My friend Chester had the week off so I took a break from trolling oamas and dusted off the whipping rod. I hadn’t cast a rod in more than 3 months and it felt good to hear the bearings of the Calcutta TE 200 spin. I kept things simple and planned to fish cut bait.
I started by casting just the weight to wet the line and hooked a sand barracuda with no bait! When I put on some cut bait I started getting pestered by 4 inch omilus so I replaced the bait with a Makata strip lure. The presentation looked odd, with a big orange head and a long strip body, so I had low expectations. On the first cast I hooked something heavier and stronger, and was working it in when it unbuttoned. I’m guessing it was a bigger papio since I saw some cruising the shallows.
look how long the Makata lure is
A couple casts later I brought in a feisty 8 inch oama. I was super surprised that a oama that size would chase down a 3 inch lure and get hooked in its mouth. If the 6 inch plus oama caught the other week were “moose oama”, I don’t know if I should call this a mega oama or a mini weke. It’s the first oama or weke I’ve ever caught on a lure. I brought it home alive to either be a pet or live bait for a monster papio.
big hook for small mouth
Chester dragged cut bait for big oio on the outer reaches of the flat and I caught and released a few more 4 inch omilus inside. Then we saw some dark colored 5 to 8 lb oios cruising the sandy areas. We tried lobbing cut bait and lures in front of them but couldn’t make an enticing enough presentation.
All in all a great morning of large fish seen and unexpected fish hooked.