Southern Oman with No Boundaries - early October 2012

[Andy Rowe]

Wow, great fishing.. What reels would you guys recommend or had on for your PE10 popping gears? Had just acquired a Stella 20,000SW but felt quite heavy and bulky for me. Should i keep it or is there a smaller alternative i can probably try my luck on? Thanks!

Andy, the 20k will work in a pinch but it is a bit slow and will wear you out faster, stella 18k or dogfight are your only options for this level of fishing especially in Oman.

[Andy Rowe]

Mark, did you get a chance to inspect the line on those spools which had the bust off's?? very unfortunate incident back to back like that.

Get some singles for December

Great stuff Andy.

Just on the tackle notes. Totally with you on the need for PE10. I will never be so stupid again as to cast PE8 over those shallow reefs.  A huge doses of humble pie from me on that - you and Ed were dead right and I was very wrong.  The number of huge fish I lost is 100% telling.

And I am less anti-singles than I was (I can hear you chuckling from here!) .

For a self-confessed "lazy fisherman" you do very well mate!

Can only re-iterate your comments about the sheer quality of Ed and Angela's operation and hospitality, and the fine company from yourself and Pablo, and of course the two Andys and Roger on the other boat.

[Jay Burgess]

What line was it, Mark?

Andy, you cannot really fish PE10 on anything smaller than a Stella 18000/20000. The 18000 being the preffered option due to it's faster gear ratio. It's the same size physically as a 20000.

[Mark Harris]

Line was Varivas GT Max PE8.

I just threw it all away Andy - as you might imagine I was not interested in fishing with line off that spool again.  First time I have ever had issues with this line and I put it down to a bad spool plus I should not have been fishing PE8 anyway.  Just for the record it was 2 different 18000s both newly loaded off the same spool of Varivas GT MAX PE8.  I was using a 20000 spool on an 18000 reel for PE10, and had no such  problems with that.

[Alex Jordan]

Some interesting bits to drop in;

A Halco Roosta outfished about all the lures we threw the same week as you chaps - smaller profile and smaller pops?

I caught two GT's on stickies - a nice 127cm fish on a Gamma Carpenter Livebait at a very quiet time in the afternoon and lost a monster after a pack attack on an Orion Crazy Dog 140 in pink ... hooks pulled after 5 mins of torture and knowing its a dinosaur!!!!

edit - I fished 80lb JB HC and 130lb JB HC

[Jonas Holmsgard]

I am going in three weeks to fish with O.A, hope to see some of that amazing action in mid-november too;-)
Interesting thought that a Skipjack 150 and a Halco Roosta seems to have been the most succesful lures. I remember hearing that HH Tobi 123 did very good last year. Note-to-self: bring some long, not so big-cupped lures. And try to put PE10 on as many spools as possible...

[Andy Rowe]

Definitely longer profile lures were good but anything that lands on the spot and suits the conditions i think will do, work it all the way boatside. Any equipment or angler error are swiftly punished here, I dropped more than a few, big gape hooks are essential.

Alex, i know how you feel.

[Trevor Skinner]

Funnily enough, I think what was perhaps more important was the combination of lures in the water.

We did catch some nice fish on stickbaits and the Roosta was a star but, generally, fishing with big poppers brought the fish up...created interest if you like. I'm not sure we would have had the same results if all of us had been fishing stickbaits or smaller profile lures at the same time. On the occasions when we had 'pack attacks' we had 2 or 3 big poppers (generally G cups and Cubera 180s) in the water at once creating quite a ruckus. I fished 110lb and I think Wayne was fishing 80lb (!!), not sure about Nick but think PE8 as well. We all got blown away but suspect we would probably have been on 150lb as well. Once the fish reach a certain size lots of things have to go right to put them on the deck and that extra 20 or 30lb in breaking strain is only one factor and it might, or might not, make any difference.

Just my observations and thoughts.

Regards,


Trevor
     

[Ed Nicholas]

Thanks Mark & Andrew for your kind words, really was a great week and it carried on where you guys left it with a near 70kg fish landed 2 days after you left! These Omani fish are angry & hungry, a great combo for an Angler. Report following shortly, tight lines n drags to all.