Smaller is better, sometimes

Capt Darren called to let me know that he and his daughter Keely were taking the 17 ft  Boston Whaler for a quick reef trolling trip. Last minute impromptu trip but they had room for me if I wanted to throw lures while the boat trolled.

It had been raining the last two days, but I jumped (literally) at the chance to join them.  We trolled one of the 5 inch JDM sub-surface swimming lures and a small popper from the rod holders, and Keely jigged a small white soft plastic minnow back and forth.  I was at the bow of the boat casting ahead of us, but it was hard not to backlash the Tranx 400 bait caster throwing into the wind.  Eventually I tuned the reel correctly and could cast ahead and retrieve a 1 oz sinking swimmer just as we were about to pass the lure.

Hookup on the sinking swimmer, I think? I felt some head shakes and then it just felt like the lure was snagged on itself.  No wonder, an 7 inch omilu had bravely attacked the slender 4 inch lure.  This was the second time I’ve used this lure. The first time it had caught a nice 20″ omilu in the past, whipping from a boat, mainly because it could be cast into the wind.

Keely hooked up on the small white soft plastic and skillfully brought in the fish. A legal omilu, larger than the one I had caught on the sinking swimmer! We released it, and Capt Darren trolled the shallow reef some more.  Keely hooked up again! This time it was a smallish lai (leatherback fish).  I landed the lai, unhooked it carefully to avoid the venomous spines and shook it free from the net. All this action got me pumped up so I launched my sinking swimmer in a high arc only to snap it off when the reel hit a deep backlash. Arrgh! That was the only heavy swimmer I had brought.

Keely hooked and landed another lai, followed by another legal omilu.  She needed a rest from all her fish catching so Capt Darren jigged the soft plastic minnow as he drove the boat with his left hand.  Hook up on the 2.5 inch soft minnow again!  Keely brought in yet another omilu. The 5 inch sub-surface swimmer and the popper weren’t getting any attention from the papio and lai.  I trolled and jigged a 4 inch sub-surface swimmer and didn’t get any hits either.  Capt Darren gave me an old school white feather jig to try, and I jigged that on my light bait caster.

He hooked yet another omilu on the soft plastic minnow while driving the boat and Keely skillfully landed it.  Capt Darren could read my frustration and asked if I wanted to jig the soft plastic minnow instead. We switched and he hooked up with the white feather jig on my bait caster, one handed! Man, the guy is good.  But the soft plastic minnow’s tail wiggled enough while I was jigging and I did hook a pint sized omilu and later, an omilu big enough for Keely’s dinner.  Funny thing was I was going to put the rod in the rod holder and the fish hooked itself.  Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of that but it might’ve been 2lbs.  That was the only fish we kept.

The skies darkened and the rain pelted us.  It was time to head in.  I lost count of how many omilu and lai Keely landed on the white, soft plastic minnow lure.  I didn’t lose track of how many fish hit the larger hard plastic lures we trolled. Zero.  The sinking swimmer that caught the first omilu was a slender 4 inches.  The soft plastic minnow was 2.5 inches and the white feather was around that length also.  Maybe the storm system put the larger fish down, and the smaller fish didn’t want to chase something too big?  Capt Darren told me “9 out of 10 times, smaller fish will hit a smaller lure instead of going after a larger lure”.  That got me thinking, maybe on the days I have slow action, my lures may have been too large. Hmm…