There was finally a break in the weather before Tropical Storm Ana is expected to hit Oahu in 3 days.  The barometer was falling this morning which generally isn’t good.  Since the weather is expected to be rainy days after the storm hits, I decided to take some big oamas and troll while the trolling was good.

I started with a 5 inch oama and it went untouched until I found a small sand pocket in the break.  A 14 inch papio hit the back hook and I worked to bring it in before drifting into the surf zone.  Not the bigger papio I was hoping for.  I put on another 5 inch oama and before I reached that deep sand pocket a 13.5 inch papio hit.  This one swallowed the back hook deep and when I unhooked it with my long nose pliers it coughed up blood so I had to keep it.  Shucks, my plan was to let go the small papios for the remainder of the season.

I put on a moose oama caught earlier this week, to deter the smaller papio.  Well I didn’t get any more papio bites but the aha, kaku and pipe fish all tried to take down the moose.  They sliced and diced a couple of the moose but couldn’t turn them lengthwise to get hooked.  Maybe 6 inch plus oama are too large for inshore reef trolling?

I’m not sure if the fish felt the falling barometric pressure and bit before the storm, or just ate normally.  I hadn’t trolled this location for a few weeks, and after last week’s too warm conditions at my other spot, it was good to know this spot still produces.

papio soup and sashimi

The deep hooked 13.5 inch papio was much appreciated.  My friend Dean’s mom made the traditional Japanese meal of sashimi and fish head soup. Oishii!