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Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Reports & Expeditions => Topic started by: Mark Harris on March 31, 2013, 06:47:38 PM
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I was extremely happy (indeed honoured) to receive an invite from Ed Nicholas to join him for a week of "mates fishing" during this month. And even happier when I heard that Kil Song was joining us - a man who I had wanted to meet in person for quite some time. Ed does not get to fish too often, leaving the boat space to his clients, so he too was looking forward to a week of fishing hard. And boy did we fish hard!
As other reports will have identified, this March has been much tougher on the GT front than in 2012. Lots of theories as to why that might be and I think it is climate-related. The water temperatures stayed low longer than usual as indicated by the huge numbers of monster milkfish around the islands right up until yesterday. Last year they had largely cleared out by early March. And one morning it even rained with thunder and lightning... almost unheard of!
Nonetheless, this was a truly great trip on many levels and one which will forever remain at the forefront of my my memory.
Finding GTs was tough and we only caught one in 6 days at what might be regarded as a "normal" mark. However, due to tireless work from Ed's excellent guides Yasir and Mohammed, we found a number of trophy sized GTs in different spots. Both Ed and myself managed to get monsters to the boat as well as taking a total beating from others. Next time it will be your turn to get lucky Kil :) .
The popping by-catch deserves a large mention. At one stage we were hitting VERY big queenfish one per cast. These fish had to be 15-16 kgs (no joke!) and it got to the stage where we were madly trying to dislodge the hooks rather than expend energy getting them to the boat. A yellow-spotted trevally which I caught is the biggest example of the species I have ever seen - I had no idea they could get that big and fat. For two days we experienced pack attacks from good-sized wahoo and Kil got a YFT to the boat, while Ed managed a long-tailed tuna.
It had always been our intention to spend a fair bit of the time fishing light and concentrating on the world class inshore fishery around Shuwaymiyah. I can safely say that the the light (PE2-PE3) top water fishing was the best I have ever experienced. Monster golden trevally, ridiculous permit, trophy-sized queenfish, bluefish in plague-like proportions, hard running diamond trevally, and as ever, the fantastic bream, made for a truly wonderful light tackle experience. I firmly believe that a visit to Southern Oman is worth it for the light top-water fishing alone. We tallied an incredible 27 species for the trip - all on topwater lures.
It was great to finally meet Kil in person and he was a true gentleman and absolute pleasure to fish with.
My sincere thanks to Ed and Angela Nicholas for their kind invite and superb hospitality, and to the excellent No Boundaries guides Yasir and Mohammed for working tirelessly to get us onto fish, and for some top-class boat work when we were hooked up to monster GTs. I will be back in October and can't wait to see you all again.
Let the pictures tell the rest of the story. I hope you enjoy.
GT tackle notes
Carpenter MH80H, MH79XH and TBL 80/40 all accounted for GTs.
I was extremely impressed to see Black Hole Cape Cod Special popping rods in action for the first time (both graphite and nano versions) - very nice rods indeed at an attractive price tag. Ed caught the biggest GT of the trip of the graphite version and it handled the fish most impressively.
Successful GT lures:
Carpenter Sea Frog 120 twinhook
Heru Cubera 150
ASWB SS185
Carpenter Kattobi 145.
The vast majority of GT strikes came to chuggers.
GTs
Truly giant slab of a GT taken on a Heru Cubera 150:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/gtbig1_zps2b05513c.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/gtbig3_zps74b12d87.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/gtbig2_zpsa6f8812f.jpg)
Monster GT on a Carpenter Sea Frog 120:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/GTmarkbig2_zpsae79786b.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/GTmarkbig1_zps795edc8e.jpg)
Two very solid GTs both on Heru Cubera 150:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/gtedagain2_zpse8e901ee.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/gtedagain1_zpsbafcd161.jpg)
Very big and solid fish on an ASWB SS185:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/edgt01mark_zps52f2d3df.jpg)
And just to prove there are some smaller ones - a GT on Carpenter Kattobi 145:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/gtmark1_zpsca9dc02d.jpg)
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Some popping by-catch
Massive Yellowspot - biggest I have ever seen:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/yellowspotbig_zpsc7118844.jpg)
Nice Wahoo - the only one that did not bite us off (grrrrr.....):
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/wahoo_zpse88fda45.jpg)
Truly huge Queenfish - so many of these it became tiresome!:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/queenfishreallybig_zps3d31b600.jpg)
Black-tip trevally:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/blacktipmark_zps4bc29e92.jpg)
Kil's nice YFT:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/yellowfin_zps854b22ba.jpg)
Ed with the only Long-tailed Tuna:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/Longtailtuna_zps46d0d1c3.jpg)
Kil with a solid yellow=spot:
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/KilYellowspot_zps840f1dd4.jpg)
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A small selection of the light tackle madness
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/goldenEd2_zps3985e171.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/goldenEd1_zps698efffe.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/goldenkil_zpsc3c01c86.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/queenfishlight1_zps831996c1.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/diamondEd_zps31c78f78.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/bluefishagain_zpsc67cdf54.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/queenfishkil_zps55d0f34b.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/breammark1_zps85e96101.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/breamkil_zpsc608ad9c.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/breammark2_zps6cf69d8c.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/edpermit_zps4424b207.jpg)
(http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac239/markinbali/Oman%20March%202013/permitmark_zpsfcad8cf4.jpg)
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THAT'S IT!!!!!!!! I'm going.........;)
Amazing that is all. Can say
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Great report Mark.
Those Permit and goldens are insane!!!!!!
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Mark,
I enjoyed reading both reports!
Even when things are slow, the whole experience is world class.
October better hurry up!
Regards,
Trevor
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Thanks Trevor. The GTs were a bit slow for sure but some real quality examples caught nonetheless. Lots of hard work and some creative think about locations were certainly required.
The inshore light tackle top-water was far from slow though! I knocked off a long time bucket list fish (permit) and pb'd many others. 27 species caught with top water lures in 6 days!
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Looks absolutely sensational Mark! Very excited looking at those pics!!! :o :D :D
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As i allready wrote to you, great job mate. I am looking foreward to go with you in october
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Some big fish there Mark, great variety, still cant get over those massive bream..
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Great work Mark and Co!
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Get r Done! Awesome stuff Mark, Ed, and Kil!
Mark I was beginning to think something happened to you haven't seen a post anywhere from you in a while, now I know why :). Digging your green shades, You need to smile man! I would have ear to ear grins fishing there lol ;D.
Aloha
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Simon - yes mate, already looking forward to October :)
Nathan - it is a truly world class place to fish mate. Can't recommend it highly enough. The variety of species to be had on top-water lures is just mind-blowing. And the GTs just speak for themselves.
Luke - thanks mate. The GT fishing was similar to when you were there earlier in March I think - fish hard to find and not in the "normal" places!
Charles. Hah! The smile thing has become something of a running joke :) . I love those Costa shades.
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Hi Mark
Great report! Interested to know what did/didn't work on the light gear front?i.e successful lures, leader strength etc
Cheers
Mick
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Hi Michael
On the light top water fishing:
I fished the whole trip with PE2 and was under-gunned some of the time. Looking back at it now, bravado took over when common sense says PE3. I got buried many times by golden trevally and permit. PE2 is fine for the fish that stay in the top of the water column when hooked, but when it is goldens or permit getting their heads down, you need a lot of luck to stay alive. So my practical advice would be to fish PE3 which lessens the fun a bit, but you will land more fish.
On leader I was using 50 lb and I think Ed does the same and also goes up to 70lb.
As for lures...... an absolute favourite of mine for this type of fishing in Oman is Orion Mister Joe 35. Extremely effective on everything from trevallies to bream and very easy to fish. I was also doing well with the Adhek Baby Goby (14 cm) until a barracuda bit off the only one I had with me. You should do OK with any quality stickbait in the 10-14 cm range, either pure surface types or sub-surface lures. For the bream, they love smashing poppers as much as anything else and Ed always has great success with the little Yozuri Hydro Poppers.
Hope that helps a bit.
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Awesome report and congrats on the fine catches. I'm doing a trip down there at the end of the month and am as excited about trying to land a decent .GT as i am about doing some light tackle spinning. That report has giving me some serious fishing fever. Thanks for sharing.
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Amazing stuff Mark - definitely 'on the list'!
Dan
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Thanks Mark - great info!
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Russell - it would be a strange angler indeed who did not get excited by the type of fishing we experienced. The very best of luck to you at the end of April.
Dan and Michael, thanks for the replies :) .
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Great report Mark, appreciate you taking the time to write that. Loved having a week fishing hard with you guys .. Kil was great and huge respect to any dude who at 65 travels to crazy remote places alone and then throws 200gs of lure at some of the biggest GT on the planet! I am also very impressed with the Black Hole blanks .. I can cast a lure a flipping mile with them and the action is fantastic considering how light the rod is.
As you well know i find the light tackle equally on par with throwing huge lures all day at the Geets .. its just so good to mix it up and land such bloody awesome fish like Permit, Golden, Diamonds etc. Perfect rememdy to feeling good when GTs not going balistic. Anyone coming here is missing out if they dont spend a day or two targetting these inshore brutes.
Chris Dennis and co had a great trip, on the last day we boated 2 well over 60 and 150++cms and 2 over the 50kg mark all in a few hours. Will follow up with some pics of the PIGS, bit reluctant at the moment to start yet another thread on S.Oman.
Just finished having a pint and dinner with Rich Foong and co in Salalah, lets see what the next week brings testing new Ripple Fisher rods .. hopefully more of the same :)
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Great job Ed.. ;)
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Awsome report mate, and Permit on surface!! That is unreal
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Ed,
I've seen some photo's of Chris's group's fish.
Absolute monsters.
Regards,
Trevor
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I saw those as well Trevor (on Facebook at least). Bloody excellent fish and more evidence that the season is indeed late this year.
It livened up on the GT front in our last two days there and Chris and co arrived the day I finished fishing. Also those guys deserve some good luck after previous mishaps.
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Some pics below of the last few days after you left bud. Victor Matanov fished with us last year in October and landed an incredible fish mid 60's, bloody bloke has the cheek to come back and land another 2 in a row over the 60kg mark and both plus 150cm. Crazy .. very glad the boys had a great trip and keeping fingers crossed original groupie Ben Lovelace will be back to join them next season. Enjoy the pics .. loads more of March etc here - www.facebook.com/noboundariesoman or contact us through our webpage www.noboundariesoman.com.
(http://s9.postimg.org/4v63tdyzv/483765_561743320523192_1622977955_n_1.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/4v63tdyzv/)
(http://s9.postimg.org/k55z0kui3/63579_561743333856524_1854091083_n_1.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/k55z0kui3/)
(http://s9.postimg.org/fxb6rtt2j/6759_561743207189870_256921711_n_1.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/fxb6rtt2j/)
(http://s9.postimg.org/rp3ngdd2j/69417_561743523856505_1687334481_n_2.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/rp3ngdd2j/)
(http://s9.postimg.org/rdm73lwmj/564559_561743583856499_709925810_n_1.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/rdm73lwmj/)
(http://s9.postimg.org/ggkveu9uz/282947_511416028889255_1402030278_n_1.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/ggkveu9uz/)
(http://s9.postimg.org/bj7atq7vv/17211_561880273842830_326915217_n_1.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/bj7atq7vv/)
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Nice work Ed!
What were the measurements?
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Great stuff from Victor, Chris and co!
I think my last words to them were "you have timed your trip well" - how true that tuned out to be :) . Couple of truly massive fish there. Victor seems to be a real golden arm for giant 150 cm+ GTs.
Tremendous stuff and I am so pleased that all the hard work in March is now paying off with you guys finding some seriously big GTs.
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Some serious fish there guys!!!!
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When I fished Salmon in Salmon River in Pulaski, NY, I drove up 7 hours and just observed to see how they catch salmon and what kind of tackle they use and came back two days later with right tackle.
My first Southern Oman trip was the same. I observed how Ed and Mark fished GT and what kind of lures they used.
I got a pretty good idea and I am ready for my next trip to Southern Oman in early Oct. I am pretty confident I can use lighter tackle even for 50kg - 60 kg GT.
Here are videos which show beauty of Oman on the way to Salalah.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/ksong/salalahVideo1Kil/th_MVI_1602_zps2c9ff33d.jpg) (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/ksong/salalahVideo1Kil/MVI_1602_zps2c9ff33d.mp4)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/ksong/salalahVideo1Kil/th_MVI_1631_zps62c772b2.jpg) (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/ksong/salalahVideo1Kil/MVI_1631_zps62c772b2.mp4)
I got a phone call from Saudi Arabia and the gentleman said they have great Dogtooth jigging and decent GT popping there.
I never visited Middle East until I fished in Southern Oman and I might visit Middle East again this month or next month. :)
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I finally got to meet the man who makes more posts than everyone else on GT Popping combined !
Good to see you getting amongst the monsters and also finding time to put a few beginners on the right track as well, that was appreciated and held us in good stead when the fish decided to cooperate :)
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:-[
Can't tell you how pleased I was when Ed messaged me to say how well you guys had done Chris :). Pleasure finally meeting you and bloody well done!