Aloha Trout Unlimited members of the Waikahe’olu Hawaii Chapter
I was back on Kauai from July 7th – 17th, up at the Rice cabin in Kokee.
The Kauai Trout season was in full swing. Most of the trout fishermen were at the Pu’u Lau Reservoir fishing for stocked Rainbow Trout. Very few fisherman venture into the interior of Kauai to fish for the WILD Rainbow Trout due to the difficulty of getting to these remote locations.
The Pu’u Lau Reservoir has an easy dirt road access at the 12 mile marker right off Highway 550. The trout fishing season goes from July 12th through September 30th and it requires a fresh water fishing license. Fishing requirements, bag limits, rules and regulations are posted at the check-in station at the Reservoir.
The majority of my time on Kauai this trip was to re-organize all our fishing/camping equipment stored for the past 18 months in “Action Packer” containers, clean and re-label the equipment and get it ready for future Trout Unlimited activities. Hopefully, it will see some action in the future as we continue to deal with pandemic.
Just getting from Honolulu to Kauai for the past 18 months has been a huge challenge. Travel rules, health requirements, “check points” and the overall Gestapo tactics impacting Hawaii residents have been – to put it mildly – “extreme”, but it has limited our islands from having to deal with issues in other states. Kauai as a whole has had very little covid case due to “its extreme measures” implemented by the Kauai Mayor.
That said, travel rules have now been relaxed, tourists are now crawling all over Kauai but Kokee, due to its remoteness has not been affected. Also, the Rice cabin located on Camp Ten dirt road has seen very little due to its location as well. That is not to say I have not encountered lost hikers during my hikes on some remote Kokee trails in my quest to find and remove invasive plants. I HAVE…There are even posters at some of the trail heads where DLNR personal are still looking for some tourist/hikers have gone missing for the past 2 months — and never found.
I will be returning back to the Rice cabin in Kauai from August 27th through September 6th. Any Trout Unlimited members wishing to spend the night, engage in fishing or exploring Kokee, can contact me at my email address dgonz18496@aol.com. The cabin has 6 bed rooms and two full baths. You can view the cabin on our website @ tuhi.org\rice-cabin.
Deane Gonzalez, Treasurer TU chapter # 403
