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Holoholo: Middle of December Bait and Predator Report

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Middle schooler Matthew provided this status report since I haven’t checked the shoreline scene in a while. Much Mahalos, Matt!

Matthew:
Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that fishing has gotten a lot slower. A few baitfish here and there are still around, but the nehu schools have vanished, as well as almost all of the late oama and the halalu. An interesting sight now are schools of moilii, or baby moi. These are around the island in tidepools and shallow areas.

Most of the papio are gone, but if you somehow have live oama for bait, dunking in a channel may produce one.  Kaku are still around, but just not in the levels they were in the summer. Whipping along the shoreline with small lures such as spoons, grubs, and small jigs may work now, as there really isn’t much big bait. Oio bites are getting more common though, and a few big ones have been brought up this week so far by baitcasters.

 

 

Another bad factor is that the days are getting really short, which means less time to fish. What I have been doing recently though, is going stream fishing for smallies (smallmouth bass). I ended catching my first one, and the fight is pretty similar to a papio. The smallies appear to not be affected by the changing seasons. If you do have a boat, now would be a good time to use it, as fish are moving to deeper waters along with the baitfish. If you can catch a few live opelu, you are pretty much set to catch a big papio or ulua with it, as well as other predators. Opelu, however, are getting plentiful, so that is a plus.

Is the first wave of the Summer papio season over?

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these picky oama took 2 of us hours to catch!

It’s now mid-July and from what I’ve been hearing from you guys, and what I’ve been seeing on the water, the “first wave” of the season is over.  Friends and I have this theory that the oama came in early, in June, and some spots are now barren because the oama have gotten big and left for the reef.  The oama remaining in other spots are akamai to the normal baits we’ve been using, and have gotten lock jaw.  The big papio that came in a few weeks after the oama did have either been caught or are eating oama out in the deeper water.  So is it time to hang up the fishing gear and wait ’til next year?

Well, if you want to catch oama now you have to find “new, dumb ones” or figure out when they’re the most hungry.  Be creative with the baits, they “old” oama have seen everything by now.

If you have oama to use, you’ll have to take them further out since the papio aren’t coming close to shore anymore.

And if you like to throw lures like I do, be prepared to get bolo’d.  The papio and other preds are hunting further out, as mentioned, and are keyed on the abundance of natural baits still around.

There’s still fish to be caught during this next stage, but it will take akamai fishers to catch them.

If you have any fish stories or reports to share, please comment on my posts or contact me through the Contact page.  I’m always stoked to hear that this blog has gotten you fired up to fish more often.