The oama made it into the regular spots by the first week of August and continue to trickle in, but the schools are medium sized at most. People have reported schools disappearing suddenly and illegal throw netting is being blamed. Papio are hitting the live and fresh dead oama pretty hard now. This may be the peak of the oama bite and papio predation. Updates will follow in the coming weeks.

Update:

10/20/22 – Oama still around and biting. This year has turned out to be a pretty good oama year after all. Stock up on oama while you can, next year is another La Nina.

9/15/2022 – The Oahu South Shore Oama spotters reported “thousands” of oama had moved into most of the expected spots last weekend, following the Full Moon. We held off posting this so that the oama poachers wouldn’t wipe ’em out immediately.

Here’s how the past years have gone, correlated with El Nino or La Nina effects. Looks like El Nino years are really good for fishing in HI and we may be due for another El Nino in a yr or two since they cycle around about every 7 yrs.

• 2014 – Normal start and stayed a little longer than expected. Arrived in late June and was mostly gone by October.  El Nino began late this year and water began to warm up. Let’s give the oama year a 7 out of 10.
• 2015 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed at some places past December. This year was a very strong El Nino. Really good oama year. 9 out of 10.
• 2016 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed through November. The strong El Nino ended this year and water began to cool. Good oama year. 8 out of 10.
• 2017 – Normal start and slightly late ending. Oama came in late June and began to leave in October, at most places. La Nina brought a lot of rain. Good oama year. 8 out of 10.
• 2018 – Season started in late July, ended in the fall and wasn’t particularly long or good. La Nina was thought to have ended before the Summer and could be blamed for the late start. Poor oama year. 4 out of 10.
• 2019 – Season started late and fizzled. Weak La Nina effect continues to affect the fishing. Poor oama year. 3 out of 10.
• 2020 – Blame the La Nina? Blame the Covid pandemic crowds playing in the water? It was the worst oama and papio season in recent memory. Sadly a 1 out of 10.
• 2021 – Oama came in around mid-August and kept trickling in through October. Water was cooler in the summer than it is during an El Nino year but didn’t cool off too much in the fall, keeping the oama around. Not a great year for oama and papio but better than 2020. Maybe a 5 out of 10 at best.