late season oama school

I went to my early season South Shore oama spot and sure enough the oama had left town.  Panicked, I hurried to the spot where I’ve been finding them lately, and there was still a large school in the protected shallows.  I was relieved to still find them there but frustrated that they wouldn’t even follow my bait.

I went off looking for some hungrier strays and found some jumbo (5 – 6 inch) oama  that would be heading out past the reef soon.  They bit but they were so strong they would rip themselves off the hook before I could land them.  It was a lot like sight fishing for oio.  I would hunt down these larger oamas cruising the bottom for food, hook them, and try to let the pole take the impact of their panicked runs.  90% broke off before I could slide the net under them.

jumbo oama

After all that work I ended up with only 10, but hopefully the size of these bruisers will deter the smaller papio from whacking them when I troll ’em.