Our man in the water reporter, Jason, has been seeing big omilu breeze by as he stalked wary oio. He decided to switch gears and try for the papio while they’re so close to shore.
Jason: With oama season in full swing, I had started playing around with ideas for an oama fly, eventually settling on a modified Clay Yee’s Reef Special ( http://www.nervouswaterhawaii.com/default.asp?id=144), itself an oama imitation and variation of the classic Clouser minnow. My humble additions included adding some olive to the wing to mimic the darker topside of the oama’s body, replacing the shiny polar flash with a few subtle strands of white Krystal flash, and replacing the white variegated tinsel chennile body with plain white chennile. There are a lot of oama imitations on the lure market today, but I feel you can’t beat the natural movement of fur, hair and feathers. I couldn’t wait to test it!
Turns out that weekend I was also supposed to “play guide” for friends Mike and Dave, along with Mike’s cousin’s boyfriend Ian, who was visiting from California. Dave and I started out fly fishing together years ago, but he hadn’t fished in awhile. Ian is a big time trout guy getting his first taste of saltwater fly-fishing and Mike is brand new to the sport, and still learning to fly cast. Not the most ideal conditions to test my “new fly,” but I was determined to fit it in.
Since I was out there to show Mike and Ian how it’s done, I wanted to hook at least one bonefish “for demonstration purposes.” I started out with one of my favorite bonefish flies, a version of a classic Super Gotcha taught to me by my friend and mentor, Asa. About 30 minutes in, I manage to hook a small one to show Ian.
After taking pictures and showing Ian the fish, I released it and switched over to my new “oama fly.” The tide was going out, so I waded out closer to the break with the intent of targeting omilu in the turbulent white water. About 5 casts in I hooked a nice fish that I could instantly tell wasn’t an omilu. I spent the next 5 minutes chasing the fish around, freeing my line from the reef as I went. At one point, the line got stuck pretty good and I could no longer feel the fish tugging. I thought for sure it was gone, but when I waded over, I was surprised to see the fish furiously swimming in circles trying to free itself. Luckily it was too tired to break my tippet, and I quickly scooped it up with my landing net. It was a nice fish, made even nicer by the fact it was almost lost. Not my target species, but I wasn’t complaining! I got some photos, then revived and released the fish.
The next couple of hours were pretty quiet, so we decided to double back to the spot where I caught the smaller fish and wait for the tide to come in. Ian still hadn’t hooked anything so I wanted to try to get him on a fish. I set him up to bomb a fishy looking pocket near where my earlier fish was hooked, but minutes later it was Dave who ended up hooking one. This fish was around the same size as my first one, and could have very well been the same fish. The fight had taken him back to the west, so he and I decided to stay there and let Ian have the “hot spot” to himself.
At this point Dave and I had each got the monkey off our backs so we were just talking story and lazily blind casting. Mike was about 75 yards in front and just to the east of us practicing his casting in a sandy pocket. All of a sudden I was cut off mid-sentence by a strong take, followed by another episode of running back and forth across the reef. This one was a bit smaller than the second one and took the same “oama fly.”
After releasing the fish, we were all pretty hungry so we decided to call it a day. Unfortunately, Ian ended up getting skunked, but I told him not to feel too bad. Some guys fly out to Hawaii solely to chase bonefish and leave empty handed after a week of pounding the flat. He only got to fish for one day, and on the last day of his trip. He will be back, and will be better prepared next time. As for me, I think I’ve got a new fly to add to my rotation!
Jason