Big oama = bigger papio?

these seemed larger before they got bent

I went back to troll the “strike every 5 minutes” hot spot.  Took the jumbo sized oamas with the hopes that the small papio would leave them alone.  The first two papio bit within 5 minutes and seemed larger so I bagged them. I thought they both were 13 inches head to tail but the one in the foreground looks smaller yeah?  It was still curled from sitting in my game bag.  The pliers are 11 inches long.

The papio that followed took about 7 minutes to strike and were the just legal or under legal size so I released them.  One was a 4 inch papio that somehow dislodged the 5 inch oama and got hooked on the back hook!  And the last papio landed was short but took the hook fairly deep in its gullet. I was able to unhook it but it didn’t revive well after trying to resuscitate it for 5 minutes.  I had to eventually release it wounded since it’s illegal to possess a papio under 10 inches (head to fork).   That was a downer.

I trolled two 3 day old dead oamas and they got bit too.  My dad fished a very popular pier on a military base and said there were hundreds of 4 to 8 inch papio and very few legal ones.  I guess we have to count our blessings and wait until these little guys become 5 lb papio.