Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) > Reports & Expeditions

Southern Oman Magic in search of 50kg GT Sept 29 - Oct 5, 2013

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Kil Song:
This was my second trip with Ed of No Boundaries in Southern Oman for big GT this year.
The trip had an international flavor as 5 fishermen came from 5 different countries.

Bertrand Picarda from France
Lars Nielson from Denmark
Andre van Wyk from South Africa
Yoshitaka Tsurusaki san of FCL LABO from Japan
Kil Song from the US

 
Fishing trips give opportunities to meet new fishermen and we had a great time to fish together on this trip.














 




We fished for six days on two  boats while mixing GT popping and inshore fishing.
 
Weather for first three days was not favorable, but it got better later. GT fishing was on and off, but it was really good when bites were on. Inshore jigging/popping was great as usual. 

Kil Song:


beanbags were very useful on this trip.


 GT popping

Tsurusaki san jigged in the morning while we cast poppers for GT without landing any on the first day. He hooked up a GT in 10 minutes after he started to cast FCL Stickbait in the afternoon. :?














I knew it was big when it took my FCL EBIEXT not far from the boat. I was using light Black Hole Magic Eye 804S rod along with Stella 20000SW apooled with 80 lb Jerry Brown Hollow/short 200 lb leader line.

Magic Eye 804S rated for PE4 is too light for 50 plus kg GT, but I wanted to test the rod' strength for big GT using heavy drag.
The 50 plus kg GT made 20 - 30 yards run at most which means I used pretty heavy drag during the fight.

I know I can not fight longer than 10 minutes on heavy drag because of my back problem. But I fought using Hots small belt this time after I observed that the fight doesn't usually last longer then 10 minutes even for big 50 plus kg GT on heavy drag.

I was pretty comfortable throughout the fight using Hots belt though I couldn't crank to gain line at some point because the soft rod didn't give me much leverage and backbone.

After I brought the GT, Mohamed  gaffed in the mouth of GT.
It was a definite 50 plus kg big GT. But unfortunately the GT was dropped while trying to lift on the boat for pictures.
This GT turned out to be the biggest Gt on our trip.
Though I don't have pictures of the GT on my lap, I am extremely happy  to accomplish my goal to land a 50 plus gt GT, especially with so light PE4 rod.













I opened bail as the big GT was secured with gaffing in the mouth.




This Gt is around 47 kg GT caught by Ed soon after my catch.
Ed agreed that my GT was much bigger and my catch was a legitimate 50 plus kg GT.








































we encountered small yellowfin tuna while popping for GT in shallow water.



We were also surprised to catch a few nice AJ in shallow water while popping for GT










Tsurusaki san's creative fighting belt

Kil Song:
Jigging

We didn't spend much time for jigging on this trip and Tsurusaki san and myself jigged occasionally while others cast poppers.
It seemed Tsurusaki san were testing his slow pitch rods and jigs with slow jigging and his catches were impressive.
I brought only one light jigging setup with Black Hole 631XH rod and JM PE2 filled with PE3 line.





It was very impressive to watch Tsurusaki san land a nice grouper with PE3 line reel.












two mackerel on one hook














lunch time jigging

Kil Song:
Inshiore popping


Southern Oman provides excellent inshore popping for various species.
We had yellow fin trevally, queenfish and permit on small surface lures on my Spring trip. Those fishes were not there in big numbers on this trip, but we had excellent bream popping instead.























action of Black Hole Magic Eye 753S












































I tested Black Hole Seabass rod on this trip.












30g FCL SL jig for casting




I tested small Black Hole lure with a lip with fantastic result.
I brought only two and both were lost to big emperor snapper.
This is going to be my go to lure for inshore popping.
















Tsurusaki san tested various inshore lures on this trip

Mark Harris:
Excellent and very visual report Kil!

You guys clearly had a ball and looking at the weather you had to contend with, the results were excellent with some trophy GTs and superb Amberjacks taken off the surface, as well as the great variety of other fish.

Top stuff and a great opening to the new season in Southern Oman.

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