these picky oama took 2 of us hours to catch!
It’s now mid-July and from what I’ve been hearing from you guys, and what I’ve been seeing on the water, the “first wave” of the season is over. Friends and I have this theory that the oama came in early, in June, and some spots are now barren because the oama have gotten big and left for the reef. The oama remaining in other spots are akamai to the normal baits we’ve been using, and have gotten lock jaw. The big papio that came in a few weeks after the oama did have either been caught or are eating oama out in the deeper water. So is it time to hang up the fishing gear and wait ’til next year?
Well, if you want to catch oama now you have to find “new, dumb ones” or figure out when they’re the most hungry. Be creative with the baits, they “old” oama have seen everything by now.
If you have oama to use, you’ll have to take them further out since the papio aren’t coming close to shore anymore.
And if you like to throw lures like I do, be prepared to get bolo’d. The papio and other preds are hunting further out, as mentioned, and are keyed on the abundance of natural baits still around.
There’s still fish to be caught during this next stage, but it will take akamai fishers to catch them.
If you have any fish stories or reports to share, please comment on my posts or contact me through the Contact page. I’m always stoked to hear that this blog has gotten you fired up to fish more often.
Hi Scott,ya ooama been really slow on Maui,all shores. At camp 1 ooamas not interested in bait. They just swim by the bait,no interest at all. Earlier in the season it was a frenzy catching ooama now hard times. As of this past week,patio fishing nuts behind mountain, out of 4 poles tossed out 3 of them had strikes. And papio camp 1 not chasing ooamas. Going to try tomorrow am. That’s the report from Maui. Scott are we going to have a second wave of ooamas?
Hi Craig,
Thanks always for the Maui report. I think you had told me the oama came in before they did on the south shore of Oahu. Interesting that they are following the same pattern of being hard to catch now. Always easier to catch the early season fish, yeah?
The last 3 yrs, cuz they were warm years, we had at least 2 waves of oama. This is probably a little warmer than average so I’m hopeful another wave is coming in. The water currents have to bring those babies into the islands though, hope they’re running the right way.
Problem is the preds like the papio may not be as brave as they were in the early season, and may stay out past the reef. Maybe they’re tired of eating oama already, and have moved onto other foods?
Keep me posted on how the Maui season develops.
thanks,
scott