JDM expert and whipping aficionado Thad fills us in on how his last 3 months of fishing has turned around.

Thad: The papio bite at my usual spots had shut down since the start of February, so I tried targeting oio for a while without much success.  Other guys I know that were fishing similar spots were landing nice oio regularly so it kept my hopes up every weekend.  Its not like I wasn’t hooking up though – I’ve been stricken with the “rubber hook” curse, fighting decent sized fish on most trips only to have them spit the hook before I could land them. 

So the weekend before the COVID-19 shutdown, I decided to try the usual spot again, armed with some new flies Matt (IG: hookum_flies) had tied and given to me to test.  For someone that just started tying flies a week or two earlier, they were well made and looked sure to fool a fish into biting.  The morning proved to be slow again, but I managed to hook what felt like a good sized papio on Matt’s Golden Blaze color.  Just as I was bringing the fish to the surface and could see color, the rubber hook curse struck again.  Losing fish is just a part of the fishing experience, but I felt a little disappointed that I couldn’t send Matt some pictures of his creation in a fish’s mouth.   

Skipped fishing the next two weekends after the COVID-19 shutdown.  By the time I felt comfortable enough to get back out there, I had also received some additional flies from Lawaiaflies (IG: lawaiaflies) that I was excited to try.  Armed with the new flies on April 26th, I tried my luck again, expecting it to be another slow day but hopeful I could send some fish pictures to some fly makers.

I decided to start with an orange and white fly from Lawaiaflies, appropriately called the Creamsicle.  Not long after I started whipping, I got a solid strike and landed a scrappy 12.5” omilu.  It felt great finally being able to land something after losing so many to spit hooks.  I quickly tagged it with a PIFG tag and released it to fight another day.  For the next hour and a half, I continued whipping without any action, switching between flies from different makers. 

Walked to another spot I hadn’t fished in a while, to see if anyone was hungry.  I tied the Creamsicle back on and immediately foul hooked a small omilu on the top of its head. 

A short while later, another small omilu decided to take the same fly.  Man, this Creamsicle color was really productive!  Just as I was thinking I may need to order more of this color, I got a big blow up on my big Tough Bubble that immediately cut my mainline.  I’ve caught several big kaku there so that was the likely culprit.

It was time to start heading back in so I put on another bubble and tied on Matt’s Golden Blaze fly.  I tried a slower retrieve this time, working the fly a little deeper in the water column.  It worked and I was able to land a very colorful moana.  I took some pics for Matt and called it a day. Reports I’ve been hearing from friends and the recent papio bites (albeit small ones) seem to indicate that we may be working our way out of the slow season.