mauled oama

I trolled 4 live oama today. Each one got bit but still no papio landed.  My bolo head streak extends to 6 trips.

The first two oama were trolled with just a hook through their nostrils and the attacking fish mauled and killed the oama but didn’t pull much line.  The top oama in the picture has two parallel bite marks that seem to indicate a narrow mouthed fish.  Maybe a barracuda or stickfish?

I added a second hook near the anal fin of the last two oama.  The attacking fish got hooked on that back hook and immediately bit through the line.  The bottom oama was one that had hooked the attacker before the back hook was cut off.  Guessing a toothy barracuda did this.

The South Shore beaches are filled with juvenile fish now.  And no one I talked with has caught any papio on their oama baits.  The current theory I’m hearing is the papio are filling up on the bait fish and don’t need to go after bait with hooks in them.

Drop me a line if you think something other than a barracuda mauled my oamas.  Hopefully I catch the offender soon, or better yet, break my bolo head streak.