Musandam Oman Reports

[Nick Bowles]

Musandam is the original GT destination in Oman and where all the GT fishing in this region started for us about 10 years ago. When we first started exploring and fishing in Musandam we thought there were GTs but we had no idea how in the coming years Oman would become a World Class GT destination and become such a big part of our lives. The first GT we caught in Musandam was actually on fly, and the first 30kg+ GT we caught was on a buck tail jig and a Calcutta 400 with 20lbs mono and a 30lbs leader, the fight lasted 1.75 hours! Then the big guns and poppers came out in full force in the following months. Initially we had to fly in all of our tackle from around the World and slowly started building up tackle and techniques till we finally decided it would just be easier to open a shop to have the required tackle to fish for GTs in the region and promote GT fishing as we had a found by chance a great GT fishery on our doorstep a mere 1.5 hours drive from the bustling city of Dubai.

It was tough to start as Oman was not a recognized destination for tourism never mind fishing. But a few brave souls came out and started fishing with us and the rest as they say is history. In the following years Southern Oman became our next destination and most probably the more recognized GT destination but Musandam is still my favorite destination as it is like coming home and the place is simply amazing with massive cliffs dropping into the sea and huge currents ripping around islands and shallow reefs and fjords.

Musandam over the last season has fished very well and on a numbers scale has been more productive than Southern Oman and has a great variety. Musandam definitely does not have the same number of monster GTs over the 50kg mark, but every year we get a few 50kg+ GTs but the Musandam GT to me is the hardest fighting dirtiest GTs I have had the pleasure of encountering.

I have not posted pictures and reports from Musandam for a while so I thought I would take the lead from a few others on the forum and start a thread to put all of the Musandam reports and pictures together on one topic. We do a lot of day trips for clients as it is so close to Dubai so we have a huge number of clients fishing and individual reports would take up pages!! We are lucky to have some great Captains and Guides working for us and we will put up the pictures and reports from Musandam as we go along. Hope you guys enjoy!

Cheers,
Nick

[Nick Bowles]

We had great trip up into the Musandam this last week with Russell, Greg and Rassie. We had been planning this trip for a while with Russells cricket schedule and finally the day arrived and it was awesome.

We arrived early morning and got a bit of sleep and then up early ready to go. After a great breakfast from Mungala we packed all the gear onto Al Sayyad and headed up into the Musandam.

There is a lot of long tail tuna around and after seeing a few shoals we could not contain Russell any longer and he hooked up to a nice long tail to start the day. We then arrived at our first GT Spot and before the rat of us had wiped the sleep out of our eyes Greg had his stick bait in the water and a big fish came up and smoked the lure!! Capt Damon pulled the fish into deeper water all the while the fish was peeling line. We could see it was a big fish and had been hooked badly. An epic and hard fight ensued and Greg is a big guy and put all his strength into the fight. I still maintain the Musandam GTs are the hardest fighting GTs I have ever come across. The fight must have lasted about 20 minutes and both fish and Greg were on the verge of exhaustion but a few final pumps on the Race Point 200 and Greg had a big 117cm Musandam GT on the boat. Awesome start!

We fished a few more spots and had a few fish come up but nothing stuck. The pushing tide started to drop and the fish came alive. We must have about 20 strikes from GTs and Kings and only managed to land about 7. Really great and exciting fishing. The highlight was Russell and I having a spectacular double hook up to high flying Kings. Mine jumped about 3 times while Russells fish hit his lure like a ballistic missile! Simply amazing! Quite amazingly almost all the fish only wanted Cubera Poppers! I tried everything else and nothing much worked except the good ol Cubera.

The bite died down and we started heading back to base but on the way we thought we would try one last place. On the first drift we all put out our casts towards the cliffs and there was a lot of banter on the boat after a great days fishing when out of the blue a fish came up and took Rassies Cubera off the surface like a brown trout. I thought it was a small fish and almost told Damon not to back into deeper water so we could finish the drift, but luckily I did not. After getting the fish into deeper water there were a few big head shakes and the fish was not coming as easily as it should have, but Rassie was putting the pressure and out of the green murky water we saw a massive silver shine!!! It was a monster! All of a sudden it was all stations to the ready and Rassie pulled a big Musandam GT to the surface and we landed a very nice 130cm GT. Really great fish for the Musandam and an awesome way to finish the day! We got a few pictures and released the GT to swim another day.

Really great trip and some excellent fish being caught with a lot of laughs and good memories! Look forward to round 2!


Capt Damon on the wheel heading up to the top of the dam.

Russell bending into the first fish of the day on light tackle.

Nice long tail Sashimi!

First cast of the day and Greg into a big fish in big current on his Race Point 200!

At this stage I think the fish was definitely winning!

Greg starting to win the battle! A few choice words coming out at this stage!

Awesome Musandam GT

LB chasing Mahi on our second boat.

Rassie in the action with his easy rider fighting style!!

Rassie with his first of many GTs for the day!

Bending on my new Endless Passion 86/40, amazing rod and even works a popper well!

One of my long time goals to land a big king on a Sea Frog Popper! Tick!

Russell and myself on a double king

Russell putting his TBL80/40 to work!

Russells first Musandam GT

Rassie "Easy Rider" back in action!

Another GT for Rassie

Rassie a bit more serious on a big fish!!

Awesome 130cm Musandam GT

Happy team picture!

Arriving back at base on Al Sayyad 1

A great day out on the water with a good bunch of mates and some nice fish! Nothing better!

Cheers,
Nick

[Sacco Gerard]

Hello Nick
I sent you a PM, did you receive?.
The answer may be yes, I hope,  but if not it's no problem of course 
Best regards
Gege

[Trevor Skinner]

[Allan Chan Hian Lian]

Nice bend on the EP86/40 Nick!
How would you rate this rod? I've one but still no chance to load it..

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Gege, Sorry just sent an answer, yes no probs!

Hi Trev, you feeling the same way, was trying to go today but Christmas Tree duty came up! LEts make a plan for next week my Old Man is here.

Hi Allan, I love this rod, it is something that is more of a medium weight rod but can still throw decent sized lures. I bought it to fish 120-160gr sticks and to get good casting distance which is does very well casting PE6. I use the Stella 14000 which is good and I also throw smaller poppers in the 120gr range and works well. In all very happy with this rod.

Cheers,
Nick

[Trevor Skinner]

Nick,

I thought I was your old man.

Would be good to see him



Trev

[Nick Bowles]

LOL yes you are my resident Old Man! Still laugh about that day!

[Russell Domingo]

Great memories Nick. thanks again to you and the Ocean Active crew for a very special few days. Cant wait to get back there soon!

[Nick Bowles]

Howzit Russell! Was an awesome trip and have not laughed so much in the long time!! Look forward to the next trip!! Maybe SA in Jan??

[Nick Bowles]

After a great trip the week before we put another trip together for Russell and some of his SA Cricket guys. The guys played in Abu Dhabi the night before and won the one day series in a great game. The team had a couple of hours sleep and headed for the Musandam at 03.30am ion the morning. I love my fishing but these boyz have a serious addiction!!

Unfortunately Russell was sick and unable to make the trip after all his organizing and was missed for all his banter! The team was Paddy Upton, Brandon Jackson, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Greg Kurten, Barry Kurten and Jed Chamberlian. We arrived early in Dibba Musandam and Damon, Anura and the guys had our two boats ready to head up into the Musandam. There was a lot of organizing tackle and getting things ready while cruising up to the top.

We fished a few spots and had some fish come up but nothing stick. We headed to a couple more spots and we were fishing next to each other when all of a sudden all hell broke loose on Damon's boat with kings jumping and cutting off both Dale and Morne and only leaving Jed with a lure on when a pack on monster GTs followed the kings and we could see two massive GT climbing out of the water around the boat! The boat sounded like a Justin Beiber Concert with all the screaming!! Unfortunately in all the pandemonium no fish stuck.

Next drift Jed connected with a nice king and landed the fish. A few more drifts had a couple more aerial kings flying at the lures. The kings are fast becoming a huge favorite. Takes visual fishing to a whole new level!

The action died down and we headed for another spot. On the first drift Paddy was fishing with a Hots 711MH with PE6 and a Cubera 125gr popper. After a few casts the water erupted under Paddy's lure with an angry fish hammering the popper and taking off like wild fire. We started pulling the fish off the reef but the fish was not willing to go and took a lot of line. Paddy managed to get the fish under control and a hard fight started with Paddy being patient and gaining a bit of line when possible. After a great fight Paddy got a great 123cm GT to the boat. We landed the fish and a lot of cheering and pictures. Really fantastic fish on the Hots 711MH and a very well fought fight!

We reset the drift and Paddy with the Cubera struck again! This time the fish took double the line and must have been right into the reef but Paddy kept the pressure and got the fish back into deep water. A massive tug of war started and fighting two big fish in a row started to work Paddy to the max. But again Paddy put the pressure and after a good 20 minute fight Paddy got a 110cm GT to the boat hooked in the side! A good few pictures and the fish was released.

We started to head back towards base and fish a few spots on the way. Dale managed to hook up and land a king with the guys dropping a sail and a few more kings. On our boat we had three monster kings come in on our lures and Paddy hooked a beast right at the boat and managed to keep the rod off the gunnel and get the rod around the bow of the boat only for the hook to pull! We were all a bit bummed as it was a huge fish but on closer inspection of the lure the king had opened a ST76 4/0!! I never would have believed it was possible but there is was right in front on our eyes!!

We did a few more drifts with no success and as the sun started to dip towards the horizon we cruised back down the Musandam to base. A really great day out on the water with some great guys. Sadly Russell was not with us but there will be a round 3 and we look forward to it!


The boys getting ready to leave the fishing port.

A lot of excitement on the boats!

Morne Morkel trying out as a skipper!

Al Sayyad 2 in action

Dale putting in a cast!

The boyz are fit and can put in some last casts, even up into the cliffs, Anura fetching a popper!

Big Jed with the first fish of the day a nice king.

Paddy bending on his first Musandam GT on the Hots 711H

Al Sayyad 1 in action, fish on!!

Paddy with a big Musandam GT

What you looking at??

Me getting in the action with an MT (mini trevally)

Dale with a king.

Paddy with a second GT that gave him a massive fight in the current.

Anura with a ST76 4/0 that got bent open on a monster king!

Fishing up against the cliffs, Musandam is just an amazing place to be and fish!

Morne enjoying the ride!

Paddy putting in the casts

The boyz very tired after playing cricket a few hours sleep and fishing with big poppers! A well deserved rest!

Packing in half a tackle shop after fishing before heading for GT House.

Cheers,
Nick

[Nick Bowles]

After a great trip to Southern Oman with Kevin Dicks, we decided to do a trip to Musandam. We have been talking about fishing Musandam for a long time so was really great to get Kev up into the Musandam and have a fantastic days fishing!??The great thing about fishing is you never know what is going to happen and although we wanted to target GTs we ended up having on e of the best days out on the water and mainly catching massive long tail tuna on light tackle along with a monster king.??We arrived back from Southern Oman at 8pm and by 4am the next morning we were on the road heading for Musandam, Damon, LB, Anura and Khalid met us at the boat and we headed out into the Musandam.

??One of the first stops we had a GT come up which I missed as I was talking to much then Kev had a big fish come in on his popper which I originally thought was a sailfish! But then saw it was a huge king. Kev backed off on the drag and after a great fight landed a big king. A lot of high fives we got a few good pictures! Awesome start.??

We tried a few more spots with not much luck. We finally arrived at one of the shallow reefs and the place was alive, we tried for GTs but not much luck and decided to chase the tuna and dorado on light gear. We had some awesome fun, I was fishing with the Aerocast 7ft and new Stella 4000 with PE0.8. Amazing reels and rig, I managed to land a 8.7kg and 20kg long tail tuna. The big tuna was like being back in Hatteras, hit the plug off the surface and screamed off 100ms of line! Epic battle that took 55 minutes.

Kev had a few hits and landed a nice long tail but then as the sun was dipping towards the horizon Kev put out a good cast into a middle of a bust and another big long tail jumped all over his plug and the fight was on. Kev was using a Trevala 6.6 with a new Stella 6000 with PE1.5. A great 35 minute fight and Kev had another 20kg long tail in the boat. A good few pictures and we turned the boat and headed back to base.??Really awesome day out on the water and is one of those days that we expected one thing and got another which was even better! For more reports and pics check out of FB www.facebook.com/oceanactive

Cheers,
Nick


Early morning in the fishing port in Dibba

Getting the gear rigged up after coming straight from Southern Oman

Rigging

Box full of goodies!

Kev bending on a big king

Kev with a monster king on popper.

Double hook up

Kev with a nice long tail on needle nose plug.

My long tail on light PE0.8 gear

Mahi on small plug

Another nice 8kg lontail on light gear.

Epic battle with a monster long tail on PE0.8

After a 55 minute battle getting the fish to the boat.

Very happy with a 20kg long tail on PE0.8 and Stella 4000

Long long tail!

Small GT in with the tuna

Kev very happy bending on a big longtail

Awesome 20kg longtail on light gear

Boyz very happy with their fish!

Heading back to base after a great day on the water!