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Nick Bowles

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Hallaniyat Island Oman season opener with OA!
October 09, 2014, 08:27:51 PM
We had a fantastic start to the season a month ago up Northern Oman in the Musandam and it was with great apprehension that we waited for the weather to start settling and to get stuck into Southern Oman. We normally have to wait right till the last minute for the weather to settle and then move all of the boats, gear and people out to Hallaniyat Islands to our lodge.

The weather started dropping perfectly to coincide with the first trip. The initial couple of days the weather was quite hectic but fishable and made us all feel alive with green water coming over the bows but the fish were there and so no excuses! The first trip we had a fantastic group with Jed, Grant, Jason, Russell, Luke and then Cameron, Brandon and Saud guiding along with Kareem and his team looking after everyone with great meals and accommodation on the island.

This report is a bit hard as there were hundreds of fish caught as there were loads of yellow dot trevally, blacktip trevally, emperors, AJ and of course GTs. Plus we also started our flyfishing trips in Oman with Brandon coming on as our flyfishing guide, so I thought I would break this up by category!

Monster GTs!
Oman has definitely secured it place as one of the top destinations for big GTs and it is not often that it does not live up to its name. This trip was no different. The guys fished hard and landed some awesome fish with Luke's monster weighing in at over 50kgs. We caught about 20 GT in total with a good number of breakoffs!


First fish of the season was a double up of decent GTs! Great way to start!

Grant with his first Southern Oman GT

Luke with his first big GT for this season, in the high 40s!

Luke showing the boyz how its done!

Jed the big guy, giving a GT a hug!! The man has serious power!!

Weighing Luke fish

Lukes 50kg+ caught on a Wild Violence 80XH and Gamma 250

Luke and myself with a bus Oman GT!

Jed with a late afternoon GT

Russell, Luke and myself with Russells GT PB of 40kgs! Great fight!

Cruising in our convertible!

Russell bending on the Race Point 200

Another decent GT for Russell

Bending on the Endless Passion 86/40 and a gamma 160!! Awesome fight!

Weighing the fish 47kgs

Very happy with a good Hallaniyat Fish

Russell bending!

Victory after a hard fought battle!

Russell with a mid 30s GT

Jed with a monster Grouper in the 50kg range caught on a Hammerhead I-Cup!!

Early morning hook up on my Monster Hunter and Hammerhead G-Cup.

Big Hallaniyat GT!

Bending on my Fisherman Big Game 82RS, a beast of a rod!!

Fisherman prototype popper, worked very well in the rougher conditions.

Nice GT just before lunch!

Lunch at the lodge before heading out for the afternoon session.

Last afternoon Russell was on fire!

Russell showing some style!!

Final GT of the trip!! Late afternoon!

Love this picture, how we all feel after a hard fought battle with a GT!!

I'll post the other species and flyfishing tomorrow!! Tight lines!

Sam Holloway

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Great report Nick. Excellent work guys. That last photo is gold.  :o

Ivan Kerley

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Great report Nick - can't wait to hear about you catching a 50kg GT on a fly rod  ;D

Alex Jordan

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Nice one Nick lovely fish! - gutted I cant get out this year!!!!!

Nick Bowles

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Hi Sam, I think that last photo is one of the best fishing pictures I've seen in a long time. Speaks a great story! That was after fishing for 8 days straight in weather and putting in thousands on casts then on one of the last drifts of the trip bang fish on!! You got to wonder if you would be happy or worried! Russell did an awesome job and landed the fish like a pro and then had a breather......

Hi Ivan, It is going to be an epic feat but we trying. I have set up a Sage Xi2 14# with an Abel Super 14 with Jerry Brown backing, Rio Leviathan 750-1100 grain lines, a beast of an outfit, so hopefully we have a chance, but will be good fun trying!

Hi Alex, hopefully we can make a plan next year, we will get something sorted for you guys, have a couple of other options to discuss!

Cheers,
Nick