The strongly recommended bait bucket to use for oama in Hawaii has been the Frabill Flow Troll on the left. If you see fishermen carrying that bucket you know they’re either planning to catch bait, or have live bait in it to dunk.  What makes it so convenient to use is that it’s weighted to float with the door facing up, and when pulled, water flows through to aerate the bait in the bucket.  But the feature that separates it from the rest, including the Plano (parent company of Frabill) bucket on the right, is that the Flow Troll has a spring loaded door that allows you to push it open with one hand and drop in your oama, without having to unlatch and latch the door.

If you had to fiddle with opening and closing a latch, there’s a good chance your precious oama would find its way out. We even carry the Flow Troll inside our kayaks when holding live oama, and dunk it overboard occasionally, to give the bait fresh, oxygenated water.

Trust me, don’t buy any other bait bucket unless you will always have two hands available to access it.  You should be able to find the Flow Troll at your local tackle shop for $15 or less, and expect it to last for many oama seasons.