We recently escaped for a much-needed (but too brief) break from this freezing cold, grey, dreary garbage Seattle weather and headed over to Hawaii to spend time with friends and do some fishing. We started out by visiting friends on Oahu and then headed over to Kona for another week of fishing and partying. As any fisherman knows, all great escapes must begin with a nutritious breakfast before the flight ………



My buddy Magwa picked us up at the Honolulu airport and we headed over to our usual haunts at The Royal Hawaiian. It was like homecoming, catching up with old friends who work there….and pounding beverages to quench our thirst…





A couple days of chilling on the chaise lounges in front of The Royal Hawaiian... drinking $13 cocktails and people watching....man you see some WEIRD chit on Waikiki beach!!!!



Our annual day at Lanikai beach……



Then up to the North Shore to visit favorite haunts and kick Magwa’s ass in our annual MaiTai Invitational Fishing Derby. The rules are simple: nobody gets a drink until they catch their first fish. Size and species are immaterial. The guy who catches the firsts fish gets the first drink, paid for by the other guy who hasn’t caught squat yet. Some years more have joined in….more people = more beverages. All C’n’R of course, barbless flies, choice of pattern decided by a coin toss. I won, so I chose scuds…..which only work there if you know how to fish them heh heh heh……I scored first with this massive 1” hawkfish and started drooling over the thought of my first maitai…….



After finishing my drink I scored a whopper 2” wrasse. Remember when you were a kid and you’d dangle a rubber spider in your mom’s peripheral vision to freak her out? Well, that [censored] works great on buddies using small fish too….I’m off to score my 2nd cocktail……while Magwa tries to tie on a gay pink scud while freaking out over the wiggling leviathan in his ear…………



Magwa began to get upset after I nailed these awesome humuhumunukunukuapua’a………..I was building a nice tropical buzz and he was dying of thirst!