Chaz's 1st Hawaii Bone Provides Surprise
Local Montanan Chaz Hart came to Molokai to catch a Hawaii bone. An excellent Angler I had hopes of getting him on that first bone. A little cooperation from mother nature in the form of sunshine would have been appreciated. We got sunshine that lasted 5 to 25 minutes and then go back to overcast. Not great but workable.
My standard procedure when people fish their own equipment is to check their drag after rigging up. In Chaz's case I had to tighten the drag down quite a bit. I could tell he wasn't too sure about the setting I had chosen. He then went on to say, "I have fished in Belize and never had a bone take me into my backing." As he peeled off line preparing to man the bow for the mornings fishing. Chaz didn't know what was coming his way once he stuck just an average sized Molokai bone fish.
We had hooked one the previous day but line broke right on the set. 15 lb fluorocarbon at the fly I might add. Some people fish 20 to 25 lb. to give you an idea of these fish.
Many hours of looking but the main event happened quickly. I spotted the fish while poling. Turned the boat and was able to communicate fish's location to Chaz. He spotted it quickly and made 1 great cast. Fish turned quickly swam 5 yards to the fly and at it before Chaz made his fist strip. As Chaz took slack out of line hood came tight in the fishes mouth.
All Chaz could do was hang on while this fish peeled off at least a 100 yards of backing. He turned fish an reeled it toward the boat, but didn't land fish till he took 2 more runs well into the backing.
After some photos some high fives Chaz said, "Man I thought you had over tightened the drag. That fish was gone even with all that tension on the drag. I have never experienced anything like that!" Welcome to Hawaii Chaz