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Every year my Dad comes out to visit us in Dubai and Oman to see the family and give me a few pointers on fishing! No matter how old we get I think our parents always have a few words of advise! My Dad normally comes out in May and we go up to the Musandam and spend a couple of days fishing for GTs having a few Braais (BBQs) and tell some fisherman tales from the previous years trips around the fire. My Dad seems to our lucky charm and we always end up catching some monster fish when he is with us! At 71 he is still a force to be reckoned with which is awesome and cool to be able to still take him fishing with us to some remote and hardcore places. But this year Dad was not able to come out in May so we decided to set up a trip in January and head down to our place in Hallaniyat Islands Southern Oman and take the old guy to some new water!
So with a few dates in place we put a team together of a good friend and client Richard Shirazien that does all out design work for our new brochures and website, Daryl Bartho a good friend from my fishing days in South Africa and Cameron Mundy one of the Ocean Active Captains and guides. So with a good team from varying backgrounds we put the final plans together and left Dubai early morning on my Dads birthday so a lot of laughter and banter on the way down south!
We headed for Shuwaymiyah through the long straight roads of Oman, the scenery still is amazing every time I do the drive. Huge wide open spaces with some of the friendliest people you can ever meet. Not to many places left that you can drive hundreds of kms with no development just a couple of small towns with some fuel stations and basic shops. It is definitely a feel good thing. We stopped along the way to watch the sunset in the middle of nowhere, truly something to remember. We finally arrived at our villa and was great to meet up with the team again as it has been a while since I was down at the villa due to running around with the new boats, shop, new destination projects etc. Tomy and the team gave us an update on the fishing and conditions which did not sound great, except for the monster 158cm GT caught last week with the guys from SWI.
But this did little to deter the group and all the kit got broken out. Due to driving down in the big truck we were able to bring every piece of tackle under the sun and a heap of new gear to test plus the kitchen sink. We had some new toyz to test including the new Carpenter Rods, Race Point Maestro, Gammas, ASWB, OA Popper colours etc. Finally after a good few hours of setting up tackle, changing it, redoing, we finally got to sleep after midnight. A few hours of restless sleep waiting for the alarm and we were up again and ready to go. A quick cup of coffee and we hooked up the 37ft Center Console and headed for the marina which takes about 30-40 minutes to get to the marina and launch the boat. The wind was pumping offshore with a land breeze and the conditions were not looking great, but we thought we would push through and see if we could get out to the islands to stay at our new villa on the Hallaniyat Islands. After a good couple of hours run out of being bashed around we finally made it to the islands. We got to the villa and tied up to the small marina Key wall, really awesome place. The “tackle truck” met us at the marina to ferry all of our equipment to the villa about 100m from the marina. We were truly in the middle of the fishing grounds. We quickly put all our bags and spare gear into the villa admired the rustic surroundings. The island and villa is something out of an old fishing novel, with weather beaten buildings, old landcruisers, wooden dhows on the beach, beautiful stuff!!
We headed back out fishing, the conditions were terrible but the guys had traveled a long way and the tackle was ready so we gave it a go! Due to being on the island we could fish a lot earlier and later, we could also fish areas protected from the weather not having to run back to the mainland everyday and then pulling out the boat and towing back to the villa, we managed to fish an additional 3-4 hours a day. The water and temperatures have been cold so you need to put in a lot of casts to raise and hook fish so getting the extra fishing time did the trick, and true to form our lucky charm my Dad paid off again we caught some awesome fish! We also went back to the villa for lunch everyday when the fishing was slow around midday and had a few relaxed lunches with a quick shower or cat nap before going out for the afternoon sessions, so the batteries were recharged for he afternoon session.
We fished the rest of the first day and caught some great fish, I managed a smaller GT on one of the shallow reefs. Then Daryl hooked a monster fish in shallow water. We were fishing a new area. The fish ran over a shallow reef about 1m deep, I thought that the fish was going to reef him, but somehow he managed to pull the fish back over the reef and landed a good 47kg GT! Really amazing sometimes luck is just on your side! I recon it is better to be born lucky than rich! Then Cameron got his first big GT on his brand new Carpenter Monster Hunter and a OA 180gr popper. The fish took the popper at the boat like a trout taking a dry fly, incredible and also lead to a lot of shouting and instructions flying around the boat! Cameron hit the fish a few times and the Monster Hunter was into action, really great rod with a lot of backbone but light with a softer tip to work lures. We landed Camerons fish which was about 53kg and got a few pictures and released the fish to grow a bit bigger! The first day ended very well and the weather calmed down so everything was looking fantastic for the next few days. As the sun was dipping down over the horizon we headed back to the islands villa which took about 5 minutes and enjoyed a good meal and a few stories of fish that were caught and fish we were hopefully going to catch the next day.
One of the aims of the trip was to fish a few new areas and also to try trolling some 80lbs rigs for Marlin. So for the next two days we did a lot of exploring and trying new jigging areas, trolling for marlin/YFT. But we did not have to much luck as I think it was still early in the season for the big gamefish with the water being cold. We caught a few smaller fish on the jig. We will be trying these areas again in March to see if there is any change. Hope we can find a few new areas like we did for the AJs in October.
The last couple of days we got back to concentrating on the GTs. We woke up early morning had breakfast overlooking the GT Straights between Soda and Hallaniyat Islands and then on the boat heading out to the first spot about 1km away, we did not even get onto the plain with the boat before we were at the first spot. We caught most of the fish early as there was a green algae bloom that bloomed everyday once the sun got up in the sky around 10am. But we fished a few selected areas hard putting in hundreds of casts. We managed 4 smaller GTs and a big yellow dot trevally on needle nose plugs plus some emperor, tuna, bonnies, dorado etc on the second last day. My Dad caught a good sized bonnie which was good fun and had him bending on light tackle. I hooked a huge fish on popper and almost immediately bent open a ST66 5/0 hooks, they opened under the pressure as we were fishing in 4m of water so I palmed the reel a bit to much maybe....... I was trying the lighter hooks to try and increase casting distance with the Race Point 200, but again I got reminded that the Hallaniyat GTs have to have the strongest gear to catch them!! Big fish in shallow water not a good combination for tackle. So back on went the ST76s, Decoy 10/0s and Gama GT Recorders!
Then on the last day we were fishing one of the shallow reefs when Daryl got hit by a monster fish, he struck it a good few times setting the hooks and then game was on. Daryl put full pressure onto the fish and after a great energy sapping fight Daryl got the fish to the boat. The fish was massive and round like a tuna, really good condition. We landed the 54KG fish and got a good few pictures, then released. It was Daryls biggest GT so a well worthwhile trip from South Africa.
We did a few more drifts and we were fishing an area with not much happening and I was throwing my new Carpenter Endless Passion rigged with a Stella 10K, OSM 16K spool and PE6 Sunline amazing light outfit. I was throwing a 160 Gamma. I’m fishing Tokara later this year so I was working on the Gamma technique when out of the greeny blue came three big hungry GTs, they were all over the Gamma like a rash, the lead fish engulfed the lure and then the other two GTs carried on chasing the hooked fish trying to take the Gamma out of the hooked fishes mouth, really awesome to witness and total chaos! All the while I was whooping and loving every second, the new rig was amazing and I put extra pressure and got the crazed fish under control, for a medium rod you can put a lot of pressure. After a 5 minute fight I got the 40kg+ fish to the boat and when we were leadering the fish unfortunately the Gamma popped out of the fishes mouth and she swam away giving me the middle fin! You can’t win them all and it was good to give the EP a good bend and now that it can take a lot of pressure! Richard had put in a huge effort with the GTs and unfortunately did not get a big Southern Oman GT but managed a good few tuna, bonnies and dorado’s. So he will be back to try again. Southern Oman is a difficult destination, technical and physically exerting, but there is always the chance at any spot for a trophy fish, and at the end of the day you are fishing for a trophy and not quantity.
Finally the trip was drawing to a close and we enjoyed the last few hours on the island relaxing and talking of trips passed and the next trip in the planning. We packed up and headed back to the mainland villa for our last night. We met up with our next charter Robert Balkow a guide from Germany. The guys were extremely excited about their trip and we showed them all the pictures and helped rigged up their gear. Early next morning we launched the boat for the guys to head out to the islands to stay there for the next 5 days and hopefully we can post a few more pictures and reports next week from their trip.
We had not expected very much after the latest reports but Hallaniyat again produced some big fish for us! December and January are usually cold and windy months so fishing is usually tough. The fishing is usually a lot harder and you have to put in a big effort to get results. I vowed again to do more gym and push ups before my next trip! The body and muscles were maxed out after all the casts, but a great feeling to have spent time on he open sea with my Dad and some good friends!
Tackle Used:
Rods: Carpenter WV80XH, Carpenter Endless Passion 85/36, Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H, Race Point 200 and 250, Race Point Maestro, Shimano Aerocast, Shimano Lesath Deep Monster, Smith KGS70MH
Reels: Shimano Stella 5000, 8000, 10000 (OSM16K spool), 180000, 20000 (OSM20000 spool), Shimano Stradic 5000, 80000
Line: Tufline XP 20lbs, 30lbs, 50lbs, 80lbs, 100lbs, 130lbs, Jigman 30lbs, 50lbs Sesame 40lbs, 80lbs, Sunline 90lbs
Lures: OA Cubera Popper 125gr, 150gr, 180gr, OA Skipjack 150gr, Craftbait GT3 170gr, 190gr, Carpetner Gamma 160, 200, Halco Rooster Popper 195, Siren Stickbait, ASWB 185, 220 SS.
Cheers,
Nick
www.oceanactive.com
Ocean Active | Facebook
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Wide open desert, nothing but big sky and horizon, make sure the truck is serviced before these trips!!
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Sunset in the desert, awesome!
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Hooking up the 37ft at the mainland villa ready to head out to the islands
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Launching the boat
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Arriving at the small marina on the island.
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The tackle truck!
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Marina and villa in the background.
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Old dhow, really gives a feeling of histroy
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Island villa, rustic and weather beaten but built like a rock to handle the conditions during the monsoons.
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Stairs up to the upper terrace where we have meals and relax looking over the GT Straights.
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Old cruiser, amazing how the body is still intact but not the engine!!
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Cameron in another cruiser.
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First GT of the trip caught on a WV80XH and GT3 190gr Popper
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Emperor caught on the EP and Gamma 160, this ended up as sashimi, very tasty!
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Daryl bending with his first big Oman GT
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Cameron getting ready to leader Daryls fish.
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