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More sea monster action

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Kelly joined me on the Windward sea monster hunt today. He was on his SUP, using his shorts as a rod holder, and I was on my heavily loaded kayak.  Kelly landed a 12″ omilu right off the bat whipping a live tub-raised oama, then the action really slowed for us.  There wasn’t much life at the drop off so we paddled out to the  fringing reef but I bailed when I saw small surf coming in.  I overshot our landing spot coming back in and had to paddle upwind for half an hr.  3 hrs elapsed during this round trip and we were beat.

We still had some live oama left so despite being tired and hungry, we decided to use ’em up near the drop off.  At the inner reef channel edge, Kelly chummed pieces of frozen oama and soon enough a 2lb omilu picked through the chum line.  Kelly fly lined a live oama on the bottom of the channel and something big picked it up and slowly swam off with it, settled to the bottom for awhile, then pulled hard in spurts.  As Kelly tried to slow down the sea monster, the line parted above the long leader.  Was it the same sea monster I hooked a few days ago?  My sea monster was hooked about 40 yds away from the drop off and behaved differently.

Down to my last live oama, and with no bites to speak of all day, I decided to fly line it since that technique worked well for Kelly.  I slow trolled, hugging the drop off edge, and just as I was rounding the corner to come in I got a hit that screamed the ratchet and pulled the rod down on the rod holder, into my shoulder.  I instinctively picked up the rod and started cranking but the wind blew me onto the reef.  I felt the sickening rub of the reef and threw the rod back in the rod holder and paddled into deep water.  When I picked up the rod again, I could feel the line running through a rock pile at the bottom of the channel. Ugh… I tried to free the line but it popped seconds later.  This fish wasn’t the sea monster. It felt like a big, 5 lb plus omilu that was smart enough to cut me off instantly.  I should’ve paddled for the deep water when the fish hit instead of fighting it above the reef.

We’ll be back, properly loaded for bear. Or sea monsters.

Hooked and fought a sea monster for 20 minutes

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I’m sorry, I don’t have any photographs to back up the story I’m about to tell you. Gonna try to be as  objective as I can be, and you can tell me what you think I hooked.

I was fishing the deep lagoon on the Windward side, about 40 yds past the reef drop off.  I dropped a live oama, hooked through its nostrils, to the bottom in about 40 ft of water, and began to slowly paddle the kayak away from land. The bait was probably in the mid-water column when something hit and pulled drag at a medium-fast pace. The creature ran for the bottom and then out away from me.  It easily pulled line in smooth spurts, but slowed after 50 yds or so.  I was able to gain some line, and then it would pull line again, but never ripped line too fast or went too far.  It felt like a huge awa awa at first but an awa awas would’ve taken more line.

There were large turtles around so I began to worry that I had hooked one of those.  I tightened the drag to bring the “turtle” up, or pop off the hook, and the creature just powered for the bottom again. It was so strong I had to straddle the kayak to prevent getting tipped.  It swam out away again, and I thought I thought I felt tail pumps and head shakes.  For awhile it circled deep below me and I had extend the rod to clear the stern (back) and bow (front) of the kayak.  An accidentally hooked turtle would’ve surfaced eventually but this thing wanted to stay as deep as possible.

I began to suspect it was a large sting ray, although I had never hooked one before to know how one would feel.  It stayed down deep and swam back to the reef’s edge but stopped about 10 ft away from it.  I was worried it would cut me off on the reef so I tried to muscle it up.  About 2/3 of the way up the 15 lb fluoro leader cut.  It was frayed just a bit, a few inches from where it cut above the hook. I never got to see color.

The creature didn’t head shake much, like a papio/ulua would, but it also didn’t just rest on the bottom like large sting rays like to do.

After retying, I paddled over a bait school suspended off the bottom, let my bait sink and sure enough I got a strike. The rod bounced like a papio hit the bait, but all that came back was the oama head on the single hook.  I changed to a double hook setup and hooked a 10.5″ (FL) white papio and that was the end of the action.

What do you think the sea creature was? I would like to think it was an ulua, hunkering down on the bottom.

Last ditch attempt to catch something/anything; taegu recipe included

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The inshore bite really slowed in the late December, early January time period.  The 8 – 1o inch omilu have shown up sporadically but the larger ones appear to have gone wherever they go during the winter.  Awa awa have been saving the day for Kelly, as he nimbly trolled dead oamas between sets on his SUP.  Lacking the paddling speed and courage, I fished away from the impact zone on my longboard with not much to show for it.

As a last ditch attempt to find a feisty predator, I kayak fished the deep waters of the Windward side solo today. The winds were very light, and armed with live tub-raised oama, I had high hopes.  After an hour of aimless paddling I finally got a strike.  It felt like a decent omilu, but it broke the surface halfway into the fight.  What I thought was a short awa awa turned out to be a pretty large lai.  My family doesn’t eat lai so I shook it off the hook.

Hopes raised, I paddled through bait marks on the fish finder, skirted the edge of dropoffs, and even dropped my oama to the bottom.  Nada.  The evening witching hour came without any predator activity and I dejectedly paddled for home.  As my landing site came within view, my ratchet finally screamed.  I hoped it was a thick papio but suspected awa awa in such deep water.  The fished towed me a bit and spun me around before I could see color.  Awa awa it was, and it saved the trip for me.

It taped out at 26 inches (forklength), not as large as the previous one I caught here in the summer, but my first keeper of any kind in 3 trips.  The papio continued to prove elusive.

 

Chester made lomi lomi awa awa out of the fish and said it had a delightful fresh, mild taste.  With the left overs he made taegu for us, using recipe below.  Yummm!

 

 

 

 

This taegu recipe had been featured in Lawai’a magazine.  Chester uses a small convection oven and dries on the lowest setting.  He puts it outside so it doesn’t stink up the whole house. Genius! Oh, and he only uses a half teaspoon of chili pepper flakes. Adjust that to your heat tolerance.

 

There’s still some papio around…

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…but most are the smaller variety (10″ – 12″ fork length) and they’re much pickier than they were a month ago.  They want live natural baits, or you have to venture further out to find the less picky ones.  Find the source of food for them, throw a natural bait out, and they’ll still bite.

Check out the shoreline areas that received the benefit of last week’s rain.  Limu and crustacean colonies may have restarted, bringing the baitfish and predators back in.

Lemme know how you guys do!

Live vs. Recent Frozen vs. Year Old oama

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The fishing conditions weren’t ideal today.  20 mph plus winds prohibited board fishing and the 0.4 ft low tide was in the middle of the day.  I fished the spot that gave up the legal omilus two weeks ago, but the bite was very slow on the recently frozen oamas.  Humuhumus chewed off the back end of some of the baits and a large cornetfish was the only thing hooked in the first hour.

I could see a guy fishing the same stretch after I passed through, and it appeared like he was landing keepers with live oama on a floater.  With the sun high in the sky the papio were getting a good look at the baits and shunning mine. To make matters worse I ran out of the 2015 frozen oamas and had to resort to a batch of freezer burnt, previously thawed oama from last year.  They were gray and mushy and barely resembled the pastel colored juvenile weke.  I was expecting even the humuhumus would shun the stinky bait but something hit and pulled hard.  The drag was almost locked down to pull snags free, and the reel released line jerkily.  It still didn’t feel like much until I saw the hooked omilu followed by its mate.

That papio must’ve felt foolish falling for a stinky, mushy oama.  It taped out at 12 1/4 inch (fork length) and was the second and last fish I caught today.  I had really wanted to catch a papio to give to a friend tomorrow and was stoked.  On a day when the papio were picky, and last year’s oama was barely fit for fertilizer, the ocean yielded dinner.

Was this slow day yet another indication that the papio season is trying to draw to a close?

 

Season and habitat change

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Continuing my survey of spots in the area, I fished a spot I hadn’t visited since June.  The tide was higher than ideal so I could only walk halfway out to the break. It felt like I was walking on piles of rocks and I could feel the sharp points through my tabis.  Only when I returned to shore did I realize the sand had eroded drastically.

The shoreline was covered with the kind of limu that grows in areas of fresh water influx, and what was once a murky area was crystal clear.  The bait fish schools were absent and so were the larger predators.  I saw a kaku follow my bait, and a few 3 inch omilus were bravely trying to pull off the oama, but nothing was hooked.

Looks like winter has arrived at that spot, and the lack of the silty sand removed the environment predators hid in.

Papio still around in mid-November

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I wanted to determine the spots that still held inshore papio this late in the season so I checked another spot I hadn’t fished all year.  The spot was an area I had trolled oama in the past but was never really good near shore.

I wasn’t expecting much so I was really surprised when I hooked a 12″ (fork length) omilu on the second cast, just a few yards from shore.  The omilu looked like it had been eating well over the course of the summer.

 

 

After this surprise fish I didn’t hook anything else as I worked my way down the shoreline.  I worked my way back and caught a slightly longer omilu about 5 yds from where the first was caught.  This one was considerably fatter too so there must be a reliable food source nearby.

I decided to save my remaining frozen oama for a survey of another spot and called it a day.  It was great to know papio were still catchable so late in the season, so close to shore.

Papio season continues… in other locations

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My regular wading and board fishing spots haven’t produced in the last 3 weeks despite the Hawaii Fishing News calendar forecast saying that omilu are supposed to be inshore through November.  Out of desperation, I fished an area I haven’t fished in almost two years just to see if there might be some hold over papio.

The water was clear on the rising tide and I could see tangs and humuhumus flitting around at the dropoff, and small ahas and trumpetfish were following my dead oama back to shore.  I was encouraged by all the life I was seeing, but had to unhook many a slimy trumpetfish before the better fish showed.  Sub-legal omilus pulled off the oamas, and moana nipped at the baits but didn’t get hooked. Then I landed a few just legal omilus and let them go.

Finally, I hooked an omilu I knew was easily legal.  It went 12.5″ from head to fork and I bagged it.  From then on, 10.5″ omilu kept taking the baits so I kept a couple to pan fry.  The “recruitment” class of omilu the last two years was so large that there are a lot of omilu 12 inches and smaller competing for a not-so-good recruitment class of juvenile reef fish.  Harvesting some legal omilu will help reduce the predator burden on the bait supply.

I’ve been hearing report of papio being landed around the island despite what I had thought was the end of the papio season.  Looks like it just ended in the area I was frequenting.

Papio Season is really over…

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…at least at my spots.  I didn’t want to accept the possibility that the bigger predators aren’t hunting inside the reef anymore so I took my board out during the high tide to fish a previously productive spot.  I had even less action than yesterday’s low tide evening session.  A few pulled baits and some kaku bites.  One 7 inch omilu.

What an odd El Nino papio season it turned out to be.  The oama came in later than normal and were skittish during the stormy, humid period.  The papio caught inside the reef were weak and skinny like they were treading water in a sauna too long.  Then the storms passed, the strong trade winds returned, and the inshore water cooled.  New oama swam in, and bigger than normal papio began hunting them.  The inshore fishing was fabulous for a few weeks and then it came to a dead stop.  Although there have been reports of straggler oama piles around, the papio aren’t bothering to make the swim in.  I wonder what triggers them to hunt inshore and then suddenly stop.

Guess we can return to our normally scheduled Fall lives.

Papio season may have ended…

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The water cleared after last week’s murky conditions so I waded out to the same area that had been slow.  I was really hoping the papio bite would continue full bore, but alas, I started with mystery fish pulling my dead oamas off the hooks.  Then some oama came back with their back half sliced clean off.  Next, hooks were bitten off.  I’m guessing small reef fish and small papio were the bait pullers and kaku were slicing the baits and biting off the hooks.

After an hour of bait mangling and no fish to show for it, I cast from the reef edge of a deep sand channel leading to the open ocean.   The sun was getting lower and large and medium kaku were competing for my dead oama in the light blue water.  Miraculously I had some on without getting cut off, but they spit the hook.  Then I hooked a medium sized kaku at the tip of his upper jaw such that he couldn’t bite the line.  It was pretty tricky to grab the hook with long pliers and shake him off without getting nipped in the process.  Tired of the kaku frenzy I positioned myself to cast to the right side of the channel.

I put on a beautifully preserved, large oama that still looked alive.  It cast well because of its weight, and was hit solidly. The back half of the oama was raggedly torn off by something that didn’t have precision cutting teeth.  Left with first 3 inches of the oama, and the sun setting, I threw the severed bait out again wondering what would want a fish head.  Something slammed it, pulled against the stiff drag and jumped in the distance.  I figured it was a kaku angry it didn’t get away cleanly with the tailless oama.

But the fish continued to pull drag and after it turned and swam up the reef shelf into waist deep water, it jumped again. Awa awa! I had never hooked one in this location and had no idea they came in here.  It shot away after seeing me, but instead of going out into the deep channel it ran parallel to the beach and took at least 100 yds of line, taking me well into my braid backing.  I felt confident it would tire out eventually but then I felt the rubbing of the line against a reef papa and sure enough the line got stuck.  When I pulled, the line came back with no fish.  At least 20 yds were shredded and stretched.  Shucks, my dad would’ve really enjoyed the awa awa fish cake.

I had gone through 12 fresh dead oama and only landed a kaku.  Sheesh. I put on a frozen oama and it got pulled off.  By then the sun had set behind the mountains and I headed back in while there was still ambient light.

I guess this means the papio season is officially over.  The reef fish, small papio and kaku will still be around to pester the baits but it sure looks like the big omilus won’t be hunting inside until next season.  I would settle for a hard fighting awa awa until the papio return, though.

Did the papio season come to a dead stop, or just hit another pause?

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In talking with other lure whippers and oama dunkers, and from my own experience, the papio season has been red hot in the last few weeks.  Larger than normal papio were being caught inside the reef, some even reaching small ulua status.

With high hopes, I fished two previously productive oama whipping spots this week with Jason, who normally whips plastic grubs, Waxwings and other hard plugs.  The first spot’s calm inshore area was a strange tea color.   Just last week it was loaded with hungry whites.  The bite on the dead oamas was very slow and only kaku were hitting far inside of the break.  Jason ended up with a couple 15 – 20 inch kaku and I just had gouged and cut off baits to show.  Convinced the papio had to be around somewhere I inched closer and closer to the waves and got splashed up to my cap multiple times.  My waterproof bag proved to be not so waterproof when I had it opened to get more bait, and I ended up soaking my main reel and backup reel.

The following day, after taking apart both reels and lubing them  with anti-corrosion lube, we hit a spot that had been red hot last week.  The inshore protected areas were tinged brown like yesterday’s spot.  An 8 inch omilu hit my first dead oama so things were looking up.  But for the next hour or so, small papio nipped and pulled off the oama baits, a larger papio took drag and unbuttoned and we were inching closer and closer to the impact zone.   I was tripped up twice in surgy water, falling head first in waist deep water with my rod in my hand.  The first time I fell so suddenly my neck felt like I had whiplash and I had to massage out the tight muscles. I had never fallen wading to the break before; what the heck has been going on these last two days?  Guess I’ll be finding out how good the anti-corrosion lube is.

Where did all the larger oama-eating papio go?  Jason switched to plastic grubs and caught a few small omilu but even they were fairly scarce.  Did the season come to a sudden end or did something else cause the predators to stop chewing?

White papio caught whipping dead oama

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The wind was much lighter than yesterday so I tried the spot I waded out and whipped last week.  The waves were small enough where I could sit just inside of the white wash, or in a small channel and cast into the surf.  It took a bit of paddling around to find the biters, but once I found them, there were others nearby.

The first papio was a skinny, just legal omilu which I released.  The next was a white papio of about the same length but thicker and more muscular. Unlike the omilu, it kept fighting even when I had it board side.  The next papio was about 10.5″, head to fork and I considered keeping it but as I readied my fish bag it came off the hook. Oh well, I was just thinking of taking it since the fish seemed to all be the same size.

I cast out a rock hard, frozen oama and the fourth papio took it head first.  It was just legal but hooked deep and I didn’t risk killing it by yanking out the hook with pliers so I cut the line off in front of the hook.  Hopefully the hook rusts out or falls out soon.

With so many barely legal fish, I paddled around looking for a deeper spot to safely fish.  I dug around for a larger oama that still had its colors, and tossed it out. Bam, a much stronger fish hit.  The white papio kept fighting even when I had it next to the board.  Omilu seem to pull faster and whites pull more doggedly.  I happily bagged it.

With a nice white in the bag I went exploring and fished some unproductive water.  Then I discovered an area next to the impact zone where the swell rolled through without breaking. I situated myself near the edge of the impact zone and cast another frozen oamasickle.  Hookup, and the fish pulled me towards the waves. Yikes! I put the rod in the rod holder and paddled towards calm water hoping the fish wouldn’t rock me.  When I reached calm water, I sat up and started cranking.  The white, which was initially taking drag, wasn’t nearly as large as I thought.  Man these whites can pull hard.

Pretty good action for a spot I’ve never board fished before.  I headed in to keep the papios in good condition.  Didn’t lose any rigs this time  unlike the snaggapalooza yesterday.

Interesting that, although the larger fish below is just an inch longer than the smaller one, its body is deeper and more angular to make room for its sex organs.  It fought considerably harder also.

Challenging weather conditions, fish still bit

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Dean and I board fished this morning since the wind was supposed to be less than 15 mph.  Contrary to that forecast there were gusts over 20 mph which made it hard for Dean to stand up and paddle.  The wind had less effect on me since I paddle lying down on my longboard, but I was still affected by the chaotic swell.

Dean trolled a dead oama behind a floater the way I used to, and I sat on my board as close to the waves as possible and cast into the surf.  I got more strikes than he did but also got stuck a lot more since my prototype oama whipping rig sinks.  I suspected fish were hitting the oama and pulling it into the rocks since I would pull some snags out and everything came back except for the oama.  When I pulled an eel out of the rocks my suspicions were confirmed.

Dean caught the first fish, a non-legal omilu, and then we both started getting hits, misses and cut lines.  Seemed like other reef fish were pulling off the oamas, and kaku were cutting us off.  I finally stuck a good fish and it ran in a funny way which made me think it was a big stickfish or cornetfish.  I was relieved to see the color of a beautiful 2lb omilu. I finally made use of my gaff by lifting the omilu out of the water by putting the gaff hook through its mouth and out its gill.

The wind picked up and it was hard to effectively fish the surge zone.  My next papio ran through the rocks and popped my line.  Dean was getting occasional hits but having a harder time paddling upwind from his knees.  It was time to head in.

I had quickly gone through 4 whipping rigs and 15 dead oama.

It was more fun to feel the strikes of the fish while whipping the oama but I definitely lost more tackle than I do when I troll with a floater. I’ll have to work on the prototype whipping rig some more.

 

Waxwing Baby works right out of the box

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Charles contacted me to let me know that he purchased a black and chrome Waxwing Baby from Charley’s Fishing Supply when he found out they were in, drove straight to his Westside sandy beach spot, and threw the lure in the wind and waves for half an hour.  Bam, he felt a solid strike and the fish went air borne trying to throw the lure.  After a very exciting fight he subdued the awa awa.

Here’s his son verifying the length of 27″ before Charles’ wife made oishii Japanese fishcake dumplings with it.  I’d say Charles got his money’s worth with that Waxwing.

Whipping dead oama got even better!

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Well, I guess I didn’t discover a whole new way to present an oama to hungry predators. It appears that others have been whipping oama, live and dead, for ages.  What’s cool though is that I’m now able to cast a dead one much further than I would try with a live one, and can reach the spots the predators are prowling. On days like today where the wind is gusting higher than 20 mph, it’s a nice option to be able to heave an oama with the wind and not worry about getting blown around on a surfboard.

Dean and I waded out on the 0.3 ft low tide today but because it wasn’t lower we had to stop 50 yds from the surf line.  Our initial casts of fresh dead and frozen oama were hit by small omilus but as I ventured further out and braved the occasional dunking, the hits got bigger.  I dropped a fresh dead oama into a deep sand pocket and something hit heavily then chewed through the line.  Arrgh, had to re-tie line as the waves smacked into me.  The next cast yielded an omilu half and inch short of legal.  Loading up with a frozen oama, I walked further out into the wind and wave maelstrom and lobbed into the tail end of the white wash.  As I picked up the retrieve, something tugged then ran between the coral heads against the almost locked down drag.  My 7′ 11″ medium action G Loomis swimbait rod arched nicely, keeping the tension on the fish with power to spare.  The fish pulled drag and ran back and forth through the canyons of the boulders but never got more than 50 yds away.  I was more afraid of getting cut off than by getting spooled.  After a few mins I could see that beautiful iridescent flash of blue and brought the lit up omilu close.  It was too pooped to resist me grabbing its tail as I walked it back to Dean.

I was stoked holding the biggest omilu I have caught in years, maybe ever, but Dean wasn’t too impressed since he catches larger ones dunking.  I fumbled around trying to hold my rod under my arm, open my sling bag to take out my catch bag, and not lose the fish that I let swim around at my feet.  I never really expect to catch fish when I’m not on my board, so I’m always ill prepared to bag them.  The fins and scutes sliced my hands up pretty good but I guess I’m willing to put up with a little pain to land such a beautiful fish.

Dean and I walked back out to the deeper spot that now had bigger waves coming through.  As I was hunting around for another frozen oama, Dean hooked a screamer on his 6.5 ft light action spinning rod. His rod keeled over and bounced up and down as he cupped the reel to slow the fish down.  The fish was diagonally heading out to sea, unlike mine that did figure 8s around the boulders.  The fish was still running but Dean could feel the line rubbing on the rocks and eventually the line stuck.  Dean slacked off the line and tried to coax the fish into swimming back in but it didn’t fall for his tactics.  2/3 of his line was gone and when he tried to wade out to loosen the snag, it became apparent that the snag was in water too deep to reach.  Sadly Dean popped the line and retied.

We started casting our frozen oama again but nothing bit. It was as if Dean’s fish was the bull of the reef and scared the lesser fish into fleeing.  We headed in with our last baits on. Mine got hit by a large aha that I had snagged in the side and it grey hounded at a much higher speed than papio run but eventually tired out.

Based on the fight of his fish, Dean estimated it was about 5 lbs.  When he saw mine on land, he estimated 3.8 lbs.  Turns out it weighed between 3.8 – 4.2 lb on my inaccurate scales at home.  The man knows his fish sizes.  I’ll go with 4lbs!

I’m still perfecting my oama whipping rig but like what I’m seeing so far. I can cast a dead oama as far as any lure and the hookup ratio is really good.  I was snagging the reef early on today but made some changes to minimize that.  Hopefully I’ll have a few more test runs before the season ends.

 

 

love the small but powerful Calcutta 200TE

love the small but powerful Calcutta 200TE

Note: Per request here’s the omilu next to a tape measure.

Whipping dead oama works, who knew?!

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I had a few fresh, dead oama that I wanted to use instead of freezing them for later.  My last board fishing outing was outstanding but it was much too windy for that today.  Hmm… since trolling fresh, dead oama worked, what if I could somehow cast them out and retrieve them?  Stands to reason that the papio would whack ’em right?

I had never done this before and don’t know of anyone who regularly whips oama since dunking live oama is so effective.  Somehow I had to be able to cast the oama far enough in the wind to reach the areas holding fish.  I decided to use my trusty level wind Calcutta 200TE bait caster that had been sitting idle during the Waxing and trolling expeditions.  I waded out on the low tide but had issues with the Jim Rizutto sliding double hook setup slipping and causing the oama to bend.  I ended up having to hook both hooks in the oama’s head and hope that something would hit head first.  The bait caster, doing what it was meant to do, cast bait, worked marvelously.

Using the wind, I was able to reach the surf zone, and hooked a 10″ white papio on the first cast!  I let it go, and put on another fresh, dead oama.  That one got hammered by a 11″ white.  I missed some hits and ended up with mangled oama but the next 2 oama got hit also.  Then I hooked a fish that pulled drag and brought in a 13.5″ (head to tail) white that went into my fish bag.  I couldn’t believe the action I was getting on the dead oama so I moved spots slightly and the bite slowed dramatically.  Eventually my remaining baits were hit by 8″ – 10″ whites and omilus.  I put on a blue sardine Waxwing to see if I could fool the papio so attuned to oama and came up empty.

Who would’ve thunk that whipping dead oama would be more effective than trolling them inshore?  It’s a really strange season due to the early, extra hot water and humidity shutting down the bite, followed by strong trades and cooler water causing the papio to make up for lost time.  I don’t think whipping dead oama would’ve been as effective last year when the papio could get their fill of free swimming oama.

I’m still refining my dead oama whipping setup to increase casting distance and hookup ratio.  Stay tuned for more oama whipping catch reports.

P.S.  Look what was in the white papio’s stomach! A slightly digested tang and a completely intact baby mantis shrimp.  The white was stuffed and still went after the dead oama.

Red hot 2 hr fishing window

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new best day ever!

new best day ever!

Today was supposed to be the light wind day of the week so I took 6 live oama and 4 fresh dead ones out for a surfboard troll.  I planned to fish a different stretch of the beach by paddling into the wind and letting the wind bring me back to the launch point.

I started with a recently deceased, medium-sized captive oama so I wouldn’t waste a livey on the way out to the surfline.  Nothing bit it after reaching the break and trolling parallel to it for 10 mins, so I was about to put on a livey on instead.  All of a sudden my ratchet screamed and the rod bent over.  I hadn’t heard my ratchet scream all year so I was initially spooked!  It was actually hard to pull the rod out of the holder; man I missed those screamers.  The fish pulled drag in a straight line, then let itself be worked in halfway, then took off again.  While I was loving the fight, I strongly suspected it was an oio that decided it needed to add oama to its diet, and I really wanted a nice sized papio instead.  The fish started shaking its head, which gave me hope, then pulled line straight out again.  After a hard fight against a tight drag, the largest omilu I caught in 2 yrs flashed on its side. It was hooked on the front hook and somehow had broken off the hook that was in the oama’s tail.  I was stoked and I had only been fishing 20 minutes.  I contemplated heading back in but I didn’t want to waste the live oama.

I put a live one on and something pulled it off without sounding the ratchet.  I wonder what could have done that?  I put on another livey and this one got eaten by a 10 inch C&R omilu.  The next livey hooked a 15 inch (head to tail) omilu that pulled drag nicely and was added to the catch bag.  2 good sized omilu make a decent catch so again I contemplated paddling in but I still had 3 live oama and 3 dead ones.

The next 3 live oama were mangled and crushed but I couldn’t hook the culprit despite the two hook setup.  I put a dead oama on and saw the floater go under.  When I retrieved the line all I got back was the oama’s head.  I put the second to the last dead oama on and let the wind blow me back to the launch site.  The ratchet went off but the fight felt a little weird.  There was a lot of resistance but the fish wasn’t pulling a lot of line.  When it got close, I realized why. Somehow a 14″ omilu was hooked on the front hook and a 10″ omilu was hooked on the rear hook! And another omilu was swimming with them, trying to join the party.  Crazy.  I shook the 10″ omilu off and kept the 14″ (head to tail) omilu.  That was more than enough fish for one day, so I dumped the last dead oama and went in.

Darin's oio

Darin’s oio

Darin, whom I had met before, was dunking ika from the beach.   He said a lot of undersized papio had been hitting his baits in the last hr, with one legal omilu in the mix.  I wished him luck and ran into a guy who had been hooking legal white papio on his Crystal Minnow from shore.  His C&R lure action was in the last 30 minutes.  While we were taking he noticed that Darin was on a nice fish.  What the heck was going on? Were all the planets in alignment or something?  We went over to watch Darin’s fish make numerous strong runs before being subdued.  The oio went 21″ and 4lbs and Darin packed up his gear to get the fish home in good shape for fish cake.

There wasn’t a particularly good solunar activity period today but something made the fish feed aggressively at the break and at the shoreline. I suspect the fish are trying to make up for all that lost time spent hunkering down during the stormy, humid weather.  The trade winds have cooled the water nicely and it looks like the papio season isn’t over yet.

The larger omilu I caught went about 19″ (head to tail) and made 3 lbs on my not too accurate hand scale.  Not that big as omilus go but bigger than any omilu I’ve caught last year and this year.  With so many papio competing for not much bait this season, I suspect larger than normal papio are coming onto the reef to find food.

 

Trade winds returned bringing cooler water conditions

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What a difference a few days of trade winds make.  The humidity dropped considerably and the inshore water cooled off.  I took the longboard out in the morning and the water was almost cold.  The first fresh dead oama didn’t get touched until I was almost to the surfline, and what touched it just pulled the bait off.  My next live oama brought up an 8 inch C&R omilu so I alternated live and fresh dead oama for either more small omilus or yanked baits.

pliers in the background are 11 inches long

The trade winds had exceeded 20 mph and the SSW swell made for a bouncy, choppy outing.  I put the largest, strongest oama out and it got hammered and killed but not taken off the tandem hooks.  The poor oama looked pretty bad, with raked sides, tattered fins and a washed out coloring.  Disappointed with the size of  pesky predators, I left the battered bait on and paddled over a bouldery section so shallow my hand hit while paddling.  When the ratchet went off I thought the bait was snagged on the rocks but the orange floater moved between the boulders.  After a brief fight a 15 inch omilu was landed.  This season’s omilus I’ve caught on my board have all been skinny and weak.  The omilus of the same length last year were much thicker and fought much harder. Are the omilus not able to catch enough bait fish to fatten up this season? Maybe the unusually hot water makes them weary like we would be if we had to run a marathon in hot, humid weather.

When I cleaned the omilu, I found a parasitic worm that looked like a long udon noodle in its intestinal wall and absolutely nothing in the omilu’s stomach.  Other than being thin, the fish looked healthy.

Awa awa on the kayak!

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Eddy and Kris pedaled out on Eddy’s Hobie tandem and I tried my best to keep up with them on my oldie but goodie Aquaterra Swing sit-on-top.  The light wind conditions made for a beautiful day to be out on the water.

My fish finder was marking fish throughout the water column and we could peer down and see omilu and white papio through the sheet glass surface.  With so many fish around it was a good day to try various baits and lures.  The fish could see the difference between lures and real bait, and ignored the fake stuff except for Kris’ small lures fished deep.

I started with fresh, dead oama and two were taken off the tandem hooks without much sound coming out of my non-levelwind Calcutta 400’s ratchet.  I put on a live oama and immediately hooked a small white papio.  The guys began catching small, feisty whites on frozen, year old oama.  As I crossed a deep channel, my rachet went off, slowly. I pulled the rod out of the rod holder and started reeling, and the fish shook its head like a very small omilu. Then it got mad and powered away, taking at least 75 yds of line with it.  I had made the cardinal mistake of leaving my partner kayak without telling them where I was going, so they were out of ear shot.

I tightened the drag when 1/3 of the spool was gone, and the fish slowed.  I could feel head shakes and tail pumps and was hoping I finally hooked a large papio.  When I brought the fish close it powered straight down, bending my 7’6″ rod into the water.  It spun my kayak a few times before I could make out a long, slim, silvery shape. Oio on a live oama? I guess it was possible since I was fishing deep and had hooked an oio on a subsurface lure in the surf before.  Click here to read about that surprise catch.

Then I saw the top lobe of a very large tail sticking out of the water. Awa awa!  The previous awa awas have always jumped out of the water, but those were hooked in relatively shallow water.  I hooked this one in at least 50 feet.  I tired the fish out to grab it by the mouth, largemouth bass style, since I didn’t have a net or gaff with me.  The fish was too tired to put up much resistance.

I decided to keep it since I heard of other yak fishers recently catching awa awa in the general area, and had only kept two others ever.  I paddled back to the guys and Kris took this pic.

The guys pedaled off to the white papio hot spot as I replaced the line that the awa awa shredded with its sandpaper mouth.  Once again, they were out of ear shot when I landed a smaller awa awa on another live oama.  That was released and when I caught up with them, they both were battling 2lb whites that bit fresh dead oama.

Somehow those guys can catch the larger whites when I’m stuck with the 9 inch ones that steal my precious oama baits.  Eddy followed that up by catching this beautiful awa awa on a frozen oama.

Soon after, we ran out of oama and made our way in.

Perfect kayak fishing conditions.  All fish were released except for my awa awa and Kris’ 2lb white papio.  The awa awa measured 32″ and weighed 5 lbs.  My dad much prefers awa awa to oio for fish cake and was happy to receive it although I did have to clean it for him.

Kayak fishing with oama

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I ended two of my boycotts: no kayak fishing and no oama for bait.  Kris and Eddy have been fishing off a tandem Hobie pedal boat in somewhat sheltered waters and have been encouraging me to dust off the kayak I haven’t fished in 10 years.  And I’ve been shunning oama for bait this season, instead throwing the Waxwing.

Yesterday I shlepped my kayak and the required gear down to fish some papas surrounded by deep water with Eddy.  A couple minutes into the paddle out and my back was already cramping up.  I couldn’t slow down my drift like I can when sitting on my longboard, kicking with my feet, so I had a hard time casting to the desired spots before I swept past them.  And when I fished the papas my Waxwing got stuck in the deep crevasses and I lost two Waxwing Babys. I was yearning for the simpler surfboard fishing days.

My fish finder detected a lot of fish near the papa edge and on the flat bottom but none of those fish wanted anything to do with the kastmaster I dropped down.

soon to be released

soon to be released

Eddy did much better using a heavy egg lead and plastic strip bait for small omilus, and caught a 1.5 lb white papio on a deep diving Crystal Minnow. He ended the day losing that lure to a papa also.

I initially started another kayak fishing boycott after my miserable performance but decided to attempt to avenge the loss of my two Waxwings.  Eddy, Kris and I fished the same spot today on the kayak. I started by dropping cut bait down into the depths and the guys deep trolled live, fresh dead and year old oama.  The guys’ oama initially got munched from the back, and since they weren’t running a rear hook, the fish got away.

Then Eddy took a screaming hit and battled a muscular 2lb plus omilu to the boat.  I was just getting nibbles and small omilu on my cut bait so I bummed a fresh dead oama and immediately got a hit.  It came up as dead weight and turned out to be a small hammerhead.

I bummed another dead oama and hooked a 8 inch white papio within a couple of minutes.  Guess the fish were around but waiting for the real thing.  The guys were getting bit on fresh dead and frozen oama but since none of us were using a trailing hook we all lost our best fish (or at least it appeared to be that way).  All besides Eddy’s omilu were white papio and a few small hammerheads.

pack of whites

pack of whites

On the way in the fish finder lit up with a bait ball. I dumped the cut shrimp, ika and aku belly overboard that failed me earlier.  Hoping I caused a frenzy, I dropped cut shrimp all the way to the bottom and it went untouched.  Remembering the two opae lolo a fellow kayak fisherman gave me when we launched in the morning, I dropped the fresh but dead lolo down to the bottom.

As soon as it reached bottom I hooked up with a 10″ white that was followed by his friends.  Kris and Eddy had a double hookup on oama and Kris took this awesome photo of the whites chasing the hooked fish up.

The next lolo was slammed instantly also, but this time it was a hammerhead.

The fish are really keyed on natural bait now, even if it’s dead bait.