Aloha Hawaii Trout Unlimited Members.
It’s your chapter treasure reporting on my last trip to Kokee Kauai – October 2021.
I had great dry conditions for my 10 days on Kauai. I did not lose a single day to bad weather.
This trip was a mixed adventure where I wanted to check on 3 things:
- The ditch running just above the Boy Scout camp in Kokee where Tim Cashdollar and I spent over 2 days (over 18 months ago) clearing all the dead falls and debris that had accumulated over the previous years.
This ditch has wild Rainbow Trout that funnel into it from the Kauaikinanna stream. By opening the ditch, it gives the Boy Scouts a place to fish right next to their camp grounds. GOOD NEWS, the ditch is running clear and free from obstructions after we cleaned it out and we saw wild Rainbow Trout in the ditch! (See photo) - The Kokee stream reconstruction project we spent 2 years working on, is the stream we got a grant from Trout Unlimited National. Dave Lumpert and I got back to the stream, and it was choked with ginger, after 18 months of no maintenance due to the pandemic, you could barely see where we had cleared away all the invasive ginger, black berry, and other plants from the stream. Nature has reclaimed the entire section of 100 yards we had cleared.
After 2 years, $3000 dollars spent, and God knows how many man hours of working with shovels, pitch forks, machetes, and chain saws, we are right back where we started. It was heart breaking to see! Without the monthly maintenance on by Trout Unlimited members, it was\is a losing battle.
Granted, I could see some open sections of the stream (See photo) but the majority of the stream was once again choked with invasive plants over shadowing the stream. We are going to have to re-think our attack plans on the Kokee Invasive plant stream restoration program. - The Kawaikoi stream has not produced any trout for 4 years! We know the food source is there, the water temperature is good (59 degrees) but for some reason the trout cannot reproduce in this stream. However, I thought somewhere in a tributary of the Kawaikoi or way up stream at the head waters there might be a section where a surviving small breeding population of trout might just have found the right place to reproduce. We all know nature will find a way, so Dave Lumpert and I decided to explore the upper section of the Kawaikoi Stream past where the trail makes a loop. The upper section has feeder streams with cooler water. Dave Lumpert, who lives in Poipu on Kauai has never been in this area (Very few people have) so he was an ecstatic for me to show him this section of the stream.
When we first got to the stream it was flowing clear but full, we could not cross it to get to the Kawaikoi trail head, so plan “B”, we hiked the Pihea trail and got up to the “East” branch of the of the Kawaikoi Stream, and fished some of the deep “secret” pools. Unfortunately, no trout! No hits, strikes, or followers.
Great hike, great looking stream but no trout! What a bummer!
Next day, back at the Kawaikoi Stream, it was at a lower level and we could wade across. We started to hike the trail and soon find out the ginger was 6 feet high and the Uluhe Fern had grown back over the trail. Not even the pig hunters had been up there in OVER a year, so we spent the next 2 hours clearing the trial, just so we could walk on it. That works up a sweat and I had NEVER seen the Kawaikoi stream trail, so popular with hikers so over grown in the 50 years I have been hiking this trail.
We made it to the section of the trail where it loops around, crossed the stream, and headed back on the other side of the stream. We fished the upper section of the Kawaikoi Stream, and it was pristine in its beauty. Native ferns and plants all along the sides of the canyon where the stream flows through, but NO trout in any of the pools! Very disappointing from a fishing point-of-view, but we did open up half of the Kawaikoi Stream trail, and we saw natures beauty in all its glory and we had a great hike.
To sum it up, the cabin is great, the forest is pristine, the streams are beautiful and I lost about 5 lbs. from all the exercise!
I’ll be going back to Kauai December 3rd through the 13th. Any Trout Unlimited member who wants to stay at the cabin while I am there during those dates, come on over! You can have a roof over your head and a nice bourbon and a cigar on the Lanai after a good day of hiking in the forest. Oh, I might just get you to do some trail clearing work as well, so we can get to the Kawakoi stream. Don’t worry, I have extra machetes!!
Any Trout Unlimited Members who wants to come up and have a place to stay in Kokee let me know. We got 6 bedrooms and 2 full baths. You can see the Kokee Cabin on our website @ Rice Cabin.
You can contact me via my email @ [email protected].
Until the next blog report, Deane signing off!
Deane Gonzalez – Treasurer Trout Unlimited Chapter #403
