Bass Fishin' in Hawaii

My wife and I just recently got married and decided to take our honeymoon to Hawaii, picking Kauai as our destination. There were a few reasons for choosing that specific island, but the main reason was simple.... For bass fishing! Hawaii is known for the famous Peacock Bass- one of the hardest fighting fresh water fish there is. Although I knew our timing might not be perfect weather for Peacock Bass, we set off anyways. I was stumped as to how we were going to get out onto the water, so we decided to pack up an inflatable boat, with electric trolling motor, and take it with us. We also brought our own rods/reels and tackle. Our first day in Hawaii we drove around (by car) to some of the "fishing areas" I had previously mapped out. We found a small opening on the bank of a stream and on my first cast I hooked into a 4-5 lb Largemouth! I was so excited! Using a finesse worm on a G.Loomis drop shot rod (the new e6x) with light tackle, the large bass took me into a tree and I was unable to land him, breaking off my line. Even though I did not land it, I was so excited that on my very first cast, on this remote island, I hooked into such a nice fish. The next morning we set off in our little inflatable boat down that same stream. We caught a few surf perch, or something similar, on some small cranks but no bass. There was an extremely strong wind which caused our inflatable to blow all over the place making it very difficult to navigate through the heavy vegetation. The next day we set off to a small reservoir known to hold Peacock. We decided to fish from the bank instead of being blown around in our little boat. Within five minutes of fishing the bank, my wife had a nice 2lb Smallmouth smash her purple crankbait. This fish must have jumped out of the water at least 3 feet into the air! At that point right there she became hooked on Smallmouth bass. We continued to catch decent Smallmouth to 4lbs, catching them on multiple techniques. Cranks, poppers, jerkbaits and spinnerbaits all proved to be effective. However, the majority of our larger fish came on a small purple worm. I was surprised with the size of the Smallmouth we were catching since the state record is just under 5lbs. I, without a doubt, believe there was a state record lurking in that body of water. During our time there, we fished three separate days at this reservoir catching over thirty Smallmouth and 1 Largemouth (about 13 inches long- the smallest bass of the trip). Though we didn't catch any Peacock, we still had one of the best fishing trips of our lives! Who would have thought that an island known for beaches, site seeing and tourism had such great bass fishing? The next time your wife mentions a vacation- suggest Kauai as the destination!