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Live vs. Recent Frozen vs. Year Old oama

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The fishing conditions weren’t ideal today.  20 mph plus winds prohibited board fishing and the 0.4 ft low tide was in the middle of the day.  I fished the spot that gave up the legal omilus two weeks ago, but the bite was very slow on the recently frozen oamas.  Humuhumus chewed off the back end of some of the baits and a large cornetfish was the only thing hooked in the first hour.

I could see a guy fishing the same stretch after I passed through, and it appeared like he was landing keepers with live oama on a floater.  With the sun high in the sky the papio were getting a good look at the baits and shunning mine. To make matters worse I ran out of the 2015 frozen oamas and had to resort to a batch of freezer burnt, previously thawed oama from last year.  They were gray and mushy and barely resembled the pastel colored juvenile weke.  I was expecting even the humuhumus would shun the stinky bait but something hit and pulled hard.  The drag was almost locked down to pull snags free, and the reel released line jerkily.  It still didn’t feel like much until I saw the hooked omilu followed by its mate.

That papio must’ve felt foolish falling for a stinky, mushy oama.  It taped out at 12 1/4 inch (fork length) and was the second and last fish I caught today.  I had really wanted to catch a papio to give to a friend tomorrow and was stoked.  On a day when the papio were picky, and last year’s oama was barely fit for fertilizer, the ocean yielded dinner.

Was this slow day yet another indication that the papio season is trying to draw to a close?

 

Papio still around in mid-November

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I wanted to determine the spots that still held inshore papio this late in the season so I checked another spot I hadn’t fished all year.  The spot was an area I had trolled oama in the past but was never really good near shore.

I wasn’t expecting much so I was really surprised when I hooked a 12″ (fork length) omilu on the second cast, just a few yards from shore.  The omilu looked like it had been eating well over the course of the summer.

 

 

After this surprise fish I didn’t hook anything else as I worked my way down the shoreline.  I worked my way back and caught a slightly longer omilu about 5 yds from where the first was caught.  This one was considerably fatter too so there must be a reliable food source nearby.

I decided to save my remaining frozen oama for a survey of another spot and called it a day.  It was great to know papio were still catchable so late in the season, so close to shore.

Papio season may have ended…

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The water cleared after last week’s murky conditions so I waded out to the same area that had been slow.  I was really hoping the papio bite would continue full bore, but alas, I started with mystery fish pulling my dead oamas off the hooks.  Then some oama came back with their back half sliced clean off.  Next, hooks were bitten off.  I’m guessing small reef fish and small papio were the bait pullers and kaku were slicing the baits and biting off the hooks.

After an hour of bait mangling and no fish to show for it, I cast from the reef edge of a deep sand channel leading to the open ocean.   The sun was getting lower and large and medium kaku were competing for my dead oama in the light blue water.  Miraculously I had some on without getting cut off, but they spit the hook.  Then I hooked a medium sized kaku at the tip of his upper jaw such that he couldn’t bite the line.  It was pretty tricky to grab the hook with long pliers and shake him off without getting nipped in the process.  Tired of the kaku frenzy I positioned myself to cast to the right side of the channel.

I put on a beautifully preserved, large oama that still looked alive.  It cast well because of its weight, and was hit solidly. The back half of the oama was raggedly torn off by something that didn’t have precision cutting teeth.  Left with first 3 inches of the oama, and the sun setting, I threw the severed bait out again wondering what would want a fish head.  Something slammed it, pulled against the stiff drag and jumped in the distance.  I figured it was a kaku angry it didn’t get away cleanly with the tailless oama.

But the fish continued to pull drag and after it turned and swam up the reef shelf into waist deep water, it jumped again. Awa awa! I had never hooked one in this location and had no idea they came in here.  It shot away after seeing me, but instead of going out into the deep channel it ran parallel to the beach and took at least 100 yds of line, taking me well into my braid backing.  I felt confident it would tire out eventually but then I felt the rubbing of the line against a reef papa and sure enough the line got stuck.  When I pulled, the line came back with no fish.  At least 20 yds were shredded and stretched.  Shucks, my dad would’ve really enjoyed the awa awa fish cake.

I had gone through 12 fresh dead oama and only landed a kaku.  Sheesh. I put on a frozen oama and it got pulled off.  By then the sun had set behind the mountains and I headed back in while there was still ambient light.

I guess this means the papio season is officially over.  The reef fish, small papio and kaku will still be around to pester the baits but it sure looks like the big omilus won’t be hunting inside until next season.  I would settle for a hard fighting awa awa until the papio return, though.

Challenging weather conditions, fish still bit

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Dean and I board fished this morning since the wind was supposed to be less than 15 mph.  Contrary to that forecast there were gusts over 20 mph which made it hard for Dean to stand up and paddle.  The wind had less effect on me since I paddle lying down on my longboard, but I was still affected by the chaotic swell.

Dean trolled a dead oama behind a floater the way I used to, and I sat on my board as close to the waves as possible and cast into the surf.  I got more strikes than he did but also got stuck a lot more since my prototype oama whipping rig sinks.  I suspected fish were hitting the oama and pulling it into the rocks since I would pull some snags out and everything came back except for the oama.  When I pulled an eel out of the rocks my suspicions were confirmed.

Dean caught the first fish, a non-legal omilu, and then we both started getting hits, misses and cut lines.  Seemed like other reef fish were pulling off the oamas, and kaku were cutting us off.  I finally stuck a good fish and it ran in a funny way which made me think it was a big stickfish or cornetfish.  I was relieved to see the color of a beautiful 2lb omilu. I finally made use of my gaff by lifting the omilu out of the water by putting the gaff hook through its mouth and out its gill.

The wind picked up and it was hard to effectively fish the surge zone.  My next papio ran through the rocks and popped my line.  Dean was getting occasional hits but having a harder time paddling upwind from his knees.  It was time to head in.

I had quickly gone through 4 whipping rigs and 15 dead oama.

It was more fun to feel the strikes of the fish while whipping the oama but I definitely lost more tackle than I do when I troll with a floater. I’ll have to work on the prototype whipping rig some more.

 

Whipping dead oama works, who knew?!

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I had a few fresh, dead oama that I wanted to use instead of freezing them for later.  My last board fishing outing was outstanding but it was much too windy for that today.  Hmm… since trolling fresh, dead oama worked, what if I could somehow cast them out and retrieve them?  Stands to reason that the papio would whack ’em right?

I had never done this before and don’t know of anyone who regularly whips oama since dunking live oama is so effective.  Somehow I had to be able to cast the oama far enough in the wind to reach the areas holding fish.  I decided to use my trusty level wind Calcutta 200TE bait caster that had been sitting idle during the Waxing and trolling expeditions.  I waded out on the low tide but had issues with the Jim Rizutto sliding double hook setup slipping and causing the oama to bend.  I ended up having to hook both hooks in the oama’s head and hope that something would hit head first.  The bait caster, doing what it was meant to do, cast bait, worked marvelously.

Using the wind, I was able to reach the surf zone, and hooked a 10″ white papio on the first cast!  I let it go, and put on another fresh, dead oama.  That one got hammered by a 11″ white.  I missed some hits and ended up with mangled oama but the next 2 oama got hit also.  Then I hooked a fish that pulled drag and brought in a 13.5″ (head to tail) white that went into my fish bag.  I couldn’t believe the action I was getting on the dead oama so I moved spots slightly and the bite slowed dramatically.  Eventually my remaining baits were hit by 8″ – 10″ whites and omilus.  I put on a blue sardine Waxwing to see if I could fool the papio so attuned to oama and came up empty.

Who would’ve thunk that whipping dead oama would be more effective than trolling them inshore?  It’s a really strange season due to the early, extra hot water and humidity shutting down the bite, followed by strong trades and cooler water causing the papio to make up for lost time.  I don’t think whipping dead oama would’ve been as effective last year when the papio could get their fill of free swimming oama.

I’m still refining my dead oama whipping setup to increase casting distance and hookup ratio.  Stay tuned for more oama whipping catch reports.

P.S.  Look what was in the white papio’s stomach! A slightly digested tang and a completely intact baby mantis shrimp.  The white was stuffed and still went after the dead oama.