Enjoying catching up with Bean at our Villa in Dubai
Finally the day came to head across to Musandam. We met up in the shop and got the final gear together and jumped into our Fishing Bus and headed the 2 hours across to Musandam Oman. A lot of laughs and great expectations on the way.
Excitement levels very high! Kids do not try this at your local tackle shop!
Team picture at our shop, not as much hair, bellies a bit bigger but the same excitement!
Leaving the shop
Pellet modeling one of the local breads!
The famous Prawn Curry! Worth the trip on its own!
Sitting around the fire at GT House! Many a story been told here!
We were all up early the next morning and headed down to the boats. We had other clients fishing with us and was good to meet up with some other fisherman and also to take out the 2 boats. The weather was not looking to good for the first 2 days with a SE wind blowing which is a killer for us with blwoing from the ocean side as we normally run about 120-140 miles a day. But with everyone is good spirits there was no problem heading out and getting into the action.
Our boats waiting to head out for the day!
Al Sayyad the original GT fishing boat in Oman! Still an awesome boat!
GT Machine!
Heading up into the Musandam
We did a few drifts to get the guys warmed up as most of the guys had not fished for GTs before. But we did not see much action and carried on moving around with a few small grouper and garfish caught on light gear which kept us amused for a while. Finally later in the afternoon I was jigging with a Drift Tune 280 and had a good hit, I initially thought it was a small fish but after a bit realized I had my work cut out and put the pressure in the current and finally got a good sized fish to the boat! The drought had been broken and we had our first GT of the trip! A few pictures and she was released.
Al Sayyad 2 with other guests fishing one of the reefs.
First trip of the season, they say size does not matter........ummmmmm
Walt putting in a good cast
The boyz learnt quick and were working the lures like pros!
Bending into a good GT on the MC Works 556!
Awesome GT for the Musandam.
Team GT picture! This was the start!!
We did a few more drifts and started to head back to the marina but tried a few more spots on the way. On one of the drifts Walt got the leader caught around the front hook and was winding like crazy to get it to the boat when a huge dark shadow came up behind the lure and chased the lure like wild fire half out the water, walt got such a fright he pulled the lure out the water and the fish went flying under the boat! A lot of screaming, laughing and shouting was going on the boat and a good few comments flying! With the day drawing to a close we headed back to base and another great evening around the fire with a traditional South African braai (BBQ) and a few game of darts!
Another evening around the fire and dart board! Amazing when there is no TV!
The competition is on!
Now the darts comp becomes really interesting and dangerous!
The guys were up early the next morning and we headed back out with the SE pushing later in the day again. We decided to do a bit of light tackle fishing further down the Musandam till we could see what the weather was doing. We had good fun with some smaller fish and then Bollie had a big hit close to the boat and the fish went under the boat, after the initial chaos Bollie got his rod around to the otherside of the boat and the game was on! A good fight or give and take and finally on light gear Bollie got a great little GT to the boat! A lot of celebration! It is not always about the big fish and great to see someone so happy with a GT!! Made my day!
Capt Cam skippering the boat
Bollie getting into position for holding his big fish.........hopefully
Bollie into a good GT on light tackle!
Great fish on the light gear!
Putting a cast in with conditions going pear shaped! Wind pumps off the cliffs and makes fishing not to pleasant!
We did a few more drifts and then headed back up to the top of the Musandam but the conditions were getting worse and we decided to head home and relax. Another great evening with an extra hot curry to sort out any aches and pains. Really quite funny to see all of us thinking we are still young and just out of school when we end up in bed by 10pm!!
The last day dawned and was an exceptional day, everything was pefect, calm seas, the right wind direction and now the guys had learnt what to do so the game was on! We headed to a few spots we had fished the previous days but with good conditions could fish them properly. On the first drift Bollie had a monster fish come up and slurp his lure off the surface but the hooks did not set! This was the start of a great day when we caught a few fish but let even more go!
Great sunrise over the Straits of Hormuz
On one of the drifts Dino caught a nice kingfish on the jig, we got our fair share of fish cutting us off so was good to get a kingfish to the boat and some fresh fish to eat. Then we headed out to one of the spots and on the first drift Bollie had a fish smash his popper, he had learnt from the morning and hit the fish a few times hard but the popper came out and as it got to the surface a huge 40kg Barracuda hit the popper and again we did not hook up! The guys yes were as big as saucers and the action had started. On the same drift Bollie hooked up on my Carpenter prototype rod and had an excellent fight to land a nice GT. Then for the next hour we had several fish hook ups and pull outs till finally Walt hooked and landed a big barracuda and then followed by another nice kingfish! Dino had about 4 big hits and manage to hook up one of the fish and after a good fight the hooks pulled!
Dino bending on the MC Works with an nice king.
Good sized king on jig. We lost a lot of jigs to these bad boyz!
Bollie bending on my Prototype Carpenter!
Not the monster of the morning but still a good fish.
Walt bending with a cuda
Big smelly bobcat!
Dino bending into a good fish that did an automatic release!
Box of bling bling for the trip!
But it was Beanhead who had been the quite worked at the front of the boat carrying on casting all of the time while all the chaos was going on around him, like the silent assassin! Bean put a cast out towards the cliffs and right next to the boat the water erupted and Bean hit the fish and hooked a solid fish! We were in Shallow water and started to pull the fish out to deep water but with the current pushing the fish was dumping line off the reel at a bit of an alarming rate, I could see Beans helpless expression and he was thinking what the hell have I got myself into?!?!
Bean getting worked!
But Bean poured on the pressure with the good old Smith WRC80 bending double and finally he started to get some line back and I could see a smile starting to edge onto his face, till the fish saw the boat and took off in the opposite direction! Close to his limits he put in the last effort and got a great GT to the boat! Much celebration and a great way to end an amazing trip with good friends! A few good pictures and we called it a day and headed back to base and finally back to Dubai.
Cam landing Beans fish! Very well fought and well deserved fish!
Very happy!
Team picture of Beans GT and Pauls King caught at the same time on a double up of different species!
Cleaning up the gear, worst part of any trip!
Final team shot, one for the mantle piece!
Leaving Dibba to head back to Dubai.
I think any trip that you do needs to be an adventure and it is a case that you are fishing to catch fish but it is more about the experiences and memories that are created. It was great to have some old friends fish with us and we have already started booking round 2 next March!!
