Trolling big oama and `opae lolo on my longboard

My out of season oamas had a sudden die off and I was left with just two.  They were 7 inches long and skinny so I figured I’d better use them before they expired.  I also took a bunch of `opae lolo.

I was halfway out to the break when a SUPer asked if I caught anything.  Just as I sat up the drag zipped and that was it.  The jumbo oama was gone and the line was cleanly cut.  Must’ve been a kaku.  I  put the last oama on but  nothing touched it.  I replaced it with an `opae lolo .

The lolos got hit but the fish weren’t large enough to hook themselves on the size 1 Owner baitholder hook.  The floater would be pulled down and a mangled lolo would be left.  Trolling such a delicate bait didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.

sorry, it was getting dark

I started heading in, trying to figure out a better way to use them when the drag screamed.  It was nice to fight a decent sized papio after so many weeks of small papio and drag burning oio.  The omilu taped out at 15.5 inches, head to tail, and will make my parents very happy.

For comparison I plan to fish the same conditions with swimming plugs and kastmasters.  I’m hoping the papio and kaku put on their predator hats and attack them.

(Click here to see how I did just using lures)