A 10.4 boga weighed Hawaiian bonefish by Glenn Ueda. Photo courtesy of Glenn Ueda

This is our buddy, Glenn’s explanation as only he can tell the story: A fish of a lifetime!

Nice casual start this morning, long way around the island, picture taking, cloudy and windy though, oh-oh, find the beach access, waist deep to start but slated to fall, wind-drizzle-wind-sun-wind, clean bottom except for weedy clumps, so no fish to be seen, got to find conditions, knees go dry, find the shallows and the hunt begins, almost step on big one, huge sand cloud, the search goes on, it’s 1:25 pm, low tide in two hours, eyes burning, scanning in glare, grey-tan mud plume, thirty feet away, barely discernible, silver baseball glove-sized tail, roll cast to load rod, lead fish by eight feet, let medium bead chain eyes do their thing, mud cloud drifts aft, but huge green submarine creeps ahead, closing in on where I think fly is, 5 feet, 4 feet, 3 feet-slow strip, line goes extremely tight, fish rockets away pulling line through strip set, in a few seconds, 50 yards-100 yards- 150 yards-200 yards, fortunately no hazards to be concerned with, deep backing seeing water for first time ever, fish turns, heavy tail beats, second run only a half as far, third run, fourth run, seemingly no quit, fish finally circling but tail still thumping side to side, get first good look, pulse quickens, hands start shaking, dilemma… how to land this beast solo, NRX bent into cork, no pressure left to apply, five minutes pass by, decide to not apply rod pressure down back of fish for fear of popping hook, decide do or die time is here, gently hold leader with left hand while simultaneously placing cork grip under right pit, begin scary slow hand over hand, pulling fish ever closer, alert to release if it bolts, finally within arms reach, left hand stab at fish, hand barely fits around tail, shaking in disbelief, shaking with gratitude, shaking because I’m staring at a bonefish of a lifetime, boga says ten pounds and four ounces, goal achieved, still can’ t believe it, so grateful…..