeled in the lip). I guess she doesn't know her own strength.

All totalled, we managed to land 10 mahi from 20 lbs up to 38 lbs, and lost 5 others. We set a new boat record for the Boom Boom, and ran out of flags to fly for the run to the docks. Unfortunately we saw no marlin in the spread, but we had a great time catching 200+ lbs of mahi.

We took 20 lbs of filets back to our hotel and grilled them beachside for dinner with some macaroni salad, potato salad, and more beer. Talk about tasty!! Even with 15 family members there we couldn't eat all of the filets, so we grilled the rest the next day for lunch.

I will try to get some pictures up once I get a chance to download them from the camera.

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<---- "Jihad this!"
Team 10%
Semper fi, PGR member
Bocephus for President 2012