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?