Shorefishing holoholo day

August 26, 2019 By Scott Leave a Comment

We had been hearing that halalu were biting good at a few of the regular spots, and oama were being caught too, so Frank and I planned to just see what the day presented. Frank headed out east to the halalu spot, but they weren’t around, so we met at a spot where he could catch oama and I could throw some lures.

There was an unmolested school of 4.5″ oama that began to bite for Frank and I began to whip a 120mm (4.75″) subsurface lure. My FG knot separated on a cast and I tried to listen for the splash of the lure to retrieve it, but didn’t hear it land. Searched around for the floating lure but couldn’t find it. Ouch.

I did see a small Portuguese Man of War drifting in. My nemesis! Got stung at least 5 times last year, even while seated in my kayak! I was wearing the Anetik Shade Socks for leg protection on this day but had never tested them against stings. I warned Frank about the Man of Wars and put on the Shimano Shallow Assassin Flash Boost. Even though it was a few grams lighter than the subsurface lure was lost, it cast further because it was more compact, and had the sliding weight transfer system.

The Shallow Assassin has a fairly aggressive side-to-side wobble for such a small lure, and sure enough, I stuck a small kaku outside its mouth on the sticky sharp treble hooks.

Shortly after, an omilu pounced on the Shallow Assassin and was stuck with both hooks. Both fish hit just a crank or two after the lure hit the water, so I think the small profile of the lure matched what they were searching for.

Action slowed so I switched to a longer, jointed sub-surface lure that is the most enticing lure I own yet has never caught a fish. Well, it’s bolohead streak continues. Didn’t get another bite in the next hour. I looked towards shore, Frank was putting his oama catch in a cooler. Waded in and had to walk around a bunch of Man of War near shore. Turns out that’s why Frank quit, he was dodging 3 Man of War at a time and didn’t want to press his luck further. He caught enough oama for a couple trolling trips and I verified that the Assassin truly is a killer so we considered it a successful outing.

The online Store had sold out on the Shallow Assassins so I begged my supplier for 4 more, 1 in each color. If you want one, buy it now because these are hard to get, even in Japan. I’ll also order more Anetik Shade Socks if more people want them, please let me know. These is the first time I waded with them and they protected me from the sun and stings and didn’t sag down.

Holoholo: Oama Catch Report by Wahine Oama Psychologist!

July 19, 2019 By Scott 6 Comments

I met Tina a few years ago when I was a struggling oama fisher. I was doing so badly, Tina started putting her oama in my bait bucket! Since that embarrassing outing, I had seen her over the years at the spots, usually out fishing the guys. Her *secret* isn’t a bait, instead she studies the behavior of the oama to determine how to get them to eat that particular day. Here’s a brief set of tips, with more to come in the next installment of the Oama Psychologist.

Tina: One of the things I enjoy most on the weekends or after work is to go oama fishing. I know it is a bit early for the oama to start running, but I was getting excited. So a few weeks ago, I went to check to see if the oama had came in. Walked around and around and around and found nothing at multiple spots.

Went to check it out again this past week. The first spot I checked out, I searched all around and there was not one oama to be seen. Went to the second spot and found a small school of maybe 50 oama swimming around with the tiniest oama- maybe about 4-5 inches long and really skinny. The fish were not really eating a lot and were a little skittish. There were some other people fishing with me that caught one or two fish, and then gave up and went home a little bit after I got there. Some other people came to fish after that, and I noticed they were using large pieces of bait, and were not catching anything. I started making my baits really tiny since the fish were super tiny, and started to catch a few. Caught just enough to eat for pupus, and then went home.

So here’s some general oama tips for all you oama enthusiasts, that I have gathered over the years:

If you want to find oama, don’t always rely on other people to find the schools. Check around at different places, because the early bird gets the worm, and you might find some secret spots that no one knows about!
Catching oama is not the same for every place. You have to be able to adjust to changing situations. Some oama like small bait, some like large bait. Sometimes you have to drop your bait to the bottom, and sometimes halfway or leave it at the top. I even found one place that if the bait gets any type of dirt, sand or rocks on the bait, the oama won’t go for the bait.
Show aloha to others – I have made many friends out there oama fishing and had lot of good laughs and conversation. It’s amazing how well you can get to know someone fishing together for an hour or two. If you show aloha to those around you, they often will teach you the best techniques, or give you advice for gear, line and hooks that work best.

Holoholo: Oama fail to oama success!

September 3, 2018 By Scott 3 Comments

7th grade Matthew continues to get better at the various shore fishing disciplines despite often fishing alone and without experienced fishers to learn from. With just a few basic oama tips he really improved his oama game. I’ve never oama fished with Matthew so he hasn’t seen how lousy I really am and why I need good bait.

Matthew:
I have always had trouble with oama fishing, so I decided to basically quit. My first few tries resulted in failures. Often I would even find an oama school nobody else was fishing and then fail too. Finally, I got some, but with only 3 in a few hours. I got discouraged by this and I had quit oama fishing for a good 2 years or so. But then I met Scott, the oama master. He had a ton of oama knowledge and he told me I should try again. I thought maybe, but later.

After unstoppable nagging from Scott to try again, I decided to try a popular oama spot for an hour. I used cut fish, and chummed some right before I dropped my splitshot into the water. I hooked one on the first drop, but I was so surprised that I forgot to set the hook! I kept trying and surprisingly, got 12 at the end. By then I was itching to go again, but Hurricane Lane started to plow towards us.

I decided to chance it on Saturday and met up with Hunter at another spot. This was my first time fishing this spot, and I wasn’t really planning to go oama fishing, so I had to use his shrimp. It worked ok at first, landing 4 oama in 10 minutes, but then the bite really slowed, and I wasn’t smart enough to go to the other pile that was biting. I then filleted up a fish and used that for bait, ending up with 12-ish more oama. I, however, was convinced to go back the next day, and I had a different plan, I filleted the bait up and cut it into pieces before the trip and put it in a container. I also made an oama board out of a boogie board, fishing line, duct tape, and an upside down stepping stool. One person there even said “It is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, but it works!”.

I went to the same spot the next day, and found a pile that wasn’t biting but had a lot and nobody was fishing it. I remembered something that Scott said and tried to chum the school, almost immediately after the chum hit the water, the sitting oama turned into frenzied oama. I lowered my bait and immediately it got hit. Man, these things fight hard. I kept pulling up oama after oama until the others fishing the non biting pile noticed I was getting bites, so they came over and fished it with me. Still repeating the process, chum, lower bait, catch an oama. I eventually had to leave though, and I left Hunter, Issey, and Cade to finish off strong.

This was my best oama day ever, and I ended up with a massive 45!! Almost my limit! That is amazing for me! For a guy who is used to catching 3 oama per 8 or so hours, catching 45 in 2 hours was a miracle. Much thanks to Scott for turning my Oama luck around! He was right about bait being everything in Oama fishing! I plan to go back to that same spot later and test a new theory soon too.

Sharing live oama with friends

August 18, 2018 By Scott 6 Comments

Darren, who has taken me on his boat to jig the Penguin Banks, and to troll nearshore for papio, was hoping for live oama to troll with his son and daughter. I only had 5 small oama and 5 moose in my tubs so I told him I’d try to catch some oama but no promises since they weren’t biting that well the last time I went. I changed the hook on my moose rig to catch 4 inch pinkie oama. The smallest hook I had was a #17, which is big for early season oama but smaller than I like to tie and unhook. I normally use a #14 Owner Mosquito hook to land the moose.

I went to my regular oama spot that hasn’t had much oama yet, and was surprised to see 8 other guys in 2 groups fishing. That was a good sign, I guess. Since the guys didn’t invite me into their group, I searched around and found a school of about 50 pinkie oama breezing in 2 ft of water. I didn’t hear the other guys landing any oama, so I palu’d first and the oama ate a little but didn’t swarm. Great time to use the super secret bait I stumbled upon the last time out, when I hooked a halalu on it. I put on a small piece, dropped it down and hooked an oama! Just to check how well they would bite, I dropped the bare hook down and caught another!! I could see the group of 4 guys fishing while I fished and they hadn’t landed an oama since I got there. The guys behind me weren’t saying anything either. Hmm. I put on another piece of the secret bait and repeated the cycle, catching two oama, first with bait and the second with no bait. Maybe the breezing pile was biting better than the others?

Eventually all the other oama fishers left but a grandpa and his grandson. I lost track of my pile and had to fish the outskirts of theirs. The grandpa welcomed me and said the oama weren’t biting too well for them. I dropped down, and eventually landed one, then landed another with the bare hook again. At this point half my pinkies were caught on the bare hook, which is easier to do since the bait isn’t in the way of the barb, and most of them were hooked in the mouth, not foul hooked.

I felt bad that the middle school grandson wasn’t catching on their cut shrimp bait, so I offered my super secret bait. I only had a little left and they promised to keep it super secret. Instantly the grandson was hooking up, and so was the grandpa. Grandpa, who was a seasoned oama guy who had tried all the premium baits, was amazed at how well it worked and started making plans to acquire some himself. I told him that if I ever hear of people using that bait at that spot I know he leaked it! He was so grateful he was telling me all his secret fishing spots. The oama still bit for my semi-secret bait, and since I needed to keep them all alive, I looked in my bait bucket. Was getting a little full, which is very unusual for me since I use the big #14 hook and not as secret bait. And I’m kind of a junk oama fisher.

I said goodbye to the happy oama fishers and filled my 5 gallon bucket with 3/4 full ocean water. On the drive home I could hear them banging the sides of the bucket and when I got home 12 were dead. The one pump wasn’t enough oxygen for all the oama. That only happens when there are more than 40 in the bucket. I placed the rest in two separate tubs and they all survived. Rough count, including the 12 that died was about 45 – 48. 50 is the daily limit for oama and I was under that.

Darren used some of the livies on his boat 4 days later, and Kelly used a few on his SUP 5 days later. Both did way better with livies than dead oama. Here’s how hot the live oama action was on Darren’s boat. Here’s how Kelly did with his SUP trolled livies.

It sounds like the oama have finally moved into the normal spots on Oahu and are biting really well. Get ’em before the big moon slows down the bite.

Oama and halalu status – late Sept 2017

September 28, 2017 By Scott 9 Comments

Oama season traditionally runs from July through September but the last 3 years have deviated a lot from tradition. This year the oama were in by June and have kept coming in. I’ve been hearing that the oama schools are still around but the oama have learned to be avoid most baits.

Halalu traditionally come in around August but came in early also, in larger numbers than recent years. Their inshore presence has been drawing mid-ranging fish like kahala, kawakawa and kamalu (rainbow runner). Some halalu spots are thinning out but there’s still some around if you know where to look, and don’t mind fishing shoulder to shoulder. My halalu ban, due to too many failed attempts, continues, so this will be about the oama.

Kelly and Frank have been doing well trolling dead oama on their SUPs and were running low on bait. I scouted a spot for them that supposedly had oama with lock jaw. As I entered the water, schools of light green colored fish moved away from the shallows but when I threw palu, most were 3 to 5 inch papio. For the first 20 mins, all I could keep near me were papio. I have never seen so many small papio this late in the season, and at least 3 species (omilu, white and some striped type) were running in mixed packs. Finally, I noticed the scattered oama on the outskirts of the papio. They wanted to eat but the papio were much quicker to the baits. I had to resort to chumming the papio off to the side and quickly dropping a bait down to the oama. Even with that, most of the baits were pulled off or eaten by papio.

The few oama I was able to reach were thick and strong for their length. Perfect baits to troll on our water craft. The bigger oama teenagers were actually hunting with the papio packs like larger goat fish do.

Kelly, my oama sensei, suggested we tag team to separate the pesky papio away from the target oama. A couple of days later, on a lower tide, I scouted the school early and found more oama and less papio than the previous outing. The oama took a while to bite but when the papio frenzied on the palu, the oama roamed around looking for scraps to reach the bottom.

Kelly joined me and was able to get the oama to feed more consistently while distracting the papio. What a true Oama whisperer!

Check out this oama-eye view of how oama take the bait. A papio investigated the bait initially but gave up pursuing it. Kelly lifted his bait and an oama followed it up, then as he dropped and lifted again he hooked a different oama.

We were able to catch enough thick oama to use live on our next outing so we dumped our baits to help the over-stressed ecosystem.

I’m surprised that all those papio can find enough to food to survive, and would guess that most will be eaten by something larger than they are. Those that survive and move on to the reef will be making an impact on the food supply there. I wonder if we are experiencing a boom in certain species and a subsequent bust in others, due to “climate change”?

The “season” has started!!!

June 25, 2017 By Scott 2 Comments

In “normal” years, the oama begin to trickle in around June and the papio start hitting them with abandon a month later. 2015 and 2016 were warm El Nino years and the oama stayed around into the early winter of those years, and the “real” oama season started in late summer. Seems like 2017 is reverting back to a cooler, normal, earlier season.

The reef fish recruits that normally come in before the oama have been in, and oama reinforcements have been showing up on the south side of Oahu. In normal years with normal current, oama start on the south shore and move north west, lastly filling in on the east side.

Good numbers of pesky small papio are mixed in with the oama, and bigger papio are hitting those schools. Halaluu have been in for weeks. Hopefully the season continues to build and isn’t halted by tropical storms like the last two years.

I’m already experiencing slower fishing on lures as the preds are keyed on specific bait fish (iao, oama, halalu, sardines). Time for me to resume raising oama at home, I guess.

The New Moon Curse?

June 6, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

Kelly and I SUP’d / kayaked fished the day before the New Moon. My fish finder marked fish and we caught a few legal omilu and whites on frozen oama, with Kelly getting cut off on coral by a larger fish. Nothing hit my micro jig. All the papio were released intentionally or unintentionally, in preparation of the start of Papio Tagging this summer. The bite was the best around the top of the tide so we went back the following day to dial things in.

The wind and swell were down a bit from the day before, and nothing seemed to be stirring in the depths. The same places that showed fish on the fish finder the day before were barren. Even the turtles were absent. I scouted the deep areas and the reef edges, and Kelly crossed over the flats into deep water and back. Halfway through our outing Kelly got a strong hit that took a third of his line. He had paddled over the reef edge, into the deep side, and was perfectly positioned to fight the fish in obstacle-free water. But it came unbuttoned.

That fish gave us hope but all we got was a series of short bites on our frozen oama and I landed a 9″ white. Kelly paddled back to the launch point and I dawdled behind, hoping an evening bite would magically materialize. In the 20ft to 15 ft sandy/muddy gap in the reef, the fish finder began to show some mid-sized fish. Another 9″ white was hooked and released, and the next oama got hit as I let out line. The frenzy was on but Kelly was already out of the water.

He texted “goodbye” and I was free to try out the small but heavy jigs. I paddled out to deeper, clearer water to give the jigs their best chance. The fish finder transducer was suction cupped to the side of the kayak at an angle so the depths read deeper than they actually were. I’m guessing it was 30 – 40 ft even though the fish finder said 56ft. The fish were marking from the bottom to halfway up and really thick.

Exploded view of Live Deception jig and assist hooks before being slid onto Power Clip

I cast a 1oz Live Deception jig that had a rear treble hook, with added assist hooks connected via a Tactical Angler Power Clip. I had snagged my trolling line and as the lure sank it hooked up! Another 9″ white came up but the Live Deception lure was gone! Meanwhile the oama didn’t get touched so I reeled that in and stowed the rod.

Exploded view of micro jig and assist hooks before being slid onto Power Clip

I kept the assist hooks and slid on a 30 gm micro jig. It got hit halfway down the sink also! And same thing, 9″ white caught on assist hook but the micro jig was gone. What the heck? This happened when I had caught a kahala deep jigging an 80 gm Shimano Flat Fall. I had thought a fish hit the Flat Fall hook and another hit the independent assist hook, and the Flat Fall-hooked fish pried itself off the clip. Now I began to realize that the kahala and small whites were flipping the heavy jigs off the clip with their head shakes.

this white threw off the Live Deception jig

this white threw off the 1st micro jig

this guy threw off the 2nd and last micro jig

this one threw off the 2nd and last micro jig

I had one 30 gm micro jig left and slid it down the power clip next to the assist hooks. Cast out, let it sink, hookup, repeat. Couldn’t be any easier. Reel in a 9″ white and no jig left on the clip. I guess the clip wasn’t intended to have heavy lures and separate assist hooks. 3 casts, 3 whites, 3 jigs lost. I was out of jigs so I got a chance to see how surface lures would work on these sub-surface whites.

The normally effective Waxwing Baby couldn’t raise them and neither could the Yozuri Hydro Popper, which slayed the 1lb – 3lb whites off the boat the previous week. I had been disappointed that the Waxwing and micro jigs did not work at all when the Poppers raised all those fish from the depths and was beginning to think poppers were all we needed. But on this weird evening following very little activity during the day, when the small whites were swarming halfway down the water column, the only thing they wanted were sinking jigs. I guess every lure has its day.

Friends who fished further out on their boat, and others who fly fished the flats said this day was unusually slow, yet the next day had more action. I had heard that the New Moon, like the Full Moon, was a slow day to fish. One theory, my wise fishing kupuna told me, is that fish travel on those two moon phases so they’re less interested in eating. It’s like the predators and prey have a truce so they can complete their migration. How productive has the New Moon been for you?

Early oama, late papio?

July 7, 2014 By Scott Leave a Comment

oamas in captivity

Oama season traditionally peaks in August so the fact that they’ve been seen at the usual spots appears to indicate an early start. From my informal poll of the shore fishermen I met recently, it’s been a solid start of the season but the papio haven’t followed them in yet. The results of 3 surfboard trolling outings support that: a few body-less oama returned, a clean cut leader and a sub-legal omilu.

We can only hope the papio realize the oama are already in. In the meantime I have to perform daily water changes to keep my oama alive and healthy. And refrain from naming them.

How good is your “oama eye”?

June 24, 2014 By Scott 7 Comments

It’s often pretty difficult to locate the traveling school of oama. With glare, wind chop and a lot of ground to search, it takes a trained eye to spot the oama schools.

Can you see the small school in this picture?

Can you see the oama?

Polarized sunglasses cut a lot of the glare. This is a simulation of how it would look with polarized sunglasses. I zoomed in on the school to highlight it. They’re traveling toward the upper left hand corner of the photo.

Ah, there’s the oama!

The first third of the battle is finding the oama. Then you have to catch them, and then keep them alive long enough to use them properly as bait. Here’s some tips on how to keep them alive and healthy.

Gearing up for the summer’s halalu and oama runs

June 18, 2014 By Scott 25 Comments

oama gear

Fishermen are discreetly checking their favorite spots to see if the halalu and oama have made their early arrival. When these early summer fish are found, don’t expect to hear about it unless you have a really connected friend.

In the meantime, you can gear up with proper footwear, straight poles, dunking gear, tackle and live bait buckets.

I’ve never fished for halalu but have targeted the oama over the years. Oama show up in same sandy areas year after year. Early in the season the school is small and flighty so the early season fisherman will try to target them without tipping off his oama fishing competition.

It’s importantly to wear a hat and polarized sunglasses to scan the sandy bottom, and to tread very lightly. Ask the tackle shops to recommend the proper hook, line and split shot, as well as pointing you to the fiberglass straight poles. If you can find the wrap around the waist net, that would make it very easy to drop your oama into that net to unhook it. Otherwise a small red landing net would suffice.

The yellow Frabill Flow Troll live bait bucket with spring loaded door will make it much easier to add an oama. I have the non-spring loaded types also and I’ve lost a lot of oama opening or shutting the door’s latch. I’ve seen the Frabill Flow Troll at Roy’s Fishing Supply, McCully Bike and even Target at times. Keep your precious oama alive on the way home with a Promar live bait aerator or similar bait pump. McCully Bike sells the Promar pump for about $10.

Hooking the nibbling oama is an art. I sucked at it because I was trying to feel the bite and then set the hook, but the oama really are feeling the bait with their whiskers before deciding to nibble on it. The recommended method is to use a short pole and short length of 1 – 2lb test line. Attach a hook to the end of the line, with a split shot about 4 inches up. Lower your bait to the bottom. When you feel your split shot hit bottom, raise it up so your bait is slightly off the bottom. If you see oama approach your bait, wait a few seconds and lift your rod tip in a motion up and away from your body, almost as if you were skimming the water with your rod tip. If you don’t hook the oama while it’s eating your bait, you may at least hook it while its whiskers are over the bait. Watch an experienced fisherperson hook oama and emulate. Hook sets are free so swing away.

Here’s some info on keeping your oama alive as long as possible.