The papio want their oama lively or not at all

August 20, 2014 By Scott Leave a Comment

still small but getting bigger

The papio are definitely coming onto the reef to dine on oama. And this year there are so many oama around that the papio are discriminating. I went to a deeper water reef area to troll oamas I had caught yesterday. 3 lively ones resulted in 3 papio. 2 freshly dead ones weren’t touched at all. Picky papio!

The first papio fell off my back hook as I was trying to measure it. The top hook ended up stabbing my finger but luckily didn’t go barb deep. Still sore though!

I was watching my orange floater behind me as I trolled over the spot I hooked the first papio and saw it go under. I thought I was seeing things until my ratchet went off. I bagged the 10.5 inch (head to fork of tail) papio and put a fresh dead oama on. Trolled all over for nada. Then I put on the second to the last lively oama and within a minute the 12 inch (head to fork of tail) papio hit.

With two papio in the bag I set the last lively oama free. The papio are hitting the oamas hard now. The trick for me is to find where the larger ones are. My previous spots are loaded with 8 inch papio with small man complexes.

Best conditions to score papio

August 12, 2014 By Scott Leave a Comment

best day so far

After trolling oamas aimlessly for a month and a half, I noticed a pattern as to when and where I get most of my strikes. These conditions apply to dunking and whipping also.

First third of the rising tide
Cool, moving water; not still, sun warmed water
In front of the surf break (I’m not going past the surf break)
Bouldery terrain with a mix of sand and dark rocks
Edge of channel and bouldery reef

And for those trolling oama:

4 to 6 foot fluorocarbon leader
front hook through nostrils, rear hook past the ventral (anal) fin
30 to 75 feet away from you
liveliest oama (but wounded or freshly dead still work if that’s all you have)

Please keep in mind I haven’t caught anything big this season but I am getting a lot of strikes when the above conditions come together.

Big surf, small papio

August 12, 2014 By Scott 1 Comment

another barely legal papio

To get away from the undersized papio and pesky kaku bothering my oama at my regular trolling spot, I decided to try a spot I had previously been wade fishing. Yesterday I hooked a just legal papio in the first 5 minutes which I released to upgrade to a bigger fish. I got hits on the next 5 oama but none of them stuck. Most of the battle scars looked like they were caused by small papio.

I went back today armed with more live oama and was surprised by the size of the surf. A guy was getting barreled standing up! It must’ve been a south swell combined with an east wrap from Hurricane Julio. Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures on the water.

The only strikes I got today were right in front of where the guy was surfing, so it was a little gnarly to make sure the outgoing rip didn’t pull me into the break. The first fish was just short so I released it. The second fish measured 11 inches from head to fork so he got bagged. My dad, who used to say “papio no ono”, ate the last just legal papio and sheepishly admitted “it was ok, young that’s why”. He now hopes he’s the recipient of my small papios.

It’s been a strange oama season for me on the South Shore. The oama came in early and initially the papio weren’t hitting them. Now the small ones are nailing them but no papio larger than a pound so far. I talked to some fishermen in the parking lot and they said North Shore and Kaneohe Bay are going off but the action is still slow on the South Shore. One guy said he’s actually catching more papio on lures than he is on oama. And to confirm how stuffed the papio are this oama season, there were 2 oama in the stomach of the 11 inch papio.

4 strikes and I was out

August 4, 2014 By Scott Leave a Comment

My short lived success in catching papio, albeit barely legal ones, ended. I trolled 4 oama on my board this morning and all got hit but nothing landed. Most hits were on the back hook, which was ripped out of the oama. The hits weren’t hard enough to penetrate deeply.

On my paddle out I saw schools of large sized oama and some wounded oama doing death spirals. Too many easy-to-catch food for the predators.

I may have to look for a place with less bait in the water.

The papio are finally hitting oama with gusto

July 31, 2014 By Scott Leave a Comment

it’s legal, barely

With the August traditional start of oama season right around the corner, the papio are finally hitting the oama hard. I’ve been hearing reports of some large papio caught on the East and West Side of Oahu, and even the South Shore is lighting up. My theory is that the water was warmer than normal in the spring and that caused the common white weke and less common red weke to produce eggs earlier and in greater numbers than expected. The papio either were not on the same biological clock or were so stuffed with oama they were biting baits lightly until recently.

Bouyed by yesterday‘s moderate success, I trolled some live oamas on my board this afternoon. The line cutting kaku weren’t bothering the baits so the papio had them all to themselves. This 11 inch (head to fork of tail) omilu hit the back of the bait hard enough to get hooked on the outside of its mouth. It was small but of legal size so I bagged it. The first official papio of the oama season.

My next strike was stronger but the fish pulled line and rubbed the hook off on the reef. It had been so long I wasn’t prepared for a line ripper like that. Then the bite abruptly stopped. No papio, no kaku, no nibbles. But I’ll take it. Bolo head is officially over. Now I can select the poll response “Avid fisherperson, using oama for bait. Had some success this season.”.

For those of you who have participated in the poll, thank you! So far it looks like a large group of readers are just casual fisherfolks looking for ways to improve their fishing success. The next biggest group are avid fisherfolks who aren’t using oama for bait. Interesting, I’d love to know how these folks are fishing during this epic oama season.

The papio traditionally hit the oama best in August, then the oama get larger and become uncatchable in September. So take your best shot now but only keep what you can eat/use. That applies to both papio and oama. Good luck!

Does this end the bolo head?

July 29, 2014 By Scott 3 Comments

Well, I trolled some live oama on my surfboard again. The first couple got scratched up and the back hook bitten off. I was retrieving a wounded oama to replace it and a silvery white, short but thick fish shot up to take a bite. What do you think that was?

After paddling in a big circle I returned to that spot and finally stuck a fish. Turns out it was the fattest 10 inch (head to fork of tail) omilu papio I’ve ever seen. So that’s what the silvery white flash was. The predators are gorging on the baby fish bloom and getting downright chubby.

The omilu was released after the picture was taken. Does its capture end the bolo head or do I have to catch one I actually keep?

It’s bite pattern matches the parallel bite marks of the top oama in this picture.

10 inch fatty

Mauled oama, still no papio

July 25, 2014 By Scott 8 Comments

mauled oama

I trolled 4 live oama today. Each one got bit but still no papio landed. My bolo head streak extends to 6 trips.

The first two oama were trolled with just a hook through their nostrils and the attacking fish mauled and killed the oama but didn’t pull much line. The top oama in the picture has two parallel bite marks that seem to indicate a narrow mouthed fish. Maybe a barracuda or stickfish?

I added a second hook near the anal fin of the last two oama. The attacking fish got hooked on that back hook and immediately bit through the line. The bottom oama was one that had hooked the attacker before the back hook was cut off. Guessing a toothy barracuda did this.

The South Shore beaches are filled with juvenile fish now. And no one I talked with has caught any papio on their oama baits. The current theory I’m hearing is the papio are filling up on the bait fish and don’t need to go after bait with hooks in them.

Drop me a line if you think something other than a barracuda mauled my oamas. Hopefully I catch the offender soon, or better yet, break my bolo head streak.