Holoholo writer Matthew lets us in on some secrets to catch papio in heavily fished areas. Note when he catches most of his fish, and what gear he uses.

Matthew: Lately I’ve been hearing how fun ultralight fishing is. Ultralight fishing is fishing with very light line (4 lb or less) and a very soft rod, making the fish fight very hard, even giving bigger fish the advantage over you. I bought a 6’6” 13 Fishing Defy 2 piece rod and a Daiwa 2500 Procyon reel with four pound line loaded on. I tested it out at the bass stream first and hooked up on a few. Normally they don’t fight so hard, but with the ultralight rod they fought super hard and even pulled drag. The smallies weren’t too big but still put up a great fight on the four pound test.

I felt like it was time to catch a saltwater fish on my ultralight so I went to a go-to spot. I started at 4pm and dunked live oama while I whipped the ultralight. Nothing bit the oama at all until 7pm, and I set out a new batch of oama. Then, right before sundown, what felt like a 7-8 pound Papio hit, and it screamed maybe 20 yards out before I brought it in, and it resisted along the shoreline for a good 30 seconds, but then upon closer examination, I realized it was only a 10 inch White Papio. Lol. The ultralight really brought out the fight in the fish. On my normal gear, the fight would have been over in 10 seconds. On the ultralight, it lasted over a minute.

No sooner had I released the Papio one of my two dunking poles started ringing. I reeled it in, and it was a small 7 inch white Papio that somehow swallowed the whole four inch oama. No sooner had I had released that Papio that the other dunking pole started ringing too. Wow, there must have been a pack of them hunting around in the shallows. I reeled it in, and it put up no resistance, and the fight lasted a lousy 15 seconds. It was a bigger Papio than the first ultralight one, at 12 inches, but the difference between the fight is huge. My conventional has a 40 pound main and a 30 pound leader with a big circle hook. After that, I landed a Tohei on my conventional as well. 

I went back the next night and same exact thing, no bites until exact sundown. I packed up at 7:15, and walked back to the car, and made a few casts on the way back. Boom, screamer, this time a little bigger. It peeled 30 yards off the reel at first, then as soon as I would reel it in close to the shoreline, it would make another run past the ledge. I was lucky I had a friend that had a net, because as soon as it fell close to the net, the hook pulled and before the fish could swim away, he netted the fish. It was a nice 1 ½ pound Omilu, but I decided to tag and release it. I thought that was going to be my hardest and longest fight on the ultralight, but I was wrong.

Two weekends later, I checked a spot I hadn’t fished in two years. I whipped with the ultralight and a grub, four pound mainline, and six pound leader. I made a couple casts and hooked a pretty big Hinalea, but then a few casts later, I hooked what felt to be an Aha, but with some headshakes. The fish then took off on an insane run that lasted around 30 seconds. It took me around five minutes to bring it into 10 feet of the shore, where it stubbornly resisted for another eight minutes while also making a few runs. At this point I knew it had to be a nice size Papio. Then I saw it. A nice sized electric blue Omilu followed by his smaller friend. I think It saw me too because it took a final 20 yard run, but that was its final run. I brought it back in and then finally got to grab the tail of the Omilu. I threw it on the beach pretty fast. It was a nice three pound omilu, and a pretty fat one too. The same fish would have been overpowered and brought in in 45 seconds on my normal gear, but on the ultralight, the fight lasted some 15 minutes. A real nice fight, and I think I got so excited I was yelling. Tag and release, but the fish was exhausted by the long fight and it took a four minutes of reviving.

The day wasn’t over though. I released it and thought of the smaller omilu that followed it in. The leader I used was pretty bad, so I took out my heavier plugging rod and casted. The other Omilu must have still been there because within two cranks, I got hit. A very small five yard run, then it came in like a lizardfish. No fight at all. Two pound Omilu, but the fight difference was huge. The fight lasted 20 seconds.

I got a Lai as well, which felt like a Hinalea. I went to the flats later that day and landed a few Omilu as well as a nice sized white Papio that fought incredibly hard for its size. In the end, the UL really brought the fight out of the fish. I recommend you guys try it too.