Last year we went out on a limb and published our first Oama Season Prediction. Our Oama Prognosticator Kelly said: oama would be catchable by the end of July.  Papio, mainly omilu, should start raiding the oama piles by the middle/late August.

That turned out to be accurate, the season ended in the fall, and wasn’t as good as the recent El Nino years. This year seems to be running similar to last year. Very small oama are in a few spots and are being caught, but not in big numbers. What’s different than normal years is that the Windward Side already has oama; traditionally the South Side gets oama a few weeks before the oama move up into the Windward side. It seems that oama season started all over, all at once. Using this year’s brief mango season as an indicator, Kelly predicts that some spots will have a lot of oama for a short period of time, but the season won’t be especially long or good. If that’s true, you better get ’em while the getting is good! Omilu are beginning to be caught on the early oama.

Here’s how the past years have gone:

• 2014 – Normal start and stayed a little longer than expected. Arrived in late June and was mostly gone by October.  El Nino began late this year and water began to warm up.
• 2015 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed at some places past December. El Nino in full effect.
• 2016 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed through November. El Nino ended this year and water began to cool.
• 2017 – Normal start and slightly late ending. Oama came in late June and began to leave in October, at most places. La Nina brought a lot of rain.
• 2018 – Season started in late July, ended in the fall and wasn’t particularly long or good. La Nina ended before the Summer and could be blamed for the late start.