Stan Wright

I went by the lake today to see how the little bass were doing... the ones the hatchery were stocking in the lake last Sunday. I found them hiding in the grass along the shore. They seemed in good shape, nice and healthy. I don't think this one was really pleased to have his picture taken. Or it might have been that he "felt the steel", and missed a meal. The little peacock bass were also out in good numbers... Saw lots of BIG peacock bass... the 3 to 5 pound size... but I was using 4# test and knew there was no way to land those big'uns on my little Tenkara rod. While I was landing this little guy a huge peacock bass tried to eat it. I spoke with some fishermen who did land some 3 and 4 pounders... using live bait.

Well. if I was entering a peacock bass tournament tomorrow... I'd bring my fly rod and a bunch of small flys (1/2 to 1 inch size) That's the only thing I got them to bite today... flys. My "fly rod", a 13'6" Amago, hooked all the fish. But because the Tenkara rod is so light you can't use leaders stronger than 5# test.... my largest PB on the Tenkara today was 2 pounds. Those 3 and 4 pound PB and LMB kept breaking the leader. It was good fun catching the red devils and bass under a pound. This is the size fish I was looking for... peacock bass under a pound... but when one of the big guys hit, you could kiss the fly goodbye and start re-rigging. These little guys are lots of fun... although you have to get them into the boat quickly before one of the larger fish grabs it. (This is a baby peacock bass, not a lure with out the treble hooks). Well, not every large fish broke my leader.... there was a 4# size largemouth bass that grabbed my "lure that I forgot to put the treble hooks on". When it finally realized it was "hooked"... it jumped and threw the "lure with no treble hooks in it". Since all this took place right beside the boat and in clear water... it was really exciting to watch. The "lure with no hooks" was released back into the grass, none the worst for it's experience.) I still can't believe I was able to land this 2 pounder. Why in the world would a fish with such a big mouth go for so tiny a fly?

Peacock bass like warm water and sunshine... spring rains seem to be over and summer is here. As the water temperature reached 80 degrees the peacock bass became more aggressive... We're starting to see more fish in the 3 to 5 pound range. It was fun catching 40 to 50 of the little (1 pounders) peacocks and largemouth... great fun on ultra-light spinning rods or a 4wt fly rod.... but I'm ready for something larger. LOL Even the Red Devils action is picking up.

We were finishing up a successful day on Lake Fork when my guide suggested we check the spawning beds for "Share a Lunker size bass. (11+ lbs) I suggested that he catch the fish, it would look good on his web site... I'd watch. He finally located a 12 pounder after spotting several 7 and 8 pounders. He was trying to get the big bass to take a worm when I noticed a bass about 8 pounds near the back of the boat. I picked up my fly rod and cast a sinking fly right on top of the spawner. Hook up. You know how after you've fought a fish all the way to the boat and it is sitting vertical in the water with just it's head sticking out? They are always good for just one more jump. I said: "I bet if I slacked my line that fish will jump and throw the fly." I bend down all the barbs on my hooks. I no sooner dropped the rod tip than that big bass started tail walking down the side of the boat and tossed that fly right up onto the carpet. I turned to the guide with a big smile and said..."Did you see that? Sweet." He looked at me and said: " Most anglers would give their left arm for a fish like that... and you say...'I bet he'll throw the hook if I slack my line'. You fly fishermen are crazy." That ended a perfect day on the water. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

There are 5 stages in a sportmans life... 1. Lord, just let me catch one. Anything? 2. Got to get a limit. 3. Looking tor that trophy. Get that wall hanger. 4. Been there, done that. What will make this more challenging? 5. I get a thrill just seeing someone catch a fish. It's like every fish you caught.... I caught.

An Observation I've noticed a lot more people we fish with.... especially kids.... are fishing like they were competing in the Bass Masters Classic. Let me explain. When a fish strikes, they set the hook (cross the fishes eyes) and then skip the fish accross the top of the water and swing it up into the boat. If the fish is a little larger and tries to jump.... the angler thrusts the rod tip into the water and sweeps hard to keep the fish from jumping, all the while screaming. No! No! No! The "fight" with these fish might last every bit of 3 or 4 seconds. Maybe it's just me.... but this isn't my idea of fun fishing. I'm thrilled if a fish is large enough to pull drag and make the reel sing. The best part of hooking a fish is to see it come out of the water, head shaking, gill rattling, tail walking accross the surface. Wow. Then after a few minutes of back and fourth tug of war.... reaching down and gently cradling the fish in your hand or grabbing the lip.... now that's what memories are made of for me. We've scaled down our tackle to match the size of the fish. (our average fish is 2 pounds, with a 3 to 5 pounder not that uncommon) Using 4# and 6# test spinning tackle adds a little challenge and skill into the mix. When you finally get a 2 pound peacock or largemouth to the net, you feel good. And it took a lot longer than 3 or 4 seconds to do it. (the last 8 pound peacock bass on 4# test took 35 minutes to land. That fish weighed twice the breaking strength of the line, something few anglers have done.) And since we're using lighter line and smaller lures, we tend to catch more fish. The average tournament fish weighs less than 2 pounds. Most tournament anglers don't even catch a full limit of fish. Look at how thrilled Mike is on that City Limits fishing show to catch a limit of 5, 12 inch fish. Now if your fishing in a big money tournament, that's one thing. For the other thousands of anglers out there,... relax, have fun.... slow down and smell the roses. Just a thought, Aloha, Stan

Hawaii Peacock Bass Are Spawning Just 2 days after we found the peacock bass paired up and claiming a spot to spawn... the rain came down and the water level came up 6 feet.... Now those spawning fish are deep and there is no way to see their nests. On the positive side, there has been good action along the shore as the peacock bass are chasing shad and little chiliads. Visiting from San Diego, eight year old Nick took full advantage of an early birthday present (a fishing trip) to add Hawaii peacock bass to his large and growing list of caught fish. I must say it was a real pleasure to have someone on the boat that could cast as he does. He was also tying on his own hooks. Watch out for this kid.... his goal is to host his own fishing show. Nick and one of his many peacock bass.

Classic Fisherman's Catch We've all seen it in countless cartoons... Fisherman catches boot. But this is the first I've seen it for real. ET (Ed Tamai) took a day off from guiding to try his hand at Peacock Bass. He hooked this "Army boot" using a streamer fly and sinking tip line over by the condos, accross from Schofield Army Bks.... This is where you'll find ET on most days of the week. Out on the flats chasing Oio (bonefish).

Aloha, Oahu's one and only freshwater lake... Wahiawa Res. "Hawaii's Bass Kept Secret" People dump their aquariums into the lake and we have a wide assortment of small tropical fish that the largemouth and peacock bass feed on. Our shad are only 1 to 2 inches long, so small lures and flys seem to work best.

On Saturday we had a great day of fishing... nothing in the way of catching to talk about.... but the company, and being out on the water was great. Landed lots of "fingerlings". Mostly in the 5 and 6 inch size. Randall refused to let me take his picture with his peacock bass. Finally started seeing Red Devils. Every time you cast at them they scattered in fright. They were located in huge schools along the north fork.... mostly in brush piles warmed by bright sunshine. Water visibility was 3 or 4 feet and they were usually down 3 feet or deeper. We caught 5 or 6 Red Devils for every 100 we cast at. On Sunday the wind was up and the water temperature down. Clouds made it hard to see the schools of red devils. (we gave up on trying to catch any peacock bass) Water temperature was 75/76 degrees (cold) As the water warms up the tropical fish should get a lot more active. Aloha, Stan

Little mouth, but a long way from the lips to the gullet. Your lucky, sometimes they suck a lure way down into that trumpit and it's tough to get it back out. I notice your not touching it..... ;D You'd never get the slime off your hands. ;D

With the state trying to lower the water level of the lake from 80 feet (full) down to 65 feet (flood control incase of a hurricane) the lake level has been like a yoyo. With a little rain in the mountains, the lake level can rise 3 or 4 feet in a matter of as many hours. With the water level way low, the small fish don't have any grass to hide in and the peacock bass cruise the shoreline. Find some very shallow water filled with little fish and the big guys are always near by. The water level rose 10 feet this week and the baitfish are all way back up in the grass. The good news is... everything is chasing shad in the middle of the lake. Peacock, largemouth, and smallmouth bass. Since there is nothing to tangle the lines, we fish ultra-light spinning tackle with 4# test line. Good fun catching 2 to 5 pound fish. Sometimes the red devils are caught under the schooling peacock bass.

Haley needs to work on the casting part a little more, but once those schooling peacock bass hit the fly they don't stand a chance. Aloha, Grand Pa Stan

I have ESP... I can see into the future and predict things that are going to happen. Why just the other day as my attention was focused on the fly fisherman in the front of the boat... It all came to me in a flash...... Only moments before, in the back of the boat, I had hooked a fresh live bait on the line and cast it out before handing the spinning rod to the angler. (The wives of some fly fishermen do not fly fish.) For some reason I turned around and saw that she had laid the rod on the deck beside the seat. I said to myself: "Self", I said... "a big fish is going to grab that live bait and pull that spinning rod and reel right over the side of the boat." Lo and be hold, as I stepped toward the stern of the boat to secure the rod, it seemed to grow legs and scramble accross the deck, leaped out over the water, and with a splash, dived into the depths of the lake. Just the way I had seen it in my thoughts only moments before it happened. You know, I even amaze myself some times. P.S. If anyone catches a large peacock bass in the area of the South Fork called Paper Bark.... and there is a fishing line attached.... and there is a spinning rod and reel attached to the other end of the line..... It's mine. : Aloha, Stan

Thursday, May 21, 2009 Light Kona winds, clouds drifting in and out, water clarity 2 to 3 feet.... and the peacock bass were spawning. Near Mikimiki Flats, the small shad were leaping from the water to escape the schooling peacock bass. Red Devils lined the shallows. Decisions, decisions. A schooling size peacock bass. It wasn't the wild and sustained bust like we'll see later in the year, but enough action from 1 to 2 pounders to keep us interested. They love anything gold. When the schooling action slowed, we drifted closer to shore picking up a few big red devils. Every so often a peacock bass would dart in from the depths to grab the small red devil flys. We were seeing lots of fish. Big Male Red Devil. They average from 3/4 to 1 pound in weight. Larger spawning fish were our target so we moved along, scanning the shallow water. (A good pair of polarized sunglasses is a must if you want to see the fish.... if you can't see e'm, you can't catch e'm.) It didn't take long. Those big boys don't like anything swimming near their nest. A minnow looking artificial fly anywhere near a spawning pair of peacock bass draws some vicious strikes. The big bump on it's head identifies this 4 pounder as a male. Unlike largemouth, the male fish is always larger than the female. Aloha, Stan

I like that idea where more bass anglers fish shallow water and the fish are more active early and late in the shallows. Glad I fish for peacock bass... they like sunshine and warm shallow water. We don't even think of geting on the lake before 8 or 8:30. Well after sunup. Gentlemen fishermen??? ;D

The spawning peacock bass are every where. The largest we've caught so far was 3 1/2 pounds. Nice one Milton. Most weighed around 2 pounds. Where are all the big fish? Guess we'll just keep looking. It's easy to tell the male fish with that big hump on their head. Aloha, Stan

They can stay alive out of water.... A friend caught 2 and since it was late, he wraped them in news paper and put them in the refrige. The next day after work, he went to clean them (they are really good eating) and the snakehead were both very much alive. That's how they were able to be transported by sailing ship to hawaii from Asia... As long as you keep them nice and wet, they will survive. Because they are so good to eat, they have almost been wiped out in Hawaii. This is the first I've seen in almost a year. Aloha, Stan

Everyone should fish bass in Mexico before they die. You will love it... we've always gone with Reel Mexican Adventures. The have lodges on several of the lakes mentioned above. I'd rather go for quantity than quality....

I agree, Lake Huites is fantastic. (My worst day fishing Huites was..OUTSTANDING) LOL I can't wait to get back to Mexico and their super bass fishing. If you've never been bass fishing in Mexico... you haven't been bass fishing. Aloha, Stan

The week of November 9-16, Chris and I spent 6 long days (10 hour fishing days) on Lake Baccarac on the west coast of Mexico. Lake Baccarac is noted for it's 10 pound plus largemouth bass. We didn't get a 10 pounder, but we came close..... Not bad for your first Mexican bass, 7 1/2 pounder Chris with one of his three 9 1/2 pound Mexico Bass. My largest, a 7 1/2 pound bass Our largest... 9 3/4 pound Mexican Bass The "small" 2 to 5 pound fish were no where to be found. Where the week before, everyone was catching 50 fish a day with bunches of those in the 9 to 12 pound range.... the week we were there only the big ones were around. And not that many of them. I caught a total of 6 bass and Chris landed 13.... all week. You would make 1000 casts a day and be lucky to catch one or two fish. But you have to admit, that the one fish you did catch was a good one. I spoke to two guys at the airport who had fished Lake Huites that week and averaged 50 to 60 bass a day... (loosing 20 to 30 that came un buttoned) but their largest was only 7 pounds. Most of their fish ran 2 to 5 pounds. Lake Huites is noted for large numbers of fish, but smaller. Lake Baccarac is the place to go for that 10 pound bass Even though the fishing was very, very slow, and we didn't catch nearly as many fish as we expected..... Chris is already planning his next trip to Lake Baccarac. Seems he's been bitten by that "10 pound bass bug". LOL Aloha, Stan

Go Deep Young Man...... (Apologies to Mr. Greeley: "Go West Young Man") This last few weeks I've seen some very successful anglers. One reason was that if one technique wasn't working, they were quick to try something else. That something else was fishing deep. Down where the big ones lurk. Normally when fly fishing I use a floating line. Recently I discovered the benefits of using a sinking tip or full sinking line. One angler tried a deep diving crank bait. Working the schooling peacock bass chasing shad in the middle of the lake, he could get the lure down deep and was rewarded with some nice size fish. We were catching more fish with the fly rods, but they were a lot smaller. While fishing Morgans Point with live bait, another angler discovered that the larger peacock bass seemed to be deep. He started using a lead head jig to get his live bait quickly past the smaller fish down to the larger fish. So how do you get your fly down deep? Sinking line and a short leader. Fishing from shore at Morgans Pt., the sinking line would carry the fly swiftly to the bottom, 20 or 30 feet deep. As soon as it hit the bottom we would start stripping the fly in as quick as possable. Those big peacocks hit hard. There are some huge peacock bass in Lake Wilson... and geting down deep might be just the place to find them.

If there is a fly that is better than the Rubber Spider for catching bluegill or red devils..... it's a sinking rubber spider. Since red devil don't take a surface lure, I figured I would try the Cap Spider. Clay and I were testing my new creations today and the results were great. The Cap Spider I was using was tied on a 1/64 oz. jig head. I tried different color bodies and legs... most everything worked. The RD were deep because of the rise in water level so the heavy flys worked well. I've since tied some with a bead head, or no weight at all for a really slow sink rate. Works just fine. Look at the hump on this 1 pound male.... one of the largest I've ever seen. That's not all they catch. How about this 2 pound catfish? And there is that little fly, right in the corner of it's mouth. Aloha, Stan

The Hilton Hawaiian Village hotel in Waikiki has a beautiful collection of waterfalls and fish ponds. Exotic tropical fish in a rainbow of colors can be seen in the clear shallow water. Here in lies the problem.... there are way to many little fish in the ponds. The hotel, with a special permit from the state, and working closely with the Hawaii Freshwater Fishing Association..... is stocking peacock bass in their fish ponds. Peacock bass feed almost exclusively on smaller fish so they are hoping to thin out the ponds population. HFFA club members had great fun catching the peacock bass and transporting them to the HHV fish ponds. Bass fishermen among the guests at the hotel seemed to enjoy the show. "I didn't know they had peacock bass in Hawaii." The peacock bass seem to be enjoying their Waikiki vacation.

Spring Spawners. It's been a pretty good spawn for peacock bass here in Hawaii. The bad news is... we need rain in a bad way. The good news is.... with no rain the water level has stayed consistent and the fish are all over the place and easy to spot. Chris hosted a TV crew from Outdoor Pursuits, so you guys in New England will get a chance to see some of our fishing action pretty soon. Sportsman's News is also doing a picture story. It's been more "Quality" fishing action, rather than a large "Quantity" of fish caught this last month. The 1 and 2 pound peacock bass are few and far between. The 3 to 5 spawning fish are there. We've seen some peacock bass that have to top the state record 9.4 pounder..... but they just swim away when you toss an offering to them. Fly, lure, or live bait. I know...."That's why they call it Fishing and not Catching."