My regular wading and board fishing spots haven’t produced in the last 3 weeks despite the Hawaii Fishing News calendar forecast saying that omilu are supposed to be inshore through November.  Out of desperation, I fished an area I haven’t fished in almost two years just to see if there might be some hold over papio.

The water was clear on the rising tide and I could see tangs and humuhumus flitting around at the dropoff, and small ahas and trumpetfish were following my dead oama back to shore.  I was encouraged by all the life I was seeing, but had to unhook many a slimy trumpetfish before the better fish showed.  Sub-legal omilus pulled off the oamas, and moana nipped at the baits but didn’t get hooked. Then I landed a few just legal omilus and let them go.

Finally, I hooked an omilu I knew was easily legal.  It went 12.5″ from head to fork and I bagged it.  From then on, 10.5″ omilu kept taking the baits so I kept a couple to pan fry.  The “recruitment” class of omilu the last two years was so large that there are a lot of omilu 12 inches and smaller competing for a not-so-good recruitment class of juvenile reef fish.  Harvesting some legal omilu will help reduce the predator burden on the bait supply.

I’ve been hearing report of papio being landed around the island despite what I had thought was the end of the papio season.  Looks like it just ended in the area I was frequenting.