Fishermen are discreetly checking their favorite spots to see if the halalu and oama have made their early arrival. When these early summer fish are found, don’t expect to hear about it unless you have a really connected friend.
In the meantime, you can gear up with proper footwear, straight poles, dunking gear, tackle and live bait buckets.
I’ve never fished for halalu but have targeted the oama over the years. Oama show up in same sandy areas year after year. Early in the season the school is small and flighty so the early season fisherman will try to target them without tipping off his oama fishing competition.
It’s importantly to wear a hat and polarized sunglasses to scan the sandy bottom, and to tread very lightly. Ask the tackle shops to recommend the proper hook, line and split shot, as well as pointing you to the fiberglass straight poles. If you can find the wrap around the waist net, that would make it very easy to drop your oama into that net to unhook it. Otherwise a small red landing net would suffice.
The yellow Frabill Flow Troll live bait bucket with spring loaded door will make it much easier to add an oama. I have the non-spring loaded types also and I’ve lost a lot of oama opening or shutting the door’s latch. I’ve seen the Frabill Flow Troll at Roy’s Fishing Supply, McCully Bike and even Target at times. Keep your precious oama alive on the way home with a Promar live bait aerator or similar bait pump. McCully Bike sells the Promar pump for about $10.
Hooking the nibbling oama is an art. I sucked at it because I was trying to feel the bite and then set the hook, but the oama really are feeling the bait with their whiskers before deciding to nibble on it. The recommended method is to use a short pole and short length of 1 – 2lb test line. Attach a hook to the end of the line, with a split shot about 4 inches up. Lower your bait to the bottom. When you feel your split shot hit bottom, raise it up so your bait is slightly off the bottom. If you see oama approach your bait, wait a few seconds and lift your rod tip in a motion up and away from your body, almost as if you were skimming the water with your rod tip. If you don’t hook the oama while it’s eating your bait, you may at least hook it while its whiskers are over the bait. Watch an experienced fisherperson hook oama and emulate. Hook sets are free so swing away.
Here’s some info on keeping your oama alive as long as possible.