Predators gone amuck!

The whites I stumbled upon the other day kept calling my name.  I went a little earlier this time, and the tide was still falling in the morning.  It was a little windier, maybe 8 to 10 mph trade winds, but lighter than normal.  Headed straight for Erik’s spot where I struck out the other day.  My go-to sub-surface lure got bumped repeatedly on the papa edge but nothing stuck. That was odd cuz it normally produces. I put on a sub-surface lure that I modified to run two inline single hooks instead of 3 small trebles. I wanted to see if having 1 less hook would affect the hookup ratio.

Evidently not. On the first cast a fish chased it down, jumping out of the water twice to eat it. I thought I was fighting an awa awa but brought a white papio to color.  I guess that fish preferred the swimming action of this slightly longer lure that was missing its belly hook.  Disappointed it wasn’t an awa awa, I shook it off. My tag kit got soaked while tagging fish the other day and I decided to skip tagging today.

Since the water was higher on the papa I drifted on it and cast to productive looking areas.  A smaller white hit about 10 ft from the papa edge but shook off before I could shake him off myself.  Hmm,  didn’t know white papio feed on top of the papas like omilu do.  Trying another drift over the papa I hooked something that took my lure into a long rocky tunnel. When the line finally broke, I was missing the lure and 3 ft leader.  I hope that roi chokes on my lure and dies, though I bet it was able to shed the single hook quickly.

Not wanted to lose any more sub-surface lures, I put on a heavy lipped swimmer.  It cast well but didn’t get bumped at all.  I had thrown it before and didn’t get a bite then either. Maybe that’s why it was half off on eBay.

Continuing with my lure tests, I paddled away from the papa and marked what looked like medium-sized fish suspended a little above squiggly lines that I assumed were bait fish.  I put on a smaller-bodied heavy lipped swimmer that was supposedly the hottest thing in Asia.  Cast out, let it settle to the bottom and retrieved steadily. It got bumped and I hooked fish but the hook kept pulling.  The fish felt like smaller white papio or maybe taape or some other reef fish?  I threw it closer to the pointed edge of the papa and an awa awa grey-hounded out of the water. Finally, the target fish!  The line went slack for about a second, and then took off again.  I fought the stubborn fish to the yak, and when I brought it to color it was a 13.5 inch (FL) white!  The awa awa had dropped the lure and the white picked it up thinking it was his lucky day.  Wrong, I bagged him for getting my hopes up.

So far that heavy lipped lure got bumped or hit on just about every cast.  I paddled back out to the concentration of fish settled near the bottom and dragged the lure over them.  I could feel the bumps again and imagined the fish were annoyed that this lure was interrupting their nap. Then I got a solid hookup and the fish felt like a 3lb white papio, just 3 times stronger. It fought up and down, and didn’t take a lot of line but I couldn’t bring it to the surface.  Fish started showing up on the fish finder all over the water column so I imagined the white papio school was trying to find out why their big bruddah was swimming so erratically.  I tried to get him to the yak as soon as I could before another fish ran into the line with its scutes and maybe 5 mins in the line cut.  I was disappointed that I didn’t see what I had hooked but kind of expected this ending.

The 17 lb mono main line was frayed; not the clean kind of cut like papio scutes normally cut line. I sent the picture to Erik and he said I got sharked.  The next day he went out and sharks were chasing down his fish and spinning in the air!  And to think, I had my legs in the water, straddling the Scupper Pro to stabilize it.

I put on another sinking swimmer and it got bumped but didn’t hook up on the first couple of casts. It was time to go anyway, and I was pleased again with the equipment mods. My cheap, portable fish finder put me on fish resting in the channel.  The 4X treble and single inline hook combination seemed to still allow the lures to swim and yet have the holding power to bring fish in.  I am gonna have to replace the 17lb mono with the castable fluorocarbon I used to use, to get more abrasion protection.  And keep my limbs in the boat, and a tourniquet nearby.