Papio season isn’t over, it’s just different

best day so far

Since the “productive” spot still had some papio yesterday, I wanted to check on my other spot that had been filled with bait killing small papio and aha.  I had let this spot rest for more than a month, waiting for the papio to be large enough to take the hook properly.

I ran into a fishing friend on the beach that had seen me land a papio at another spot a month ago.  Always good to have a witness in case people are thinking I’m just photo shopping pictures!  Click here to read what had happened that day.  My friend, who is a world class oama catcher, gave me some pointers on where to troll today.

As I was about to paddle off, a guy called out to me, asking if I was the guy writing all these crazy posts about South Shore papio fishing.  He explained that he had been searching the web to gather knowledge since he recently moved from the mainland, and recognized my surfboard rig from the blog pictures.  Luckily he appreciated the blog info and wasn’t part of the fishing mafia that might want to censor some of the info being distributed!

eBay Calcutta 400 – half price!

Feeling good about the advice I got and the good will exchanged, I paddled to my go-to spot but only had yanked baits to show for it.  Ugh, the bait stealers were still around and even they weren’t biting that frequently.  Down two baits, I had five good sized oama left.  Then it slowed even more.  An hour of no bites went by and I was beginning to write  this spot off.  Remembering the advice my friend had given me on the beach, I paddled further down reef than I normally do and looked for the sandy cut in the surf break that would allow me to fish deeper without getting hit by the waves.  Bam!  My rachet on the newly purchased, used eBay reel went off.  It sounded good as I tried to remember how to fish a bait caster without a level wind; basically a very small conventional reel.  The fish pulled drag, then came in pretty easily.  Turns out it was a 5 inch papio foul hooked on its dorsal fin.  Hoping it was meant to be a practice fish, I put on oama #4.

how heavy does this look?

Bigger Bam! The rachet went off again and the fish felt much more solid.  Took a little while to remember how to crank and evenly distribute line. When I looked up I was close to getting battered by waves so I tightened the drag a bit and worked the fish in.  16 inches, largest this season, on a new (used) reel.  Yay!

I put oama #5 on and paddled back to the 20 ft x 20 ft break in the reef.  Smaller Bam!  A hard fighting, elongated 13 inch papio came in.  Thinking I didn’t want to fish out this little spot in the reef I headed in.  Halfway to the beach I put on oama #6 just to see if there were fish closer to shore.  Big Bam!  The drag pulled and it felt like another bigger papio but turns out I had foul hooked this papio on its dorsal fin also.  They must’ve been slamming the fish in the middle and getting hooked on their fin as they tried to make their getaway.  Bait stealers eventually get their due.  This last one was another stretched out, not so deep, 13 incher.  I was about to let it go since it just had a small hole in its fin, but decided to keep it for my advice giving friend.

3 papio in the bag, I gave my last oama his freedom.  I ran into another friend on the beach who has really helped me figure out how to fish this spot over the last year.  Proudly showing off my catch, I asked him how much the 16 incher weighed.  His mental “Hilo scale” put it at 1.5 lbs while I was hoping it was a legitimate 2 pounder.  I couldn’t find my fish scale at home so I weighed myself on the bathroom digital scale, and then myself holding the fish. The fish varied between 1.8 and 2 lbs. I’ll take the 2 lbs!