Every year we are lucky that our season in Oman seems to start earlier and earlier, or the fisherman are just getting more and more desperate to fish. The Summer in the Middle East and Oman is brutal with temperatures getting over 50 degree C and humidity often 100%. So not a place you want to be playing outside, unless you are a crazy GT fisherman. We have still been running a few trips in the last month to test the waters and fish. We have had some success and decided the time was right to start the season with a big BANG!!
We put out the feelers to start the season with a liveaboard trip up in the Musandam and it was taken up like a GT chasing a garfish! Jon and the team put the trip together sorted out all of the logistics and the trip was set for the first weekend of September. We had a fantastic turn out of friends, and staff. The group consisted of AJ, Richard, Erik, Saif, Mark, Gavin, Allan, Paddy, Damon, Cameron, Brett, Jon, Anura, Hassan and all the way from the Med old friend and guide FC Lubricator!! The scene was set for an epic Hollywood block buster, action, drama, suspence and the big feel good finish!! The Ocean Active team worked flat out to sort out all of the logistics, fuel, drinks, tackle, etc etc. The boyz are legends!
We all met up in Dibba Fishing Port to get all the gear onto the boat which was no small feat. We had more gear than 3 fishing shops! We used sherpas, boats and muscle power to get everything onto the 80ft Liveaboard Dhow. We finally were ready to set sail for an amazing trip and to start our Oman season! We cruised up into the Musandam following the setting sun, a good few stories were told and a small bit of tactics and tackle was spoken on the 5 hour cruise, till finally we put down anchor at the top of the Musandam.
Using one of the small boats to get tackle onto the Dhow
Sunset leaving the marina
The team socializing on the upper deck
Sunset on the dhow
Fishing gear!!
There were a lot of festivities over the weekend and old stories told again and new ones made all to a lot of laughter. The first day the guys had some great fishing. Damon with Al Sayyad 1 caught a good number of GTs in the morning and afternoon sessions. The guys fished hard and got the results with some big GTs up to 40kgs. A few of the guys stayed on the dhow and caught up with friends with some swimming, food and beverages. All a lot of fun. The afternoon session everyone got out on the boats and had varying success. Finally the first day came to an end as all the boats headed back to the dhow for another great meal after a successful first day of the season with big GTs, Kingfish, Sharks and Tuna!
Our home for the trip
The boats ready for action
Capt Damon bending on a good fish
Damon with a big Musandam GT
Uncle Uncle with a Shark on popper
Gavin bending on his Hots Rod
Uncle landing a good GT on Pink ASWB
Gavin very happy with his PB GT
Erik into the action on lighter gear
Erik with a smaller GT
Gavin bending on Al Sayyad 1 with a nice king
Big king on Al Sayyad 1
Uncle with a GT on a Hammerhead Tobi
Hassan landing a GT on a Hammerhead Popper
Erik with a big Musandam GT
Lunch time swim!! Pool noodles......
Paddy into the action on jig
Paddy with a GT
Erik into the action
Erik yellowfin tuna chopped by the taxman!!
Gavin bending on a big king after an aerial attack!
Big king on an ASWB, one of the lures of the trip!
Gavin with his biggest king, awesome fish!!
Uncle bending on the light gear
Sunset GT
Next morning guys were up early having breakfast and getting gear ready. As the sun started to rise above the horizon all the boats headed for their secretive spots. The fishing was a bit slower and the conditions were flat and hot, but with a lot of effort the guys had varying results. I was fishing with old friend FC aka Windpomp, aka Boomslang, aka Lubricator and it is always good fun and laughs. FC had flown in from captaining his Yacht in the Med for this trip and had not managed to land a fish yet, so the stakes were high!! We had fished a good few spots with no success and finally we were fishing along one of the shallow reefs. FC was throwing the Race Point 200 and kept asking me if he should change from his Cubera popper, I was quietly laughing to myself saying no carry on casting it is the right lure, meantime he was sweating his ass off and red in the face!! Finally FC gave up the game and picked up his light rod with PE3 and a small stickbait. On the second cast FC had a big hit in shallow water and line started to melt off the reel, but not towards the shallows out towards the deep!! Cam got the boat into gear and started following the fish to try get some line back, everytime we gained a bit of line and stopped the boat the fish took off again on another blistering run! Again we followed, this went on for a good few minutes and we started trying to guess the fish, I said Kingfish, but then the fish took another run straight down, so it changed to a GT, then the fish came up and run along the surface so back to a kingfish. Finally FC got the fish close to the surface and we saw a monster kingfish!! After a few more runs we got the fish under the boat and realized we had no gaff as we normally land most fish by hand, this was going to be interesting landing a 30kg+ king by hand! I let the fish swim passed us once, to see the hook set and then a second time to get it nice and close then on the third time FC got the fish right close to the boat and I grabbed onto the tail with both hands with water going everywhere and trying to control the fish. Cam jumped next to me and grabbed the tail with me and we pulled the monster into the boat!! An awesome fish on the gear!! A lot of high 5s and pictures! FC trip had just been made with his biggest King ever.
FC bending on his light gear!
Landing the big king by hand
Monster King!
FC and Cam
Proper Croc!
We fished a few more spots and then headed back to the boat for lunch. The fishing had not been as good as the first day but a few more GTs and kings were landed. We had lunch on the upper deck and stories were already flying about an amazing trip. The afternoon session some of the guys fished and some stayed and relaxed on the dhow, but finally our first trip of the season came to an end with new friendships made, new memories forged and all agreeing to the next liveaboard. We landed about 20 GT, 3 Kings, 2 Sharks and half a Yellowfin Tuna along with bonito and longtail tuna.
Brett bending on day 2 on the Endless Passion 86/40
GT and Gamma
Brett with his GT
Allan bending on his FCL 81EXT
Nice GT coming to the boat
The Hammerhead G-Cup strikes again
Allan chuffed with a decent Musandam GT
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved; it was a great start to hopefully a great season with new destinations, online shop and many big fish! The prizes for the trip will be announced on our FB
www.facebook.com/oceanactive for more info.
Cheers,
Nick
