Whipping for oio on the flats

Fishing the afternoon rise alone, I didn’t have a dunking friend to compare results against.  I wanted to see if I could get an oio to bite my cut bait in the general area that the dunkers had out fished me last week.  My Calcutta 200 TE  was spooled with a 15 lb fluorocarbon top shot, up from the 12lb I used last week, so I could use more drag to turn the silver speedsters.

making circles around me

As  I walked out on the just rising tide, I was startled to see about 4 tailing oio at the deeper end of the flat.  They didn’t spook when I cast to them but they didn’t take my bait either.  Eventually losing track of the tailers, I cast into the edge of the channel where I had hooked and lost last week’s fish.  Just like last time, I felt a light nibble and then a take.  This time the fish sped up and took about 75 yds of line, then slowed down under the tight drag and let itself be pulled back.  It made a series of spirited runs but was under control unlike the fish I lost last week.

pooped

In a few minutes the fish was spent and had given up.  The oio looked to be about 4 lbs and more than 22 inches.  While I was deciding whether to keep him so Chester could make taegu ala Bruddah Bill’s recipe, see below, managed to shake off the hook and slowly make his escape.  Oh well, a bigger fish would be a better use of Chester’s time.

A few small omilus and an obake weke bit before the water got deeper and a lot murkier.  I called it a day knowing the drag bait technique does work on the flats oio and my inshore bait caster setup can easily over power a 4 lb oio.  Whatever took out 160 yds without stopping last week was much larger and stronger than today’s fish.  I’m beginning to think it was a shark since it didn’t spurt like most oios do.

I need to do another head to head with a dunker to see which technique is more effective on flats oio.  Stay tuned.

The recipe below was featured in Lawai’a magazine.