omilu Archives - Hawaii Nearshore Fishing

Holoholo: Omilu on raw chicken breast!

February 9, 2019 By Scott 6 Comments

6th grade Hunter shares another unusual catch, this time it’s the bait he used that was eye opening.

Hunter:

I was fishing down Kaneohe on Super Bowl Sunday hoping to get some fish for Super Bowl. Right off the bat, I hooked up to a solid size omaka but it came off at the net. I decided to try my luck at the uluas. Eventually I ran out of sanma so Uncle Norman gave me chicken breast. The idea sounded crazy, but he told me he caught a pao pao on Canadian bacon, so I put on the chicken breast.

At first only small papio were biting and the uluas kept coming up but turning at the last second. Then Uncle Mike came and started chumming. Then the big school of omilus came in so I dropped my bait down. After about 2 minutes I looked up to check my dunk and suddenly my line felt tight and my pole started flexing.

Here’s the thing about Kaneohe. To catch anything under the pier you must use lock drag or the fish will wrap you around the pillars, so fighting the omilu was basically just tug o war. After a little bit of back and forth fighting, I brought the 15 inch omilu to the surface and Uncle Norman netted it with Uncle Mike’s net.

**The secret chicken bait is in the upper right hand corner**

Catch report: 2 different solar/lunar conditions, 3 separate locations

January 14, 2019 By Scott 4 Comments

The last few outings in the deep have been slow so we decided to mix it up. tides4fishing.com said the major bite period was during the afternoon on a day forecast to have winds under 10 mph so Frank and I gave the afternoon a try. Turns out was very slow, with only one shark interested in our bait, and the east winds cranked up over 15 mph as we struggled to get in. Then we had to rush to rack our yaks before dark. Never again.

3 days later, the winds were supposed to be light again so Frank, Kelly and I fished separately on the morning falling tide. tides4fishing.com said there wouldn’t be a bite in the morning, yet we all caught our target fish. So much for the solar / lunar activity predictions.

Kelly: I fished the early morning top of falling tide, past the surf break on my SUP and landed 2 omilu. Released a nunu (trumpetfish). Lost another estimated 2-3lb papio. Had many small nibbles. Was action.

Frank: Fished for a few hours in the morning. 2 baits were stolen, got rocked once. Caught one omilu along the reef edge and caught two on the outer reef. Action picked up on middle of falling tide.

Scott: Tried to catch opelu over a medium sized bait school. Only managed a baby moana. Tried hard for uku at the depth I’ve found them before and finally got one to end my 3 trip uku bolo. Wind blew me off the spot as I was securing the fish and I couldn’t safely return to fish it. Landed 3 out of 4 aha on the back single hook on the way in. Action was on middle of falling tide.

So on this comparison of two separate days, morning with a moving tide trumped the afternoon “major” bite period. Having hours of daylight to clean up was a nice bonus. The omilu seem to be just outside the surf break since there isn’t any bait to lead them inshore.

Hunting the white papio school via kayak and SUP

June 24, 2018 By Scott 2 Comments

After Capt Erik took me around the bay and showed me the possible places the schooling whites could be holding, Frank and I tried to find them via our paddle-powered watercraft. Unlike the recent boat trips, we launched in the afternoon on a big incoming tide to allow for enough time to get into position before the witching hour started. The wind decreased from 10 mph down to almost no wind so we were able to cover more ground than usual.

My Garmin 44 CV fish finder/chart plotter marked bigger blobs halfway down the water column in the wide sandy channels, and there were bait balls around but the fish didn’t want to eat for the first 2.5 hrs. Finally, at 5pm, Frank got got a hit on his frozen oama trolled near the papa’s edge and brought up a legal omilu (he didn’t measure his fish). He followed that up with a bigger and stronger omilu and it looked like the early eaters were beginning to bite.

I surveyed our favorite papa and marked a lot of bait and what looked like suspended larger fish. Frank got another hit on his trolled oama but the aha managed to skitter off. At about 6pm I had something ambush the Waxwing Jr I was retrieving on the reef edge but miss the double hook. Witching hour was beginning to start.

I tried to emulate Capt Erik’s popping style with a JDM popper that throws a lot of water with just a small tug, but was introducing slack on the spool and backlashing my Shimano Curado 300 EJ. To tighten the line I cast the floating popper and paddled 40 yds away, then carefully pinched the line and popped it back. I could get a good deep gurgle with a side sweep of the rod and didn’t have to worry about backlashing my cast. On my 3rd attempt at this I got boiled on and hooked a fish! It was a legitimate 14 inch white papio that I decided to take home so my parents could compare it the menpachi papio they just had. I wasn’t able to get a good shot on the water shot so this will have to do.

Frank’s fish with his foot in the background. Looks like he needs a larger fish bag so he doesn’t have to bend the fish to get them in!

Just as I was bagging the white, Frank radio’d that he caught a white on his JDM sub-surface lure! That was his first papio whipping with his Shimano Stradic 4000 XHFK and he was stoked! It was 6:30 at this point and the sun was getting closer to hiding behind the mountains. We kept at it, and I got another boil on the popper that skittered off the hook like an aha. I turned my kayak to drift in and was in 6ft of water when I had my last boil. Looked like a small white that couldn’t quite get the hooks in its mouth. The witching hour was on but we needed to be on land cleaning and racking our watercraft so we bid the biting fish adieu.

Sundown was about 7:15pm on this day and the whites didn’t really start getting active until after 6:30. So the witching hour probably starts 45 mins before sundown and continues until dark.

After eating the white papio, my dad said he prefers that to the menpachi papio, “although some people may like the darker meat menpachi papio”. I hadn’t kept a papio in months so maybe he was just appreciating both?

The price to pay for fishing the Windward side

June 4, 2018 By Scott 14 Comments

Feeling good about ending my bolo, I ventured to the Windward side for some shallow water kaku action. The tide hadn’t filled in at my dependable spot so I decided to wade around an area we’ve kayak fished in the past. There were a lot of 7 inch mullet near shore, much more than I see on the South Shore, so I was hopeful that an ambushing kaku would be nearby.

In 2.5 feet of water I spotted the purple-blue float of a Portuguese Man of War. The trade winds blow these stinging menaces into the Windward beach shallows, which is why there are so many sand turtles on the Windward side. The sand turtles love to eat the Man of War tentacles!

I walked about 12 ft downwind of the Man of War float and crossed its path. ZAPPP!! It felt like my lower legs received an electrical shock. I rubbed the areas in disbelief but couldn’t see much of a wound. Wasn’t sure if the pain would get worse so I headed into shore to text the guys. Thad, our resident wade fisher, turns out to be our resident jellyfish stingee also. He said the pain subsides very quickly so I drove to another spot but the kaku weren’t home.

By then, the tide had filled in a little at my dependable spot so I waded out into less than knee deep water. My first cast resulted in a huge eruption of water. Now that’s the kind of greeting I like! I turned on the GoPro and recorded 3 more boils in the next 2 mins and 45 seconds. Sadly none stuck. I did see another Man Of War float and kept one eye peeled for more.

On my slow walk of shame in I changed to a longer, heavier JDM sub-surface lure with 3 treble hooks, hoping to hook the sneaky kaku that hit the middle of the lure. I hooked something that had a lot of resistance but couldn’t pull that hard. It turned out to be a 6 inch omilu that attacked the 4.5 inch lure and was hooked in the mouth and the side. The side wound was just below the skin and he swam off fine. Omilu always seem to get foul hooked on the sharp trebles which is partly why I take those off if I’m not targeting kaku.

The next day my Man Of War sting got itchy and the following day was even worse. Cortizone 10 Plus kept the itch bearable.

At Day 4 it wasn’t itchy anymore but looked really bad! A friend said he welts up like that too and wears support stockings to prevent the sting from reaching his flesh! That might look a little funny but less odd than walking around for a month with this scar.

I’ve ordered “calf compression sleeves” from Amazon Prime for less than $10 that don’t look like old lady stockings and am hoping they will prevent further leg stings. Will let you know how they perform.

Windward side has more bait and predators but more chance of getting stung too. Is that price worth paying for a better shot at fish?

Find the bait, then find the elusive white papio school?

July 28, 2017 By Scott 3 Comments

Frank and I have been chasing reports of schools of white papio marauding bait in the deep channels but we’ve always been a paddle or two behind. Bolo-ing on the last mid-morning search, we decided to try the evening bite. Conditions were challenging, with gusts over 20 mph and rain threatening.

Not much was showing on my portable fish finder’s screen so we pushed through the wind to get to the spot we were told held the whites. Fish appeared to be a few feet above the bottom on the protected side of the papa but nothing wanted to take our live oama offering. As we waited for the 5pm witching hour to wake the fish, the steady wind blew me closer to shore. There were pockets of fish hovering near the bottom that I assumed were white papio waiting for the evening frenzy.

Suddenly fish began to show up on the “sidefinder” view of the fish finder, indicating fish near the surface directly in front of my kayak. My Huminbird Fishin Buddy’s display is almost toy-like but I’ve come to learn that when fish are spotted near the surface like that, they are bait fish spread out on the surface over a sandy bottom. I paddled my kayak’s bow like a hammerhead shark surveying side to side until I could also mark fish below me. Suspended fish are either bait schools thick in the water colum or white papio stacked up under the bait fish.

When I took this photo, the surface bait fish weren’t showing up in the sidefinder view on the left of the screen, but the composite view of what I had passed over indicated bait fish thick under me. Despite all this bait, nothing took the live oama I was deep trolling behind me.

Remembering I had brought a jigging rod in hopes that we’d be sitting over a school of whites, I clipped on a 3/4 oz, 2 inch compact tungsten jig and dropped it down but wasn’t surprised when nothing took it. Out of boredom, I cast it out and jigged it back as I watched the fish finder’s screen. Something was pulling back! It felt like a fish but the Shimano Type J rod and Tranx 400 easily controlled it.

When I brought it in view I thought it was a 4 foot gray shark but it turned out to be a 12 inch white with 3 other whites following it. Guess I had been watching too much Shark Week.

Stoked that the compact little jig had worked on the school of whites, I tried to whistle Frank to get his attention but the wind blew the sound inland, not out to him.

Paddling into the headwind as efficiently as possible, the trolling rig went off! I was stunned to land a 12.75 inch omilu on the oama a few feet from where the white had bit. I left the bait out of the water this time and finally made it out to Frank. By the time we made it back in, the whites and the bait fish were gone! Nothing showed on the fish finder and nothing hit our bait. Ugh… I really had hoped Frank and I would finally experience a white papio frenzy.

We headed back to our launch spot and stopped at the spot Frank lost a screamer. The fish finder’s screen was blank so we spread out and slowly paddled in. I took a blind strike near the reef edge and had to put the rod in the holder 3 times and paddle back into the channel before landing a 14 inch white.

What was interesting about these 3 fish were their stomach contents. The 12 inch white was stuffed with small opae despite being around the bait school. The 12.75 inch omilu was full of inch and a half nehu, which looked very similar in length and profile to the tungsten jig. The 14 inch white had a small mantis shrimp and a flat, whitish piece of cartilage stretching its stomach. All were well fed and none appeared to have any oama in their bellies. No wonder our oama baits have been ignored.

Ever the team player, Frank was happy for the catches and new understanding gained but agreed we need to improve communication on the water. He suggested looking into 2-way radios like the offshore kayak guys use. Do you guys have any recommendations?

Are the Winter Doldrums over?

February 7, 2017 By Scott 7 Comments

The inshore bite has been so slow for me that besides outings where I bolo-headed throwing lures, I even got bolo-headed the last time I trolled oama.

I had recently been hearing reports of more fish activity and was hoping that the inshore Spring season had started. Today was just 3 days before the full moon, normally an indicator of poor fishing, but I checked a new fishing calendar and it said the outlook was pretty good. Armed with a brand new JDM lipped sub-surface lure, I waded out on the rising tide hoping to reach the break.

I’m still trying to figure out what speed and tempo to fish this lure and was doing some test casts about 50 ft from the break. Something hit pretty hard. There was a lot of resistance and the fish took drag so I was stunned and stoked. Turns out the sticky sharp hooks snagged a 13.5 inch omilu on its side with none of the hooks in the fish’s mouth. The fish had superficial scratches so I tagged it and let it go.

Near the same spot I hooked something that felt like I was dragging a 5 gallon bucket. It another foul hooked omilu, maybe about 8 inches, and when the back hook released I could easy pull it in and set it free. It’s wounds weren’t too bad either but I was beginning to wonder how these fish were getting caught up in the lure’s hooks.

I moved inside to try a pretty reliable spot and sure enough I hooked another omilu that was initially hooked on both hooks. This one just made 10 inches, so I tagged it. It was pretty winded so I had to revive it in the moving water for a while before it kicked free.

I was really happy with the way the new JDM lure attracted fish in the beginning of February, but concerned that the free swinging hook kept cutting up the fish. I had pinched down the barbs so the hooks popped out easily but found their mark again and again. Maybe I need to change to a hook with its point less exposed.

Big Island boat jigging trip of a lifetime

June 16, 2016 By Scott 12 Comments

Warning: This post will cover action beyond the “nearshore” boundaries and may take a while to read.

I was invited by Neil, the President of Pacific Islands Fisheries Group (PIFG), to boat fish the Big Island the day before the Tokunaga Challenge weigh-in. We would be working the weigh-in, collecting nearshore tagging data and selling Lawai’a magazine subscriptions. I almost declined the invitation because I had gum surgery 2 days before the planned fishing trip and hadn’t eaten solid food since. I’m glad Neil encouraged me to go. I decided to bring a 3-piece Cabelas travel casting rod instead of my 1-piece rods, to avoid paying for oversized luggage. The rod tip was pretty stiff to jig with but I had no other option. I paired the rod with a medium action Curado 300EJ, filled with 15lb fluoro and backed by 50lb braid. There was about 175yds of line in total, and I attached a 25lb fluoro leader. I was hoping for some goats, papio and maybe even an uku on my relatively light gear.

We had Captain Wes at the helm, first mate Braiden, Neil and myself aboard the 19.4ft Alii Kai named the Akemi K. We started by trolling frozen oama but they were quickly mauled by hage so we replaced them with Crystal Minnows. A just-legal yellow spot papio was landed during a long dry spell so we stowed the trolling gear and zipped out to the first bottom fishing spot.

We wanted to field test a few different jigs so I handed Neil a 42gm (1.5oz) Shimano Coltsniper, one I hadn’t fished before. He dropped it down with his medium spinning rig, got a bump, had a fish pull line and come unbuttoned. That was promising. I free spooled a 2oz Promar Live Deception jig, a size I had never fished, and dropped it to the bottom. Jigged it up and down as best I could with the stiff rod tip, and began to do the slow lift and crank. About 15 feet off the bottom the line took off.

It felt like a good-size papio, making smooth runs, shaking its head and resisting being pulled up. The Cabela’s travel rod had a good parabolic arc, bending from the middle of the rod, and performed much better than expected. After about 5 mins we could see what looked like a big omilu making deep circles under the boat. As it got closer we couldn’t believe our eyes – Kagami Ulua (African Pompano), a relatively rare and delicious catch. Braiden gaffed the fish and it was official. Kagami on the first drop of the Live Deception! My first ulua ever. Neil and Wes looked at each other in disbelief, then Neil quickly dropped his Coltsniper back down.

Neil got picked up and the fish fought stubbornly but didn’t shake its head. Uh oh, hage action! That was his introduction to micro jigging.

I dropped down again, jig/pumped and about 20 ft from the bottom, felt a hit. A few nice runs, abrupt headshakes, and a 3lb omilu was boated. I expected a larger fish from the way it ripped line and shook its head. Man those omilu are tough. I checked the line and the 25lb leader had a couple small nicks so I changed it out and made sure the uni-to-uni knot connecting fluoro main to fluoro leader was cinched down. I didn’t want to lose another big fish to a badly tied knot like I did a few weeks ago.

Captain Wes re-positioned the boat and Neil hooked into something that pulled stubbornly but not like a papio. After a fun fight, Neil hoisted the largest cornetfish I had ever seen. Cornetfish are often confused with the trumpetfish, but the cornetfish can get much larger. It was shaken off the jig and set free.

Neil followed the trumpetfish up with a moana and was definitely catching on quickly to this “shallow water” jigging technique.

We moved to a new spot; I dropped the Live Deception down and before it hit the bottom the jig felt like it got picked up in a strong current. I engaged the reel and line peeled off the drag. The line angle looked straight up and down but the water wasn’t as deep as the amount of line out. 75 yds of 15lb fluoro top shot was out and the fish wasn’t slowing. Captain Wes quietly said “this is a big fish”, telling the others to clear their lines. I tightened the drag carefully and the fish still kept going. Finally I tightened it to the point the line started pinging and there was maybe 25 yds left on the spool. The guys were coaching me but we all figured the fight would end in a few seconds. Miraculously the fish slowed and I started making very small pumps, gaining one or two turns of the handle at a time. The fish rested and I got back 1/4 of the braid backing. It surged again, but didn’t take out too much line. I then started doing the drop a few inches and crank quickly method and the Capt remarked that he never saw anyone boost an ulua with such small gear. I took that to mean “be very careful” so I slowed the pumping action and tried to be as smooth as possible so the fish wouldn’t realize it was being yanked out of his home.

The travel rod’s foregrip was half the length of my other rods so my left hand spilled over the ends and was beginning to cramp. My left bicep was engaged the whole time and felt like I was doing a really long isometric curl. But I could hear the voices of ulua vets in my head saying “kill its spirit, don’t give him hope”. So I kept the tension in the rod, hoped my back would hold out, and short pumped when I could. Halfway up, the guys decided to resume jigging cuz they figured it would either be awhile before the fish was landed, or the line would pop soon. The travel rod seemed up to the task but I was worried about my uni-to-uni knot joining the braid to the 15 fluoro main line that I tied months ago. I really hoped I tied that knot well! The fact that I hadn’t eaten real food in almost 3 days also wore on my mind.

At around the 8 minute mark the uni-to-uni splice was on the reel and I had about 75 yds of 15lb fluoro left. The big fish saw the boat and tried to make it down to its home but only took about 30 yds of line. That was the last big run it made. The rest of the way it planed its body and resisted getting pulled into view. We still didn’t know what was on but thought it was some kind of big jack. I had only caught one kahala before, a little more than 10lbs, and just caught my first actual ulua, but strongly felt that this fish was an ulua not a kahala. The one kahala I fought didn’t seem to have the leverage of a wide body that this fish did.

When it was finally at deep color, it looked brown and long like a kahala. Ugh… I was disappointed but still wanted to see how large it was. Then as I pulled it closer, the body shortened and color darkened. Black ulua? It looked huge, even larger than I had imagined. I had always said that I’d photograph and release a large ulua but the Capt had plans for smoked ulua to share with the ohana, so he told Braiden to gaff ’em. Capt Wes had given us smoked ulua and was super ono so I knew the fish would feed a lot of people. The Live Deception’s treble hook was hooked on the outside of the fish’s head and so was the assist hook. This caused the lure to bend but also prevented the fish from chewing through the 25lb leader I had just tied on. Lucky-Lucky. The leader and main line didn’t have any nicks at all. I removed the 2 oz Live Deception to ensure I wouldn’t lose it to a fish or a snag. It was going into “the museum”. I didn’t have any other 2oz lures so I put on a 1 oz Live Deception.

Upon closer examination, Capt Wes said that the fish was a dark, white ulua or GT. Oxymoron, I know, but I guess they can get dark if they live in the black lava tube caves. I would not have believed that my tackle and lack of big fish catching success would’ve allowed me to land that. All credit goes to the Capt who put us on the fish and maneuvered the boat. Near the end of the fight he backed down to help me gain line, deftly keeping the line away from the props.

I told the guys to use my bait casting setup cuz I was done for a while! My left arm felt useless. Neil declined and promptly brought up a monsta hage on his spinning setup. He said he was doing his best to keep the rubbish fish away from the rest of us. What a nice guy! Actually, what he didn’t know was that I rubbed hage-attractant on the Coltsniper before I gave it to him and it appeared to be working. He brought up a good sized moana next that jumped off the hook. I actually saw it break the surface! He still refused to use my bait casting rig so I dropped the 1 oz jig down, did one lift and a fish was on! I had never fished with Neil before and he was beginning to think I could catch fish at will. If you have read my blog you know that was far from the truth. In fact, a fishing buddy Kelly has never seen me land a decent fish. Here’s a classic outing.

zoom in to see the treble near its tail

So I asked Neil to fight the fish on my line and he said “no, no need” (translation: I don’t need your pity, I can catch my own fish). I told him I’m just gonna put the rod in the rod holder and let the fish come undone so he took the rod and skillfully battled the fish. Turns out the omilu was foul-hooked. Neil said “you knew was foul-hooked you buggah, that’s why you nevah like fight ’em!”. He was beginning to think I could catch fish at will and tell how they were hooked!

The Capt had seen enough and took his turn with my bait caster. He had used large conventional trolling reels with right hand cranks, and smaller spinning reels with left hand cranks, and had to adjust to cranking such a small, light reel with his right hand. On the first drop he got used to the action of the rod, the quick free spool release and the level winding of the Curado. On the second drop he hit the bottom, jigged once and was on! The pole bent in its parabolic arc and line peeled off the spool. Another big fish, surely an ulua. Capt Wes took his time and played the fish like he catches ulua every day, which he probably could do if he wanted to. After a patient battle he landed a beautiful omilu ulua, about 15lb. Capt Wes was very impressed with the gear and the way the 15lb flouro held up to such a strong, heavy fish with sharp scutes.

Neil and Braiden switched to damashi to target the tasty kau kau fish. I wanted to see what else the Live Deception lure could catch and dropped down again. Neil started catching legal yellow spot papio, which are tastier than omilus and whites. Braiden started off eradicating a few taape. I felt what I thought was the jig getting fouled on itself and brought up a deep water lizardfish. Uh oh, maybe Neil rubbed some lizardfish-attractant on the jig when I wasn’t looking. The boys started bringing up nabeta (razor wrasse), which were the best eating fish caught on the trip. I hadn’t eaten nabeta before but grew up hearing how it just melts in your mouth when you fry ’em scales and all. Then I actually foul hooked a nabeta on the Live Deception! Man that lure really does deceive everything!

The jigging action slowed down for me, probably because we were in shallower water where there were less predators. A moana came up on their damashi and I dropped it down as live bait. I was hoping for big papio and maybe even the uku that has eluded me on Oahu. Nothing hit that lively moana on the next few drifts and the boys continued to catch yellow spot papio, nabeta and taape.

Too lazy to rig up with damashi, I dropped the 1 oz Live Deception down again and felt it get picked up right off the bottom. Felt like a couple lb omilu so I asked if Braiden wanted to play with the bait caster. He took the small reel in his large hands and worked the fish up to the boat. UKU!!!! My first uku I ever hooked, and on a jig at that. And I handed it off!!! Aww shucks.

With that it was time to pack it up and head for the barn. What a boat trip of a lifetime. My equipment held up, the 1 oz and 2 oz Live Deceptions were on fire, and I was bathed in Big Island hospitality by Capt Wes, Braiden and Neil. I brought back the Kagami ulua, uku and a few nabeta to Oahu for my family and friends to try. Will write more later… this has gotten too long as it is!

Almost forgot. This is how small the reel was. Too bad I didn’t take a picture of it next to the 30lb ulua. It wasn’t even fully loaded with line. Lucky-luck indeed.

Note: I purchase my Live Deception jigs at POP and Charley’s. POP has the most variety, both in sizes and in colors. Charley’s has the best prices in general, and besides the Live Deceptions, they’ve brought in a new assortment of very small micro jigs from Japan. Charley’s is also running a jigging combo special: the Curado 300EJ I used on the Big Island paired with the Shimano Trevala S jig rod which would’ve had more sensitivity and backbone than the travel rod I used. That combo at the price Charley’s is running now, will be the perfect setup to start shallow water jigging.

Whipping dead oama got even better!

September 30, 2015 By Scott 7 Comments

Well, I guess I didn’t discover a whole new way to present an oama to hungry predators. It appears that others have been whipping oama, live and dead, for ages. What’s cool though is that I’m now able to cast a dead one much further than I would try with a live one, and can reach the spots the predators are prowling. On days like today where the wind is gusting higher than 20 mph, it’s a nice option to be able to heave an oama with the wind and not worry about getting blown around on a surfboard.

Dean and I waded out on the 0.3 ft low tide today but because it wasn’t lower we had to stop 50 yds from the surf line. Our initial casts of fresh dead and frozen oama were hit by small omilus but as I ventured further out and braved the occasional dunking, the hits got bigger. I dropped a fresh dead oama into a deep sand pocket and something hit heavily then chewed through the line. Arrgh, had to re-tie line as the waves smacked into me. The next cast yielded an omilu half and inch short of legal. Loading up with a frozen oama, I walked further out into the wind and wave maelstrom and lobbed into the tail end of the white wash. As I picked up the retrieve, something tugged then ran between the coral heads against the almost locked down drag. My 7′ 11″ medium action G Loomis swimbait rod arched nicely, keeping the tension on the fish with power to spare. The fish pulled drag and ran back and forth through the canyons of the boulders but never got more than 50 yds away. I was more afraid of getting cut off than by getting spooled. After a few mins I could see that beautiful iridescent flash of blue and brought the lit up omilu close. It was too pooped to resist me grabbing its tail as I walked it back to Dean.

I was stoked holding the biggest omilu I have caught in years, maybe ever, but Dean wasn’t too impressed since he catches larger ones dunking. I fumbled around trying to hold my rod under my arm, open my sling bag to take out my catch bag, and not lose the fish that I let swim around at my feet. I never really expect to catch fish when I’m not on my board, so I’m always ill prepared to bag them. The fins and scutes sliced my hands up pretty good but I guess I’m willing to put up with a little pain to land such a beautiful fish.

Dean and I walked back out to the deeper spot that now had bigger waves coming through. As I was hunting around for another frozen oama, Dean hooked a screamer on his 6.5 ft light action spinning rod. His rod keeled over and bounced up and down as he cupped the reel to slow the fish down. The fish was diagonally heading out to sea, unlike mine that did figure 8s around the boulders. The fish was still running but Dean could feel the line rubbing on the rocks and eventually the line stuck. Dean slacked off the line and tried to coax the fish into swimming back in but it didn’t fall for his tactics. 2/3 of his line was gone and when he tried to wade out to loosen the snag, it became apparent that the snag was in water too deep to reach. Sadly Dean popped the line and retied.

We started casting our frozen oama again but nothing bit. It was as if Dean’s fish was the bull of the reef and scared the lesser fish into fleeing. We headed in with our last baits on. Mine got hit by a large aha that I had snagged in the side and it grey hounded at a much higher speed than papio run but eventually tired out.

Based on the fight of his fish, Dean estimated it was about 5 lbs. When he saw mine on land, he estimated 3.8 lbs. Turns out it weighed between 3.8 – 4.2 lb on my inaccurate scales at home. The man knows his fish sizes. I’ll go with 4lbs!

I’m still perfecting my oama whipping rig but like what I’m seeing so far. I can cast a dead oama as far as any lure and the hookup ratio is really good. I was snagging the reef early on today but made some changes to minimize that. Hopefully I’ll have a few more test runs before the season ends.

love the small but powerful Calcutta 200TE

Note: Per request here’s the omilu next to a tape measure.

Trade winds returned bringing cooler water conditions

September 19, 2015 By Scott 4 Comments

What a difference a few days of trade winds make. The humidity dropped considerably and the inshore water cooled off. I took the longboard out in the morning and the water was almost cold. The first fresh dead oama didn’t get touched until I was almost to the surfline, and what touched it just pulled the bait off. My next live oama brought up an 8 inch C&R omilu so I alternated live and fresh dead oama for either more small omilus or yanked baits.

pliers in the background are 11 inches long

The trade winds had exceeded 20 mph and the SSW swell made for a bouncy, choppy outing. I put the largest, strongest oama out and it got hammered and killed but not taken off the tandem hooks. The poor oama looked pretty bad, with raked sides, tattered fins and a washed out coloring. Disappointed with the size of pesky predators, I left the battered bait on and paddled over a bouldery section so shallow my hand hit while paddling. When the ratchet went off I thought the bait was snagged on the rocks but the orange floater moved between the boulders. After a brief fight a 15 inch omilu was landed. This season’s omilus I’ve caught on my board have all been skinny and weak. The omilus of the same length last year were much thicker and fought much harder. Are the omilus not able to catch enough bait fish to fatten up this season? Maybe the unusually hot water makes them weary like we would be if we had to run a marathon in hot, humid weather.

When I cleaned the omilu, I found a parasitic worm that looked like a long udon noodle in its intestinal wall and absolutely nothing in the omilu’s stomach. Other than being thin, the fish looked healthy.

Papio action heating up

July 22, 2015 By Scott 3 Comments

Ewa Beach kayak papio

Been hearing that the papio bite is taking off on the West side and East side. Alan trolled curl tails and hoochies (small squid skirts) from his kayak off the shallow reef dropoff for his best day so far. The omilu he’s holding weighed in at 6.75lbs. Now that’s a big omilu!

My buddies and I are still trying to find the hungry omilus on the South shore. Maybe we gotta go deeper?

Thanks for the report Alan!

Does this end the bolo head?

July 29, 2014 By Scott 3 Comments

Well, I trolled some live oama on my surfboard again. The first couple got scratched up and the back hook bitten off. I was retrieving a wounded oama to replace it and a silvery white, short but thick fish shot up to take a bite. What do you think that was?

After paddling in a big circle I returned to that spot and finally stuck a fish. Turns out it was the fattest 10 inch (head to fork of tail) omilu papio I’ve ever seen. So that’s what the silvery white flash was. The predators are gorging on the baby fish bloom and getting downright chubby.

The omilu was released after the picture was taken. Does its capture end the bolo head or do I have to catch one I actually keep?

It’s bite pattern matches the parallel bite marks of the top oama in this picture.

10 inch fatty

South Shore Inshore Sweep on the orange weight!

May 7, 2014 By Scott 4 Comments

calm, overcast conditions

The flats were calm with light Kona winds and overcast skies. Tide was too low for the surfboard so I walked it.

Great day to try the weights painted orange to resemble the eggs of sand turtles.

After 45 mins of inactivity I gave the orange weight 5 more casts before changing back to the regular red color, and boom, an almost legal omilu hit.

Then two legal moanas bit near the reef dropoff.

The bite slowed so I tried the gold kastmaster and all I got was a very confident lizardfish.

Back to the orange weight and cut bait and an oio was on! Papio, oio and goatfish, is that close to an Oahu inshore sweep?

Not sure if the orange color helped but it didn’t seem to hurt.

Decided to catch, photograph and release (CPR) so the fish were alive and moving when I took their pics.

South Shore Omilus

February 19, 2014 By Scott 1 Comment

Fished the secret South Shore spot with my friend Frank and as expected, the spot produced and Frank hammered the omilus. They were a better grade today with a few stretching past the 10″ minimum size. Although they were the perfect pan fry size, all were released.

The fish bit on the first 1/3 of the tidal rise from 0.0 feet and shut off as the tide was halfway to its peak.