perfect oama catching conditions

Pete, part of the out-of-town duo I took fishing back in May, was back on Oahu with his family.  He managed to free up for a few hours so I took him on his inaugural oama fishing trip. The oama were there in the South Shore shallows but didn’t want to bite for the first hour.  I began to feel the pressure of being a lousy host, but we finally found a school of larger fish in deeper water that sniffed our baits.  They eventually turned on and were fighting each other and the small papios for the bare hook.

The tide was rising enough to make them feed but not so steep that they would move to shallower water.  Add calm winds that enabled us to peer down into the waist deep water, and the conditions were about as perfect as they could be.

oamas getting cozy

My oama will be used to restock the ones that died last night of ich.  I’m hoping I can keep this batch free of parasites for more than a week.  Click here to see how well the live oama worked.

deep fried goodness

Pete fried his oama up crispy along with one of the papio I caught on my last trolling trip.  It was a hit at an island potluck.  Sort of ironic that the papio ended up in a tray with the fish that were the cause of his undoing.