Casden Chow is a 9th grader on O’ahu and is an avid fisherman who fishes from shore and kayak.
Casden:
The last couple weeks, I’ve been able to go on a couple whipping trips after a depressing hiatus due to school. Summer is finally here, and the fishing is heating up! I wasn’t expecting too much on this first trip. I thought I’d just check out what was around, and it ended up being a good recon mission. I came across this reef edge that created a small pocket of calm water and saw sardine piles holed up there, so I threw on a tiny 10g jig that I thought would imitate them well. A nice little kaku ended up biting. It was great to get a little action after a long break. These were probably some of the first bait piles of the season.
This was mid-May, which is pretty early for bait to come in. I asked Scott about this, and he said that this year there’s an El Niño weather pattern, which brings larger warm water currents, more bait, and in turn predators to our waters. I also did some reading and found out that this could be one of the most intense “super” El Niños in a long time. To my surprise, Scott also told me that the oama were already in, so my next trip I wanted to test an interesting lure. This is an extremely realistic oama softbait. I rigged it with a belly-weighted EWG hook. I’m sure we’ve all heard “Some lures catch fish. Some catch fishermen”. They looked really great, so I was excited to see how well they worked. Would they actually swim well and catch fish, or were they just made to look pretty? The tackle shop owner I bought them from said people had gotten action just dunking them and letting them float in the current, pretty nuts!
The next spot I tried was super shallow, so I walked out to a reef ledge that dropped off into deeper water. The weather over the weekend was pretty rough. I was debating whether to go out, but you won’t catch anything sitting at home. At least if you’re out there, you have a chance. It was a bit of a battle with rough winds and waves on the ledge. I ended up getting pretty bad wind knots later in the day and got soaked. The lure was also light, which made things a little hard with the wind. I figured out that a sideways cast kept the line and lure close to the water without it getting blown back by the wind. I didn’t really know what the best way to work this lure was. If anyone has ideas about the best retrieve for this lure, please let me know! I ended up getting bit on a stop and burn retrieve. It was a nice little papio, probably around the 14-inch range.
The lure swims super well and looks like a real oama. Very good start to early summer fishing. I’m excited to see what is to come. Thanks, Scott for giving me the info about the oama and teaching me about these crazy weather patterns.
Editor’s Note: Casden is one of very few people that actually listened to my crazy El Nino ramblings!