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.