Pfft… oama, who needs you?

July 16, 2015 By Scott 8 Comments

I went out looking for oama again and the school of about 8 scattered when I threw chum at it. Waited for more to show up, and waited and waited. Went home demoralized.

The conditions were still good with moderate wind and a steeply rising tide so I took the fishing board out in the afternoon for some exercise. The Waxwing System performed well in the trade winds, much better than it did casting into the wind from shore. Sitting at water level, the lure tracked well and I got a bump before I made it out to the break.

I always seem to do best fishing in front of where the surfers surf so I did just that and probably annoyed the SUPers. Bam! My first real fish on the Wing! The rear double hook held and the Curado 300EJ’s drag didn’t feel as strong as the Calcutta’s but did it’s job. I finally caught a legitimate papio. I couldn’t unlock my phone through the waterproof case so I couldn’t take an on the water shot. The fish taped out at 15 inches, head to tail.

Paddling parallel to the break, I whipped some fishy water for a couple hits and misses and when I got back to the main surf break smaller omilus slammed the Wing. The Curado 300EJ’s fast retrieve definitely made the Wing more enticing. My left thumb started to sting and it turns out that the Powerpro was slicing into my skin as I pinched the line to provide tension for the bait caster. Ouch. I’ve never used braid as my main line before. Gonna have to change the way I fish the reel.

Maybe I don’t need oama after all. It’s much easier to throw a lure into the waves than to troll a live oama as close to the waves as possible. Pfft, oama, who needs you?

Note: The omilu was skinny for its length because it wasn’t gorging on oama. It did have a small bait fish in its stomach.

Bought into the Shimano Waxwing System!

July 7, 2015 By Scott 10 Comments

Shimano recommends that their Waxwing lures be paired with Shimano Terez rods and Shimano high speed spinning and bait casting reels, loaded with red Power Pro braided line. The skeptics sneered, saying it was a poorly masked marketing campaign to sell their lures, rods, reels and PowerPro, which Shimano also owns. Well, I started using a G Loomis swimbait casting rod and an old Shimano Calcutta 200 GT TE bait casting reel. G Loomis is also owned by Shimano so I was staying in the “family”. I had fluorocarbon on the Calcutta TE which didn’t cast as far as braid. I had to crank as fast as the little reel’s handle could spin but had too many follows and no bites so I moved up to the newer Calcutta 200D. It had a slightly faster retrieve but wasn’t really geared to rip small lures.

Curado 300EJ with red PowerPro

I finally broke down and purchased the recommended Shimano Curado 300EJ with a smoking 32 inches of line retrieved per turn, 7 more inches than the Calcutta TE I started with. I spooled the Curado with the red Power Pro and boy does it cast better. Fluorocarbon has a lot of line coil memory which cuts down on casting distance. The Curado retrieves line so fast I was popping the Waxwing out of the water and I had to slow down and let the lure sink a bit.

looks like it worked

On the second cast I caught a small kaku that was hooked in the mouth because it couldn’t overrun the lure and hit it in the middle.

I’ll have to do a lot more testing but I like what I’m experiencing. Far casts and relaxed, fast retrieves. I added a Gamakatsu assist hook which doesn’t tangle like the DIY assist hook I was using. Now if only there were bigger fish to play with. My oama spots are still barren so the predators aren’t inside the reef yet.