Well, the nearshore summer season started a bit late, with the oama finally showing up in good numbers in early August. By the beginning of October, the larger schools of oama were gone, and a few pockets of fish were seen here and there. The Fall rain provided habitat for large schools of jumpin iao but even they were gone by late November. The papio and kaku are no longer coming in past the reef so the inshore whipping bite has come to a complete stop, at least for me.
Up until this week the Fall winds were unusually strong, preventing me from going out on the kayak. I did get out once, in early November, with a few live oama. I caught a couple 11″ FL omilu that were tagged and released. The funniest thing was hooking a small lizardfish on the free swinging back hook. Somehow it hooked itself through its forehead, not in its mouth, and the oama was still alive and intact.
Since the lizardfish looked so appetizing next to the oama I put both down and paddled past a sandy area. Somehow the baits got stuck and when I pulled them free both were gone. Very suspicious huh?
It was getting late so I put on a 6 inch oama and paddled just off the reef edge on my way in. Something pulled drag and I looked behind just in time to see a big kaku shaking its head. Somehow the kaku managed to insert the free swinging back hook into the stub of the still alive oama yet cut the leader. Very odd things going on with that super sharp Owner back hook.
I am planning to troll live oama while we still have light winds, hoping to intercept some papio and awa awa on a reef further out from shore but still within my paddling range. Sadly, I expect the bite to be much slower than it was a month ago.
So what can we expect within wading range this winter? The fish that feed on crabs and shrimp, oio and weke, are still within range. Dunking or dragging a fresh bait should get their attention. And limu eating fish like nenue and kala will be feeding in the high surge zones. Go get ‘um!
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