My friend Chester had the week off so I took a break from trolling oamas and dusted off the whipping rod.  I hadn’t cast a rod in more than 3 months and it felt good to hear the bearings of the Calcutta TE 200 spin.   I kept things simple and planned to fish cut bait.

I started by casting just the weight to wet the line and hooked a sand barracuda with no bait!  When I put on some cut bait I started getting pestered by 4 inch omilus so I replaced the bait with a Makata strip lure.  The presentation looked odd, with a big orange head and a long strip body, so I had low expectations.  On the first cast I hooked something heavier and stronger, and was working it in when it unbuttoned. I’m guessing it was a bigger papio since I saw some cruising the shallows.

look how long the Makata lure is

A couple casts later I brought in a feisty 8 inch oama.  I was super surprised that a oama that size would chase down a 3 inch lure and get hooked in its mouth.  If the 6 inch plus oama caught the other week were “moose oama”, I don’t know if I should call this a mega oama or a mini weke. It’s the first oama or weke I’ve ever caught on a lure.  I brought it home alive to either be a pet or live bait for a monster papio.

big hook for small mouth

Chester dragged cut bait for big oio on the outer reaches of the flat and I caught and released a few more 4 inch omilus inside.  Then we saw some dark colored 5 to 8 lb oios cruising the sandy areas.  We tried lobbing cut bait and lures in front of them but couldn’t make an enticing enough presentation.

All in all a great morning of large fish seen and unexpected fish hooked.