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Live oama out fished fresh dead, boat trolled inshore

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My uku sensei, Darren, had requested live oama for a half day trolling trip with his son Koby and daughter Keely. Oama catching for me is never a sure thing but the oama finally bit well, so well in fact that 12 died on the trip home due to the bucket being over crowded.  Here’s how that oama outing went.  I gave Darren 18 livies and the 12 that died, saving some livies for Kelly to use on his SUP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darren and his kids started on the Windward side at about 8am as the tide was already falling. Within 5 mins they got a double strike on the livies. Koby grabbed the first rod and landed a scrappy omilu.  His younger sister, Keely, was taking a lot longer to bring her fish in but was vindicated when they saw what it was.  Big yellowspot papio!

This dark colored omilu ate both hooks and was released because it was too beautiful to kill.

The next hour, the live oama bite was red hot, with more double strikes and two big fish that broke off on the reef.  When they were out of live oama, they switched to the fresh frozen but the bite was quite a bit slower.  Maybe time of day and a slacker tide contributed to that, but Darren believes that the papio were picking up on the vibrations live oama give off.  Darren guys ended up with 10 omilu, releasing 6, and also kept the big yellowspot.

Whew, I didn’t know if I could catch/deliver live oama, and if they’d stay alive in the 5 gallon bucket until they got used. Darren took the bucket with the yellow lid on the boat (see the pics above) and the 2-D cell battery powered aerator ran the whole time they were fishing. 15 hrs from when I first turned it on at home. I assume he made a few water changes to cool off the fish but still, that’s amazing that the 5 gallon bucket live well worked so well.

Oama season in full swing – 4th week of August

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A lot of spots reported new, large schools of oama biting well last week.  Papio were seen chasing the piles and more predators will switch off from targeting halalu and focus on the oama.  Maybe these new oama snuck in on the New Moon at the end of second week of August?  Better late than never.

Expect the large surf and local flooding from TS Lane to disturb the oama schools for a while, but they’ll return hungrier than ever.

Sharing live oama with friends

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Darren, who has taken me on his boat to jig the Penguin Banks, and to troll nearshore for papio, was hoping for live oama to troll with his son and daughter.  I only had 5 small oama and 5 moose in my tubs so I told him I’d try to catch some oama but no promises since they weren’t biting that well the last time I went.  I changed the hook on my moose rig to catch 4 inch pinkie oama. The smallest hook I had was a #17, which is big for early season oama but smaller than I like to tie and unhook. I normally use a #14 Owner Mosquito hook to land the moose.

I went to my regular oama spot that hasn’t had much oama yet, and was surprised to see 8 other guys in 2 groups fishing.  That was a good sign, I guess.  Since the guys didn’t invite me into their group, I searched around and found a school of about 50 pinkie oama breezing in 2 ft of water.  I didn’t hear the other guys landing any oama, so I palu’d first and the oama ate a little but didn’t swarm.  Great time to use the super secret bait I stumbled upon the last time out, when I hooked a halalu on it.  I put on a small piece, dropped it down and hooked an oama!  Just to check how well they would bite, I dropped the bare hook down and caught another!!  I could see the group of 4 guys fishing while I fished and they hadn’t landed an oama since I got there.  The guys behind me weren’t saying anything either.  Hmm. I put on another piece of the secret bait and repeated the cycle, catching two oama, first with bait and the second with no bait.  Maybe the breezing pile was biting better than the others?

Eventually all the other oama fishers left but a grandpa and his grandson.  I lost track of my pile and had to fish the outskirts of theirs.  The grandpa welcomed me and said the oama weren’t biting too well for them.  I dropped down, and eventually landed one, then landed another with the bare hook again. At this point half my pinkies were caught on the bare hook, which is easier to do since the bait isn’t in the way of the barb, and most of them were hooked in the mouth, not foul hooked.

I felt bad that the middle school grandson wasn’t catching on their cut shrimp bait, so I offered my super secret bait. I only had a little left and they promised to keep it super secret.  Instantly the grandson was hooking up, and so was the grandpa. Grandpa, who was a seasoned oama guy who had tried all the premium baits, was amazed at how well it worked and started making plans to acquire some himself.  I told him that if I ever hear of people using that bait at that spot I know he leaked it!  He was so grateful he was telling me all his secret fishing spots.  The oama still bit for my semi-secret bait, and since I needed to keep them all alive, I looked in my bait bucket.  Was getting a little full, which is very unusual for me since I use the big #14 hook and not as secret bait.  And I’m kind of a junk oama fisher.

I said goodbye to the happy oama fishers and filled my 5 gallon bucket with 3/4 full ocean water.  On the drive home I could hear them banging the sides of the bucket and when I got home 12 were dead. The one pump wasn’t enough oxygen for all the oama.  That only happens when there are more than 40 in the bucket. I placed the rest in two separate tubs and they all survived.  Rough count, including the 12 that died was about 45 – 48.  50 is the daily limit for oama and I was under that.

Darren used some of the livies on his boat 4 days later, and Kelly used a few on his SUP 5 days later.  Both did way better with livies than dead oama.  Here’s how hot the live oama action was on Darren’s boat.  Here’s how Kelly did with his SUP trolled livies.

It sounds like the oama have finally moved into the normal spots on Oahu and are biting really well.  Get ’em before the big moon slows down the bite.

 

Went oama fishing and caught a halalu!

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Normally oama come in before halalu, and it’s the second week of August yet the halalu reports have been better than the oama reports.  I checked one of my oama spots that was barren a month ago and there was a small school of newly arrived, pinkie-sized oama.  They weren’t acclimated to people yet and didn’t eat well initially.  I was geared for moose oama anyway, with a size 14 Owner mosquito hook, so I palu’d some oily baits in the hopes of bringing in bigger oama.

The pinkie oama tentatively bit the big hook and I had a few in the live bucket when I spotted a school of about 6 moose oama breezing on the outskirts.  It took more palu to hold them and the first moose pulled off the hook, causing the others to scatter.  I located the moose herd again and hooked a 9 inch one that stretched my 3lb leader but was landed. Yee-hah!  The herd scattered and came back, and I tried lifting a 10 inch mega-moose off the bottom. Kerrr-pack! The leader snapped above the hook.

I had to walk back to shore to get another pre-tied oama pole. I couldn’t find the moose herd so I fished the pinkie oama pile with another guy.  A very small school of nehu got chased through the oama school and then I hooked a 5 inch halalu! Maybe that halalu was part of a school chasing the nehu?

The pinkie oama bite didn’t really pick up so I quit and the other fisherman gave me his two oama he caught since it wasn’t enough to warrant an dunking trip.  Nice guy!

Seems like the oama season is barely getting off the ground.

Here’s all the moose and pinkies in one tub before I moved the pinkies out to give the moose more room to stretch out.  The halalu thrashed around in the halalu tub so much it had rubbed its tail off to a nub and was dying the next day and had to be euthanized.

Halau Season 2: Trips 2 & 3

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The halalu bite was so good the previous day, and the crowd was so excited that I figured I’d better hit the school again before the area was overrun on the weekend. No one could join me so I made my first ever solo halalu expedition.  I badly needed to improve my spinning gear casting technique without much of an audience. Since the previous day’s 6 hook damashi snagged too many sardines, and my gear, I cut the damashi set down to 3 hooks. Much easier to cast and unhook.

The pile was closer to shore, in about 4 ft of water and a few guys were casting from the beach side of the pile.  I started by whipping the larger CHL Purple Obake Minnow that we fished last year, to minimize sardine bites, on a 6 ft 3lb fluoro leader.  I didn’t get any sardines on it but had to fish hard just to catch 3 halalu.  Issey, an 8th grade friend of Matt’s, was whipping with a handmade fly and long leader, doing the side jigging thing.  When he connected, he’d reel his long leader in, and then grab the last 5 ft with his hand to slide the halalu onto the beach.  Issey is a very accomplished halalu slayer, and was catching way more than I was but the bite wasn’t as good as the previous day so I put on the 3 hook damashi.  I mostly hooked sardines on the small flies, but began to get more halalu as it got closer to evening.  In 2.5 hrs I got 9 halalu.  Most of the other guys had given up because of the slow bite.

The next day was Friday, and the crew of young anglers plus a buddy Jon I met through this website a couple years ago, were gonna fish the school hard before the weekend.  Jon was the first one there and spent a lot of time finding and following the school until it settled in relatively deep water.  The middle school crew of Matt and Hunter were next to Jon when I arrived, and there were two other adult halalu regulars off to the side.   I slid in between Matt and Hunter since Hunter was live lining, and started with the 3 hook damashi but only the sardines wanted to bite.  Those 3 hooks were prone to snagging someone in the strong winds and Jon told me to use a whipping rig with long leader to be more stealthy so I went back to the CHL Purple Obake Minnow rig.  The school moved to deeper water so we had to make a 50 yd cast with the wind.  Issey joined his middle school buddies and the pau hana regulars showed up.  At times 9 guys were trying to hit the pile.  With the strong winds, crossed lines and tangles ensued.

Jon was quietly sand bagging!

Jon was using various colored strips with a long rod, long leader and what looked like a 1 oz egg sinker.  He was the high liner by far and quietly stuffed his live bait bucket til it maxed out.  Matt hoped he’d get at least 25 halalu and that’s exactly how many he had when he had to leave early.  Hunter ended up with more sardines than halalu because he started with a damashi and spent a lot of time live lining baits.  Issey had 30 halalu despite his late start.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just got 12 halalu but got bumped on just about every cast when I could reach the school with my 6’6″ rod.  I did get a small kine screamer on the light halalu rig that turned out to be a lai.  Issey carefully leadered it for me and Hunter took it home for grinds.

It was fun fishing with friends, but tough to fish in the windy, crowded conditions.  I think I’m gonna wait until I hear the school is closer and spread out!

 

Halalu – Season 2

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Last year was my indoctrination into halalu fishing, casting long leaders of 3lb fluoro in cramped quarters. I gave up after 3 trips, and on my best day, only caught 5 halalu.  Search for “halalu” on this website and you can relive my struggles.

Last month, the early season halalu came into an area that wasn’t being fished too hard so Matthew, starting 7th grade this year, insisted I try halalu fishing again.  The idea of fumbling around without too many people watching appealed to me.  Since the halalu were still small, and mixed in with sardines, Matt suggested using the smallest damashi set possible and casting past the school, then slow jigging through it.  I wiped down my corroded 6’6″ Daiwa spinning rod from the 80s and put on my dad’s old Stradic 1000 FH. It still had the 4lb mono I spooled on last year and assumed it was still good.

When I found Matt at the beach, he was fishing with guys whipping strips, jigging halalu flies and even bait fishing with long poles.  Not exactly uncrowded but the school spread out enough where we could have our own lane to fish. He made room for me and I cast my 6 hook damashi rig just past the dark pile and lifted, dropped and cranked my way through.  I felt the frantic pulses of life on the line and reeled in my first…sardine.  I kept it, not knowing if I’d catch anything else, and cast out again.  Second cast, another sardine hit but shook off.  Man, damashi fishing can be really effective with those 6 fish skin flies flitting around like tasty little critters.

I eventually got lucky and hooked something that pulled much harder but it ripped off the hook. Matt told me I have to fish a really light drag and that if I jig more aggressively, the sardines would be less inclined to bite.  Following his advice I hooked another strong pulling halalu that I eventually grabbed and tossed into my floating bait bucket.  The other 5 hooks snagged my equipment or tangled so I had to learn damashi hook management in order to stay in the game.

The bite really turned on as more people joined the perimeter. Word of biting halalu travels fast!  One nice guy was using homemade flies and didn’t want to keep the halalu since they were too small for his wife to eat, so he was putting the fish in Matt’s bucket.  Being a respectful kid has its privileges.

The school moved closer to shore as the tide rose, and the ratio of halalu to sardine increased as I jigged more erratically.  Everyone was saying this was the best the school has bitten this season and I felt so blessed to have a successful season opener.  Matt and I had to leave, and after fishing less than 1.5 hrs, I set my personal best despite spending a lot of time shaking off sardines and unhooking the damashi hooks off my gear.   14 halalu and some wounded sardines. Not a haul but much better than the 1 halalu an hour pace I had last year with Thad, Frank and Erik.

Much thanks goes to Matt for turning my halalu luck around. Matt wrote about the first time I fished with him, when he damashi’d up a bunch of sardines and halalu, and turned a sardine into an omilu.  Here’s that guest post.

Stay tuned for more halalu catch reports and “Halalu Fishing for Dummies” tips.

Holoholo: 1st ono off Big Island kayak

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Jorden and his wife Dominique have actively supported PIFG’s Tag It program with beautiful photos of their tagged papio/ulua for use in the Lawai’a magazine.  They’ve been kayak fishing off the Big Island for about a year, targeting bigger and better fish. I’ve asked Jorden to describe his most recent kayak fishing accomplishment so Frank and I can prepare for the deep water pelagics.

Jorden:
My wife and I launched our 13 ft Hobie Outbacks from shore around 9:00am. After trying for small inshore game for bait with little success, we decided to head out to deeper waters for pelagic species before the winds picked up. At about the 100 ft depth I pulled out the largest frozen opelu I had, which was hooked on my pre-made leader set-up that included 6ft of 80 lb Yo-zuri topknot fluorocarbon leader with a 7/0 live bait hook put through the head, which was connected to 7 inches of 120 lb Malin wire attached to a 4/0 treble hook that I attached near the posterior end of the bait. This leader set-up was connected to the mainline on a 5 1/2 ft Seeker trolling rod/Shimano TLD 30 loaded with 200 yd of 200 lb braid and about 150 ft of 80 lb mono for some stretch.

I let out about 75-100 ft of mono and began trolling. After about an hour or so of trolling and no action I decided to do a bait check by giving the rod a couple of pulls and BANG! The reel screamed off about 25 yd of line, then slowed. I began to fight the fish which felt nice and heavy. A couple more solid runs then nothing….. I reeled in about 30 ft of slack line and then the reel started screaming again. After a few similar situations of the fish running away then towards the kayak, the fish started circling the kayak. As the fish approached the kayak it gave one more run and then I finally saw color… A long shiny spearhead shape appeared and I knew immediately that it was an ono, which I’ve wanted to catch for 20 years. I pulled out my kage and with one shot, speared the fish perfectly and the fight was over.  It’s quite a feeling to have a fish like this lay across your lap.

I feel extremely fortunate to have landed this fish given that it had completely swallowed both hooks, but didn’t cut through the leader. The rudder and mirage drive system on the Hobie was clutch, which enabled me to adjust the kayak to best fight the fish. Not only did this fish provide an awesome experience, but also provided us with weeks worth of ono food.  We didn’t weigh it, but guess it weighed somewhere around 35lb.

Early season bait fish update – 4th week in July

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As often is the case with early season oama, the bite went from pretty good to lock jaw this week. Maybe it’s because the moon was almost full?  A number of people reported the difficult bite, and Frank and I experienced it at the spot I had caught the 6 to 8 inch moose oama last week.  The small oama shunned our palu and the 9 to 10 inch moose were willing to bite but we went 1 for 4 with 3 of them busting our lines!  The one that was landed was probably weakened by taking the hook so deep it couldn’t be seen.

The early season halalu on the south shore were difficult to catch also.  At some spots, the under 5 inch halalu were a slow bite, and other piles with larger halalu had moved off.

The pesky 3 inch papio are mixed in with the oama schools now, another indicator that the summer season really has started.

 

Catchable omilu and whites are showing up near the inshore bait schools finally.

Time to go fishing!

Looks like our 1st Oama Prediction was fairly accurate

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Almost 2 weeks ago we made the prediction that oama would start coming into the south shore oama spots over the next few weeks, and be catchable by the end of July.  We also said that papio would hitting the oama piles hard by mid-August, and be catchable with oama. Well, that turned out to be accurate and a little conservative.

A day or so after we posted that, we got reports of newly arrived oama being spotted in growing numbers, and by late last week they were biting pretty well.  We held off on announcing this to give the early oama fishers first crack at oama that haven’t learned to avoid human interaction.  The daytime oama predators have been showing up and mugging the schools so looks like the season is ON!

I checked my early season oama spot last week and there was a small school of newly arrived oama that were very skittish. 6 to 8 inch Moose oama came to the palu so I targeted them instead and got 4.  I prefer the Moose over the small oama, to drop live in the deep with my kayak. Problem is the Moose aren’t eating in captivity yet.  I guess I gotta catch a few easily trained oama babies to teach the Moose to eat.

 

2018 Oama Season Prediction

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It’s the second week of July and no sizeable schools of oama have been reported on Oahu.  Oama have been abundant the last few years at many of the usual spots and there were even nice piles at places that are normally hit or miss.  Seemed like a late start so I looked back at past fishing logs for comparison and consulted Kelly, our resident Oama Expert.

  • 2014 – Normal start and stayed a little longer than expected. Arrived in late June and was mostly gone by October.  El Nino began late this year and water began to warm up.
  • 2015 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed at some places past December. El Nino in full effect.
  • 2016 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed through November. El Nino ended this year and water began to cool.
  • 2017 – Normal start and slightly late ending. Oama came in late June and began to leave in October, at most places. La Nina brought a lot of rain.
  • 2018 – The Summer season seems late.  The La Nina effect is ending and the water temps and current direction are returning to normal. Small aholehole, normally a spring time arrival, are showing up now.  The halalu have been slowly showing; normally they build up after the oama schools have been in for a while.  Small oama aren’t in at most places, but there have been trustworthy reports of a few actually being caught this week.  The pesky baby papio haven’t been around either, nor have the 8 to 10 inch omilu that arrive to feed off bait schools.

Will it be a late Start, late End kind of season like 2015 and 2016? Or will it be an “off” year where there won’t be much oama and the predators will be much harder to find? What do you guys think?

Our hopeful prediction is:  More oama come into the regular spots in the next few weeks, and are catchable by the end of July.  Papio, mainly omilu, should start raiding the oama piles by the middle/late August.

We’ll see how we do as Oama Prognosticators.

Holoholo: Yellow dot papio mini catch & cook

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Kelly has guest posted a few of his unusually large SUP catches in the past. He kicks off our new Holoholo Anykine section with a short yellow dot papio catch report and great recipe.

If you’re interested in posting your catch, please let us know through the Contact page.  Can be much shorter than this. Picture, brief description of catch, general location and method used.

Kelly:

Aloha fellow fishers! Two Saturdays ago was a day after the full moon and my only free day, so I decided to do some standup fishing on the East side of Oahu, although my expectations were low due to the apparently poor moon phase. The tide was 1.0 and rising 2.0’ in the afternoon so I took my time and arrived at the secret fishing spot at 3:00pm. I figured I would just paddle around and get some exercise but no tan, since the day was pretty overcast.

Only 15 minutes after launching, as I was nearing an area in about 6-8 feet of water where I thought there may be a few papio lurking, I got a subtle nibble and set the hook. To my surprise the fish took off and headed towards deeper water. Fought the fish for what seemed long but was probably 2-4 minutes and landed this nice 3.4 pound yellow spot papio! YAY! My fave to eat sashimi style!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My parents and I had a nice papio dinner with steamed fish and sashimi. If anyone wants the recipe for a tasty steamed fish with easy cleanup, here it is:

• Whole fish 2-3 lbs best size, freshness is paramount
• Sliced ginger
• Ti leaf and foil
• Salt/pepper
• Green onions (optional)
• Peanut oil (optional)

The sauce is what makes the dish. ½ cup shoyu, ½ cup water, sliced ginger & sugar to taste. Optional: chili pepper flakes (I use the Pizza hut dry kine, about 1/3 of the packet ‘cause easy), garlic (sliced), 2 tsp mirin, honey. Bring to a boil, then thicken with about 1 tsp cornstarch.
Clean fish, slice as shown and put ginger slivers in cuts, as shown. Place ti leaf on foil and put fish on top. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper. Wrap well, so no liquid/steam can escape. Place in 450 degree oven on cookie sheet for 30-45 minutes. Use a fork to poke and see if done. Fork should go to the bone easily, with less resistance than poking a boiled egg, almost as easily as a hot knife through butter. If unsure, open foil and poke in thickest spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When done, take out and slide ti leaf onto large platter. Pour on sauce and top with smoking hot peanut oil. Sprinkle on green onions and GRIND!

Guest Post: Throw in the blind, make any kine – results in 100lb plus ulua towing the small boat

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Erik knows how big ulua pull and what they look like. The one he lost was much bigger than this.

This post is from my fishing buddy Erik who has taken me out on both his 14 ft aluminum skiff and 16 ft Livingston, and taught me how to jig three years ago and is currently teaching me how to call up the papio with poppers.  He is a very talented videographer with a huge following on Instagram (@fishoahu).

The one that Got Away.

If you’ve been fishing long enough then you have at least one story about the “one that got away.” It’s usually that “one” fish that makes us buy more/better equipment, wake up earlier, study more tides/times and keep us up at night pondering “what-if situations.” Here’s the story of my most memorable “one that got away.”

This fishing outing started early at 5:30am from my grandma’s beach house on my trusty tinboat with my friend Kekoa (who helped me land my shibi in another post). The plan was to scout the early summer papio (smaller Giant Trevally) bite. I had onboard my medium-light 8’ ugly stik rod paired to a 4000 shimano twinpower XD loaded with PE 1.5 braid FG-knotted to 25lb leader line and finished with a studio ocean mark, ocean snap swivel that I planned to throw a new bass lure that was shaped like a mouse. I got it at Bass Pro Shop while on vacation in Orlando so named it Mickey Mouse Lure since we went to Disney World for 5 days while up there. It’s actually the Live Target Field Mouse. Kekoa was using his Penn plugging rod and 6K Shimano Saragosa that he planned to throw on his yo-zuri hydro popper.

We started off fishing at a spot that was really good for us last year and lures hit the water around 6am. Kekoa was gurgling the hydro popper and I was figuring out my mouse lure while we drove into the lighter winds and drifted while casting and retrieving. After the first ½ hour without seeing a single thing in the area we ventured just outside of it and kept doing that at different depths until we covered a good majority of the general place to determine there was nothing but a couple tiny papio’s that would follow the lures to the boat. I called the spot off and headed to another spot that had been productive for me in the past. I was noticing the wind was picking up and now it was past 7:30 and we had nothing to show for our fishing trip. Our spirits weren’t dampened as we were talking fishing and enjoying being out there but our expectations were lowering as the sun was well above the horizon. Before we got to the next spot I noticed the wind had definitely picked up and was causing us to drift so fast that we could only get a few casts in before we had to motor back up to take another drift.

On a normal day I would never have started the drift where I did but I told Kekoa:
“the wind blowing us too fast so I going start here”
to which he responded:
“I don’t care, that’s how we caught the shibi by throwing in the blind.”
I laughed and said:
“you know us, make any-kine.”

Well . . . Call it fate, intuition or luck but once Kekoa started the retrieve on his first cast . . . BOOM! Shoom. Splish. whack! I watched as many as 5 papios were breaching the surface of the water in hot pursuit of his lure. I quickly aimed my mouse-lure toward the side and beyond where Kekoa was now hooked-up and I burned the lure over the top of the water as fast as I could watching its short body and long tail skim across the surface. In no time the school was on my lure chasing it down. The papio were in such rare form because they don’t usually breach until they hit the lure and this morning they were breaching while chasing the lure in a way that reminded me of dolphins breaching while swimming in a school, only faster and angrier.

Kekoa landed one around 4lbs and I landed one about 2-3lbs, we snapped pictures/videos, released one, kept one and headed back up for another drift. Same thing again, Kekoa got on first and I hooked up next. Kekoa got his in the boat and then felt what I thought was the dreaded first run of a shark that got my fish. Ugh! Kekoa asked if he should stop fishing to help and I told him “no, keep going.” I held on in anticipation of getting my line cut and Kekoa was able to land another papio. As I was holding on I was noticing the run wasn’t really feeling like a shark. I could also feel that the hook was secure in whatever was on. The unknown fish was taking line in quick-runs and was now towing the dinghy 50 feet away from where we were. This ended Kekoa’s bite and also piqued his interest as to what I had on. The fish slowed and was taking us around a reef so I maneuvered the boat to keep my line straight and away from getting cut on the reef. I made the decision to chase this fish down and try to tire it out and Kekoa was happy to oblige. I looked down at my Nixon supertide watch and the fight-time started an estimated 15 minutes prior. At this point the fish didn’t seem to mind being hooked too much as it moved slowly around wherever it wanted. I kept steady pressure as I maneuvered the boat to keep line taut. 30 minutes into the fight and we notice the fish is heading out to open ocean. At this point I know that there is a BIG fish at the end of my little pole.

Without giving away too much about where I’m fishing just know that I’m inside of Kaneohe Bay. To get out of Kaneohe bay with a normal sized boat you’d have to go out 1 of 2 channels (sampan or chinamans hat) because in between those two channels is almost 2 miles of shallow reef and our famous sandbar. Luckily my tinboat has a shallow draft so 95% of the time I’m able to get over reefs/sandbar without a problem.

45 minutes into the fight and now Kekoa has to take over driving because once we go over the reef area/sandbar, the waves/swell are not held back by it. Kekoa takes the tiller and I move toward the middle of the boat carefully. During this point water is slightly murky from the churned up sand of the wind and waves but visibility to 15 feet is ok and good in about 5-10 feet. We’ve been staying on top of the fish this entire time with hopes that it is easier to turn its head on its way up. The beast stays away from the boat and is now on top of the reef. Kekoa motors to it slowly and just as we approach it ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! Holy hell. The fish takes off and sends my spool in reverse peeling line at an extraordinary rate. Whatever it is I think did NOT like the look of the boat and was getting irritated at the lip pinch. I know now that the hook is very secure and max out my drag at 24lbs because the fish is taking us straight to where waves are breaking. Kekoa has gotten a good feel of how the boat moves, throttle sensitivity and shifting between drive and neutral. We chase the fish and when we’re almost to it, it takes off again at crazy speeds but now into the waves. I instruct Kekoa to let the wave pass and then thread the needle between waves to chase the fish again once it’s on the other side of the break. He completes the mission flawlessly and the fish is still playing with us. The fish goes back through the waves again! Ok, bet! Kekoa again performs well navigating us over the humps and dealing with a little white water. And now I can see Kekoa is getting close to the fish as my line nears the boat in 10-15 feet of water.

I stand up in anticipation of getting a glimpse of the monster when time stops. My eyes and mind were working in hyper-drive trying to understand what is was. No short-thick pectoral fins sticking out like shark, no dorsal fin like shark. Oh wow. Just WOW. It was a sight I’m not sure I can ever unsee. The seconds of time that replay in my mind that haunted me for a week after. The ulua was as long as my arms outstretched. It was almost half the size of the of the 14 foot dinghy I was standing in. The top of the fish was wide and looked about a foot thick. I watched in awe as it let me witness it’s trademark ulua sway (just like when we release them from the boat) right before it said bye-bye and took yet another disheartening run. Kekoa was unable to see the size of the fish but saw the silver color of it. We chased the fish and Kekoa’s quick learning kept us safe and on top of it for another hour as it took us through more waves and into 30-40 feet of water and on an approximately ¾ mile journey until I made the decision to lock the drag and break it off. After seeing the size of it and knowing it had that much energy to keep running at that rate, I felt helpless against it. Thoughts of getting to shore away from the waves, if my gear would hold up, how long would I have to wait to see if it even remotely tires were just a few thoughts going through my mind.

I felt a sense of ease when I broke my line off as I knew that it was still out there. Over 2 hours of fighting, over an hour of max drag, staying on top of the fish and still it was pulling us wherever it wanted. I was saddened but content. Kekoa and I talked about the battle and I told him:
“you must be a good luck charm because I also got my biggest shibi with you on this boat.”
Kekoa was the one to laugh now and said:
“Yeah, and we did the same thing. Just throw in the blind.”
I then smiled and quickly blurted out:
“That’s how we do! Throw in the blind. Make any-kine.”
That gave us a good laugh as we kept repeating it and saying that was now our motto. The drive back to the beach house to wash up was now one of amazement and joy and much less about heartbreak or disappointment.
I hope I get another chance to battle with that beast.

July Oama status report

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The last few years were epic oama seasons, possibly because the water got warm early and drew the baby weke in.  The schools kept coming and stayed into the early winter.  This year, being a colder La Nina year, seems to have reverted back to a “normal” or even “slow” oama season.  I’ve just seen a few scattered  oama on the south side that didn’t look catchable.

If the theory that oama first show up on the south side of Oahu then migrate northward is true, we may be getting our oama soon.  Craig, an oama scout on Maui, has reported that oama are coming into the south side of Maui now.  Since Maui is south (and east of us) maybe the other oama schools are working their way north toward us.  Hope so!

Guest Post: Young angler hooks omilu off the sardine pile!

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Matthew is one of the Next Generation anglers who has been learning the ways of the Lawai’a (Hawaiian fisherman) by respectfully watching and learning from the uncles. He’s a very active fish tagger and has a large following on Instagram (@Shorefishing_Oahu_Style).  I had communicated with Matthew over social media for almost 2 yrs and thought it was time we should fish together!

Matthew:
It was a good day with light winds, and a favorable tide, so I invited Scott, the owner/editor of this blog, to come out and fish with me at my sardine and halalu spot.  The spot that we went to is usually junk unless the bait comes in.

I got to the spot before Scott did and quickly spotted the dark blob in the sandy area that meant there was a school close to the beach.  I got my flow-troll and rope and tied it to me as I waded in the clear water.  The school was only around 20 yards from shore which was good, but what wasn’t good was that I was barefoot and my feet were getting bust up from the scattered sharp rocks.

 

 

 

There’s a sardine in Matthew’s left hand if you look closely.

I used the smallest size damashi (which is basically a dunking rig with 6 hooked flies on it).  Size 4 will work, but size 3 is the best – any larger and they wont bite it.  You could also snag them, but they get smart after a while.  I was averaging one sardine per 3 casts which isn’t that bad.  When Scott arrived, he was whipping with a sardine-colored Shimano Waxwing Boy.  The few predators that were busting up on the pile were smart enough to not eat his lures, unfortunately.

 

 

 

After I got enough for bait, I rigged up a live sardine rig, hooked a rather large sardine in the mouth, and cast it right past the pile exactly when an Omilu blew up on the school.  Not even 3 seconds after the Sardine hit the water, my rod bent and a good sized 14 inch Omilu was on!  It was a rather short but hard fight.  I tagged and released the Omilu for it to hopefully get recaptured someday. If any of you are interested in tagging fish, you can visit fishtoday.org/tagit.  After multiple attempts to catch more big fish, but to no avail, I switched back to sardine fishing.  At around 5:00 P.M., they really started biting.  I was getting one or two almost every cast.  Then something really big came in and went bananas on the pile.  Every minute, the whole pile jumped and there was a huge splash as the either big papio or small ulua busted the pile.

In the end, I caught 54 sardines, 2 halalu, and that Omilu.  I ended up catching a decent Oio the day after and then another good sized Omilu.

The sardines are in, the Oama are starting to trickle in, and the Halalu are in if you know where to find them.  The predators are often too smart to eat lures.  Live bait is always best. It’s summer!  Go gettem guys!

Matthew Ikeda
Instagram – @Shorefishing_Oahu_Style

 

Editor’s note: I’m amazed at Matthew’s ability to become such a successful fisher guy after only fishing for 3 yrs and just being in middle school.  His writing is top notch and he even snuck in a bait status report. He might be “angling” for my job. But… he did make one mistake. He caught 53 sardines, not 54, because he insisted I try to catch one with his damashi rig. After I tangled the rig a couple of times because I reeled it through the top guide, I finally caught a dumb sardine that swallowed the hook and Matthew had to yank out the hook.

Early morning top water papio frenzy!

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Capt Erik (referred to as “Erik” when I’m not on his boat!) had been experiencing some great outings in the bay, getting the schooling white papio (GTs) and awa awa to frenzy on his poppers.  In fact, he hooked a 100 lb plus ulua on a Micky Mouse popper he bought from Bass Pro Shops near Disney World!  That true story of the epic 2 hr battle will be reported here if you guys ask him nicely.  🙂

He knew I was struggling to get a decent fish to test the 13 Fishing Concept Z reel so he invited me out on his 14’ aluminum Lowe boat with Yamaha 9.9hp tiller motor, and picked a not-so-early morning start time because he was well aware of my aversion to early mornings.  We reached the first spot at 8:30am and he hooked a big white papio on his 4th cast.  The fish was too strong to be horsed in and got sharked, and Capt Erik ended up feeling the long runs of the shark. After a couple mins the lure popped free and as he cranked it back in, and it got hit!  A smaller white was quickly brought in and released unscathed.  The bite ended and we went looking all over the place. We even trolled but couldn’t find the school until Capt Erik called up another white from the depths a few hrs later with his popper.  At the end I got a couple sub-7 inch whites in the shallows as consolation bites.

Capt Erik felt sorry for my lack of production so he invited me out again a few days later, for a true dawn patrol trip.  This would be testing the theory that the school bites better in the early morning independent of tidal movement since the tide was flat.  I woke at 3:30am, which is closer to when I normally go to sleep than when I wake up, and we were fishing at 5:45.  He got bit on the 4th cast of his small 7/8 oz Yozuri Hydro Popper again, and tagged a 14.5″ white papio with PIFG tag #A5646.

 

 

We both were silently thinking that the bite would stop after that, but the school stayed and I managed to call a 17 inch white up with a JDM popper that I can pop just by line retrieval, not rod sweeps.  I tagged that with #A5652.

 

 

We moved to the area that had been most productive for Capt Erik in the past, and once again he got them to frenzy on his Hydro Popper.  He kept his white papio in the water to keep the school close, and I cast a heavy 1.5 oz JDM sinking swimmer I had never used before.  It was the larger version of this 1 oz sinking swimmer that a big omilu hit.

It got boiled on, and the fish took line on a hard drag on the Tranx 400.  No head shakes, it felt like a really good fish and I was imagining it to be a non-jumping big awa awa, or even a shibi! But soon enough it got sharked too and my brand new JDM lure was gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capt Erik hooked up again and got the papio in the boat before it could get sharked. It looked like a white papio but the eyes were larger and the body was narrower. Menpachi papio! I had never seen one before.  The fish were frenzying and my line on my big pole was cut. I looked at the Z reel and told it this was its chance to prove itself.  The JDM popper got boiled on 3 times and I was on!  I couldn’t horse the fish in with the small reel, and was pretty sure it was gonna get sharked but with the Captain’s encouragement I got it boatside and he netted it. 17 inch whitey. The little Z reel with 22lb max drag did the job. Stay tuned for the in-depth review.  We had 3 papio flopping around in the boat, released the 2 whites and I asked Capt Erik if I could take the menpachi papio home for my parents.

The bite stopped so we trolled around and ended up further out, over a deep reef.  Capt Erik was able to get a big boil on his GT Ice Cream plug but it didn’t stick.  Our 4 hrs of early morning fishing were up and it was time to race in.  I begrudgingly have to say that the schooling predators bite better at sun up than mid morning, and they seem to shut off just a couple of hours into the day.

The 14.5 inch menpachi papio had a semi-digested fish in its stomach and was riddled with worms the size of “orzo” pasta throughout its stomach cavity.  I’ll spare you guys that view.  The flesh was reddish, unlike omilu and papio, and I presented it to my dad worm-free. He fried and broiled it and said it tasted a little better than the more common papio.  Maybe it was oilier?  Thanks Capt Erik for ensuring I’d be able to test the Z reel against hard pulling fish by calling the school right to me, and sharing the rare menpachi papio with my family.

 

Big man o’ war, jumping kaku and $20 JDM lure lost

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Went back to the Windward side hoping to get a bigger fish on the 13 Fishing Concept Z reel.  Last week I got stung badly by a Portuguese Man o’ War so I wore wading socks that extended a few inches above my tabis but still left a 9 inch uncovered area between the socks and the bottom of my trunks.  At the first spot, I saw this huge Man of War getting blown towards me.  Freaked me out but this time I remembered to walk in front of the float, not behind it, since the stinging tentacles can extend pretty far.  I whipped the area cautiously for no bites but probably didn’t do it justice since I was constantly scanning the water for more Man o’ War.

Left the area and went to the spot I missed the kaku the last time.  Sure enough I got a hit on the JDM sub-surface lure right away. I felt the fish on and in a split second it went airborne with the lure in its mouth but shook it mid-flight. Here’s the short video of the little kaku acrobat.

I worked the area and moved down a ways, and when I returned I hooked that same fish or his brother.  I bumbled turning on the GoPro so I didn’t capture that action. And when I released the kaku that got tangled up in the leader, I ended up dunking the Concept Z reel for a couple of seconds. Ugh…

After draining the water, I made a cautious cast and backlashed because the wet casting brakes were slipping.  Adjusted from 3 brakes “on” to 5 brakes “on” (6 brakes are the max) and the reel casted great again.  Missed what felt like a papio bite and then my casts shortened as the brakes dried.  Readjusted the brakes back to their original setting but I must’ve had loose line on my spool ‘cuz I snapped off my lure at the FG knot on a cast. I had tied this sloppy FG knot on the water the last time and must not have cinched it down well.

My $20 limited edition JDM sub-surface lure couldn’t have gone far but I didn’t see it land and couldn’t find it even though it floats.  Took that as a sign to quit while I was unstung.  This is the second JDM lure I’ve left floating in jellyfish infested waters, although Portuguese Man Of War technically aren’t jellyfish.  If you find it, I hope it brings you luck.

I hadn’t opened up the Concept Z reel before so I was a little leery about losing flying parts.  The reel was actually a little simpler than bait casters I have serviced although there was a little spring loaded clicker pin under the star drag that fell off on disassembly.  The innards looked wet but free of grit, salt and corrosion.  The materials used looked impressively corrosion resistant and I verified that the stack of drag washers was made out of carbon fiber to produce an astounding 22 lb of drag.  Applied some Corrosion Block oil and Daiwa Blue Grease and reassembled it.  Reassuring to know that the Concept Z reel can be easily self-serviced.

 

 

The price to pay for fishing the Windward side

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Feeling good about ending my bolo, I ventured to the Windward side for some shallow water kaku action.  The tide hadn’t filled in at my dependable spot so I decided to wade around an area we’ve kayak fished in the past.  There were a lot of 7 inch mullet near shore, much more than I see on the South Shore, so I was hopeful that an ambushing kaku would be nearby.

In 2.5 feet of water I spotted the purple-blue float of a Portuguese Man of War.  The trade winds blow these stinging menaces into the Windward beach shallows, which is why there are so many sand turtles on the Windward side. The sand turtles love to eat the Man of War tentacles!

 

I walked about 12 ft downwind of the Man of War float and crossed its path.  ZAPPP!! It felt like my lower legs received an electrical shock.  I rubbed the areas in disbelief but couldn’t see much of a wound.  Wasn’t sure if the pain would get worse so I headed into shore to text the guys.  Thad, our resident wade fisher, turns out to be our resident jellyfish stingee also. He said the pain subsides very quickly so I drove to another spot but the kaku weren’t home.

By then, the tide had filled in a little at my dependable spot so I waded out into less than knee deep water.  My first cast resulted in a huge eruption of water. Now that’s the kind of greeting I like! I turned on the GoPro and recorded 3 more boils in the next 2 mins and 45 seconds. Sadly none stuck.  I did see another Man Of War float and kept one eye peeled for more.

On my slow walk of shame in I changed to a longer, heavier JDM sub-surface lure with 3 treble hooks, hoping to hook the sneaky kaku that hit the middle of the lure.  I hooked something that had a lot of resistance but couldn’t pull that hard.  It turned out to be a 6 inch omilu that attacked the 4.5 inch lure and was hooked in the mouth and the side.  The side wound was just below the skin and he swam off fine.  Omilu always seem to get foul hooked on the sharp trebles which is partly why I take those off if I’m not targeting kaku.

The next day my Man Of War sting got itchy and the following day was even worse.  Cortizone 10 Plus kept the itch bearable.

At Day 4 it wasn’t itchy anymore but looked really bad!  A friend said he welts up like that too and wears support stockings to prevent the sting from reaching his flesh!  That might look a little funny but less odd than walking around for a month with this scar.

I’ve ordered “calf compression sleeves” from Amazon Prime for less than $10 that don’t look like old lady stockings and am hoping they will prevent further leg stings. Will let you know how they perform.

Windward side has more bait and predators but more chance of getting stung too.  Is that price worth paying for a better shot at fish?

The Bolo is over!

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After 5 kayak and 6 shore fishing bolo trips, painfully documented in this post, I can finally say it’s over!  Thanks for the well wishes and suggestions on how to break the bad luck streak.

From shore I had been testing the 13 Fishing Concept Z bait casting reel I was given at the Fred Hall Show in March.  Was stubbornly sticking to top water and sub-surface lures although the thought of dragging bait did cross my mind. The reel cast and swam light lures really well and had some near misses so I was hoping it was just a matter of fishing the right conditions.

The last two spots I wade fished were so murky and muddy that the fish couldn’t see the lure well.  Changing things up, I  tried a spot where I could walk out to the break on a very low tide.  Hadn’t fished it in more than a year but the last time I did, the omilu were going nuts for the JDM sub-surface lure.  Here’s how the action went down that day.  This time, on the -0.1 ft tide,  I almost made it to the break.  Hedging my bets because of the clear water, I dropped down to 25lb fluoro leader instead of the 40lb I had been using to prevent kaku bite-offs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My second cast into a small sandy pocket hooked something solid. I set the hook a few times to make sure it wasn’t gonna shake off like the previous fish on this bolo run, before turning on the hat mounted GoPro.  The Concept Z reel is so light and small yet has a max drag of 22lbs.  I had the drag set enough to over power the kaku so it came in green and flopped around like a trout avoiding a landing net.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I was so far from shore I tried tagging the kaku in the Promar ProFloat net. Keeping it captive wasn’t a problem but measuring the sharp toothed fish while keeping my reel out of the water was a challenge. I ended up grabbing the kaku through the net and doing a rough estimate.  19 inches, tagged with #A5651.  And just like that, my bolo was over.

On my next cast, a kaku of about the same size followed by a pound half omilu investigated my lure and turned away 10 ft from me.  That was it for the action in that little sand patch so I walked back to shore with a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders.  Sorry for all the photos of a slimy kaku but I needed proof I finally landed a fish with the Z reel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the zero foot tide I gathered some pipihi and mussels for my Toby puffer. Interesting that the pipihi were a 1/3 the size of the ones I gathered earlier at another spot with a large lava rock shelf.

I whipped a sandy, protective cove and missed 2 more kaku.  Fellow whippers I talked to when I was leaving said they saw a large omilu come in, swirl around and go out in the area I caught the bolo-breaking kaku.  Fishing is a matter of inches. If that kaku had hit the lure an inch back from the front hook I’d still be lamenting the bolo.

Seems like the omilu are coming in looking for bait but not finding much yet.  Still no reports of large oama schools inshore.

 

The Bolo is real!

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At this point I’ve gone kayak or shore fishing 11 times and besides a shark and hage, haven’t landed a thing.  Out of 5 kayak attempts, 3 were so windy we had to cut the fishing short.  Out of the 6 solo shore fishing trips, all either had tides too low for the predators to come in, or choppy conditions due to wind and waves.  But I’m just making excuses for my bolo head streak, Thad was able to catch two large fish in the same conditions, at one of the spots I tried and failed.  Here’s how he did.

It seems that just as I’m getting close to catching fish, something new gets in the way.  When I kayaked the deep with Kelly, he caught a nabeta on damashi at 100 ft and I had some scarred baits that looked like they had been raked by nabeta. Even had a good drag puller come off.  Here’s the write up for that trip.  The next time I went out to that spot solo, the conditions were too rough to safely fish. I’ve given up with kayak fishing the south side until after the fall, when the wind and waves drop.

 

 

 

So I wade fished a spot on Thad’s recommendation and had a bunch of kaku strikes on my go-to sub-surface lure but none stuck because I had changed the rear hook to a strong Owner inline single hook.  I went back with that same type of lure sporting stock treble hooks and the wind and waves cloudied the water and made it hard for the kaku to find that lure.

Albino pipihi on the upper left

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I didn’t come home empty. I gathered some pipihi (those small, black salt water snails you see on black rocks when the tide recedes) for my Toby puffer since he’s been getting tired of frozen shrimp.  Toby couldn’t break into the tough shell so all the pipihi crawled out of his tub! I crushed one for him and he sniffed it and pushed it around for awhile, then figured out how to eat it. I put the remaining pipihi in another tub that didn’t have any fish and they crawled out of the water but didn’t flee like they did earlier.  Pipihi are a lot smarter than I thought.  Well one was hanging out on the outside of the tub, and since he was a flight risk, he became Toby’s next meal.

 

I figured I’d check the spot I last fished in April, hours before the historic flood that tragically dumped mud in East Oahu homes. I was horrified to find the water looking like this, 6 weeks later.   There was so much muddy silt on top of the sand that it was actually slippery to wade.  The normal bait was gone and the few bait fish I saw were darting all over the place because they couldn’t see predators coming. The tide was also too low to fish, so I just waded around, wondering how long it would take to flush out all this silt and debris.

I consulted the guys to see what I could do to end my bolo streak. Kelly said I needed to get a “bolo head” haircut to accept the bolo and move on.  This “side bolo” was the shortest I could handle.  Maybe my catch will improve to a side bolo of at least a consolation fish?

Do any of you have any other suggestions for me? By the way, I’m loving my new prescription Maui Jim Twin Fall wraps, but only wish I was seeing fish on my hook with them.

Guest Post: JDM Top water action on the shallow reef shelf

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This guest post is from Thad, our resident JDM fishing equipment purveyor and top water expert. He also wrote this very popular halalu fly tying article.  Because I haven’t caught a decent fish since February, Thad was kind enough to share how he did on his last outing.

Fishing has always been more than just a casual hobby for me.  I do it not just for the excitement of hooking and landing the big one, but to get out and enjoy being with Mother Nature.  It’s a relaxing Zen sort of thing which I’m sure many of you can relate to.  Even if I don’t catch anything, I fully enjoy the experience of just being out there near the ocean.  I’ve been fishing since I was in grade school so even though I could fish favorite spots that can produce fish consistently, I love exploring and testing new grounds that I’ve never fished before – regardless of what other have told me about them.

Recently, I’ve been exploring a spot that I had always wondered about and stared at on Google Maps satellite view.  The first two weekends at the new spot had been decent, producing some exciting kaku hits on JDM topwater and shallow swimming subsurface lures.  I was also able to try some flies someone had tied and given to me.  I whipped them with a clear bubble and landed a bunch of catch & release sized omilu, as well as a nice 14” yellow spot papio.

Despite two consecutive trips there, a few unexplored areas remained where I wanted to try using different lures and methods, so I went a third time. Unfortunately, the early morning conditions on that day were not as ideal as the previous two weekends.  The tide was a little higher, the wind was very gusty, and there was also a swell rolling in.  All this movement made the water murky and difficult to see where I was stepping.  I spent the first couple of hours wading near the break, not getting any action, and being bashed around by an occasional set, so I decided to try tagging a kaku in the shallows near the shoreline before I headed home.

The gusty winds were blowing off-shore in a diagonal direction so I could get decent distance throwing my 14gram JDM top water lure downwind.  I’ve had great success fishing this walk-the-dog lure for kaku and papio before.  Its slender shape allows for long, missile-like casts, often out distancing lures that weigh several grams more.  I decided to go with this lure since the water I would be fishing was very thin at about 1 to 1.5 feet deep. The very first cast got out a good distance but I quickly realized the choppy surface and pull of the wind on my line made it difficult to walk the lure like I normally do. A harder than normal twitch of the rod tip was required to get it to glide from side to side but this in turn gave it a bigger, more attractive splash on each turn.  I gave it more time to glide between twitches so the retrieve was very slow paced but looked very good from my vantage point.

With the confidence gained working the first cast, I let the second one sail out with the wind and then began my retrieve.  After a few slow but deliberate twitches, something hit the lure violently with a big splash and bend my rod over.  Fish on!  Unlike all the previous kaku I had hooked there, this fish felt considerably stronger and took line in nice long spurts.  I thought to myself, this must be one of those monster kaku my nephew Reef hooked here and had told me about.  I hoped my 25lb fluorocarbon leader was nowhere near its razor sharp teeth. The fish headed sideways towards the left which was different from the way other kaku have fought. There was no signature head shake of a papio and the water was very shallow so I began thinking maybe I hooked an oio instead.  Excited by this thought, I carefully fought the fish closer and within sight. Papio!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I’ve caught papio in very shallow waters before and know they do come in close to hunt the reef flats but I was surprised since this was a decent sized one and I didn’t feel any of the telltale head shakes of a papio.  I immediately could see why as the fish was foul hooked with the tail treble hooked to the bottom of a gill plate and the front treble hooked in the belly. I fumbled around trying to grab my wading net but found it was tangled with my fish bag and rod holster I keep on my waist.  The hooks looked secure on the fish so I decided to walk it over a nearby sand beach.  The fish measured 20 inches to the fork of the tail and would later weigh 5 pounds 0.5 ounces on my kitchen scale.

 

 

 

 

 

With a nice fish in the bag, it was time to head home.  I had walked a long distance down the beach from where I was parked, so I whipped my lure as I worked my way back.  A few yards from where I hooked the papio, another topwater blowup led to a 22 inch kaku which I released with PIFG tag #A5343 securely attached to its back.  I noticed several small, broken schools of very early season oama. They were very skittish and wouldn’t allow me to get close but they were definitely oama.  Maybe they were drawing the predators on to the shallow flats?  Hmm.  Has the 2018 season begun?  I hope so.