Jason, our prolific fly fishing Holoholo writer and in-the-water conditions reporter provides this update on his latest fly creation.

Jason: It’s been about a month since my last post “Oama Fly works!” and I’ve continued to fish the fly nearly exclusively.  Just thought I’d share some additional data points I’ve gathered since then.  The fly in question is a slightly tweaked Clay Yee’s Reef Special, a fly I had decided to try out after experiencing a few skunky weeks with my usual go-to patterns.  

Two weeks after that initial trip, I returned to the same spot with David, and managed to hook a couple more nice fish.  The smaller of the two was hooked on my old standby Super Gotcha, but the larger was hooked on the “oama fly.”   David, who wasn’t fishing an “oama fly” did not catch anything.  

A week after that, I returned once again and ran into my other friend Richard.   There were at least a half dozen other fly fisherman out, and fishing was tough due to the light winds.  I don’t think I saw anyone hook one all day, and we were about to give up ourselves when I got lucky and hooked one on – you guessed it – the “oama fly!”  

Coincidence?  The rational side of me knows that with oio, the fly typically isn’t as important as finding a fish in the right mood.  The basic Reef Special (and Clouser before it) certainly isn’t anything new, indeed it is one of the oldest patterns around.   But like most fisherman, I find once I’ve got faith in something, this becomes an awful tough thing to shake.  It’s partly why we wear lucky hats, avoid bananas on the boat, but bring the ti leaves.  In the end, it comes down to what we feel comfortable with, and this fly has definitely earned its way onto my shortlist of favorites.