Early last year, even before the Covid shutdowns sent folks recreating in nearshore waters in droves, we noticed that the inshore bite was slower than normal and bait fish were absent. 2020 turned out to be one of the lousiest fishing years in recent memory and fruit crops like mango were lacking also. We at Hawaii Nearshore Fishing believe that was primarily due to the affect of the La Nina weather phenomena, which cooled the ocean water temps and changed the direction of ocean and wind currents.
Good news is the effects of La Nina should be dissipating very soon, and we expect this year to be a transition year to normalcy. Fruit trees seem to have more flowers than normal, leading to more fruit. Already, more early season papio have been caught than last year.
We don’t expect the oama / papio season to be as epic at the 2015 and 2015 El Nino years but we do expect fishing to be better than last year. Stay tuned for a more in depth oama prediction as indicators become clearer.
-scott
Mango? Mango? You get Mango? I LIKE SOME! ???
Kelly Boy,
Some people are on their second crop already. Our anemic tree has small mango and they may ripen in a month. I’ll trade you for fresh opelu or halalu. 🙂
-scott
Deal!
I heard that there’s oaamas on Maui could it be the leftovers from last year? They say have choke.
Hi Craig,
My guess is that any oama seen now came in earlier. They say there’s oama year round, just not as many as the ones that come in the late summer. You’re gonna check that pile out?
-scott
Hi Scott I’ll check.it out Tuesday. I’ll let you know 🙂
Hope you find the pile all to yourself Craig!
Hi Scott went today around 900. One place had a not bad school about 15. They were moving around really fast. Kind of skiddish. Fisherman I talked to said his friend caught not bad. Think early am or late afternoon. Looked like about 5 to 5.5 inches.
Hi Craig,
5 to 5.5 inches isn’t the real small kine so they might be tame enough to eat. I’ve heard Oahu has a few piles of very small oama too, so all these reports gives us hope that it may be a normal oama and papio year.
Thanks for the report.
-scott
Your welcome Scott. ?
All good indicators of a better year than last year. Already Papio on the flats in May. Hoping all of us are able to hook up to some good fish soon.