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Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Reports & Expeditions => Topic started by: Colin P on October 11, 2008, 01:09:51 AM
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Did a 5 day trip to Musandam end September, with my wife Marg and Dave Sharples -
Day 1 - Blow-out in every way.
Day 2 - Still windy but not disastrously so. A few small GT for Dave and me on a variety of poppers (130g GT Mania reliable as ever) until I boat a 33kg GT on a 150g Wahoo stickbait. Marg still waiting for her first GT but fishing really well in her first attempt at popping and she does catch a 12kg King on a 125g Cubera popper.
Day 3 - Marg breaks a rod on her first GT! The fish takes right at the boat and dives, breaking her Shimano Lesath 240GTH first above the reel seat, then at the first joint. We know the fish weighs only 10kg because Marg, with a little help, hand-lines it in - it is after all her first GT!! No problem with the drag setting on the Stella, so down to the rod and the power of Musandam GT. Dave and me get a few small GT before the Kings take over the party. Marg has a good King and a 100g Wahoo eaten by a shark - much laughter from Dave and me (Marg, surprisingly, finds it funny too). Dave has a couple of bite-offs from Kings and the pain of losing favourite lures shows. Marg is using my rod by now, Dave has been persuaded by the skipper to use a big popper on his power stick and I catch a 38kg King on a 125g Wahoo - set up on one of Dave's smaller rods! I am a lucky so and so - I think that's what Dave said.
Day 4 - Marg catches her first GT with rod and line intact. Oceanactive had lent her one of their Smiths Offshore Sticks and she boats a 10kg GT on her Cubera popper - so now I have to buy her the same rod as I use! Dave and me catch a few smaller GT but I do get one of 20kg, again on the 150g Wahoo. Dave and Marg suggest that I stop fishing for the rest of the day and Dave persuades me to hand over my 150g Wahoo.
Day 5 - Hard work and only small GT for Dave and me before I hook into another fish on the 150g Wahoo (yes I've taken it back by now). We all assume I have hooked a massive GT as I rush/get dragged to the back of the boat, crushing my wrist as I keep my precious Offshore Stick clear of the guardrail while falling headlong. I manage to stand up (amidst laughter from Marg and Dave) and prepare to dog it out. There follows a muscle wrenching fight with the fish making full use of the strong current we are fishing. The skipper keeps telling me I am winning but it dosen't feel like it as I stagger round and round the boat, feeling all of my 59 years and sweating and swearing, to the barely controlled glee of my wife and friend. Eventually I get the fish to the surface and it's a ******* shark weighing anything from 150-200 pounds! I repeat the word **** about 5 times and the shark obliges by tearing off on another screaming run down-current. I do get the shark to the surface by the side of the boat one more time before my 200 pound twisted leader gives up the ghost. The skipper tells me it was a fun fight and a great tackle test and maybe it was. But I'm not sure I want to hook a big shark in strong current, on popping gear, in 40 degree heat ever again. On the other hand ...........
All in all we had great fun in tough conditions. And however much pain we felt fishing hard in the heat and humidity we just know we are going to do it all again!
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Colin,
Where abouts is this area that you fished?
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Hi Brock,
The Musandam peninsular is part of Oman and stretches up into the Strait of Hormoz which separates the peninsular from Iran. You get there by flying into Dubai (UAE), then driving across country to Dibba, where the guys from Oceanactive have a villa-based charter operation. They have a powerful 40ft fishing boat that motors north for around 1.5 hrs to reach the fishing spots. It's a very barren area (I posted a couple of scenery shots today, in a response to Brandon, under the thread "Introductions" in the "Reefs Edge" forum).
If you want to check out Oceanactive's operation, their website is at www.oceanactive.com.
Hope this is useful.
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Hi Colin,
When is the best time of the year for GT fishing there?
Cheers,
Kai
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Hi Kai,
There is always a chance of big GT during the season September to May (it's just too hot to fish in the other months). I will never again go in September because I found 40plus C uncomfortable - especially when hooked into that ******* shark!
The guys who have fished there lots reckon on fewer but bigger fish in April/May and I would not argue with that having this year been in April (4x30kg plus GT betwen 3 of us in 3 days) and September (1x30kg plus GT between 3 of us in 5 days). You do seem to get a shot at more species during September-November (especially Kings) but if you want to focus on big GT I would look to April/May.
I plan to go back in November next year and May the year after so I'll have more experience on which to base an assessment by end May 2010!!
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Just realised I didn't post any pics of GT in the report. Got a really stupid question!
I know how to add pics to the end of a report but how do you post a pic within a report?
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hi,
u could upload ur pics to a website like http://photobucket.com/, after that, just paste the IMG code anywhere within ur report.
:)
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Thanks - understood. Is it not possible to place jpegs within a report after you have attached them via the browse facility?
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probably this is not possible (i think only), cos most of the guys here posting jpegs in between their report, is using the way which i told u previously
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OK - thanks. Think I'll just load the jpegs at the end!
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Hi Kai,
There is always a chance of big GT during the season September to May (it's just too hot to fish in the other months). I will never again go in September because I found 40plus C uncomfortable - especially when hooked into that ******* shark!
The guys who have fished there lots reckon on fewer but bigger fish in April/May and I would not argue with that having this year been in April (4x30kg plus GT betwen 3 of us in 3 days) and September (1x30kg plus GT between 3 of us in 5 days). You do seem to get a shot at more species during September-November (especially Kings) but if you want to focus on big GT I would look to April/May.
I plan to go back in November next year and May the year after so I'll have more experience on which to base an assessment by end May 2010!!
Thanks Colin. I may have a chance to go Muscat on a business trip so i may extend my stay for this :)
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Apologies to all for previous errors and omissions. I've attached a few pics from the Musandam trip.
Fattest GT I've seen - 104cm long/84cm round - skipper said around 33kg - took a 150g Wahoo a long way off, in current, seemed it wouldn't move at all for a while!
Marg with a GT and the destroyed Shimano rod - she looks remarkably happy considering the cost of the rod - but it was her first GT!
Just shy of 20kg and a really nice looking fish.
Just read your post Kai - do it and catch a big one!
Release shot taken by Dave hanging over the boat and under the water - and I had just lost a shark!!
The pain of playing that ******* shark (strange how everybody else on the boat thought it was great fun)!
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Great report Colin. Can I just ask, to Colin or anyone that knows, is that 38kg king a type of mackerel (it looks similar to what we call a spanish mackerel in Australia, but perhaps slightly different markings).
It is a mighty fish, whatever it is called, but I nearly fell off my chair at the thought of a 38kg king (what we call a king, seriola lalandi) on a popper or anything else for that matter
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Scott - Yes spanish mackeral are called kingfish in Africa etc and other parts of the world. Not sure of there distribution elsewhere worldwide..?
That's a big spaniard and a great effort!
Top report, by the way, that coastline looks remote, rugged and HOT..
Cheers Dave
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Thanks David for clearing that up. That is a serious spaniard and what an awesome capture on a surface lure. Their teeth must make a bit of a mess of paintwork.
By the way, on a side note, I am seriously salivating about my trip with LPB in April after seeing some of the posts on here :o
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I reckon you've got a top holiday planned and will have a ball. 8)
I should be there a few weeks before you, I've got to take some of my own advice and get fit again for summer. Instead it's the weekend and I'm working, too windy and crappy to get out on the kayak for fish around Sydney.
Good luck disguising your 25kg of fishing gear you're taking from your wife..! Family holiday...yeah right! ::)
Cheers Dave
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Hi Dave & Scott - spent most of the weekend at our local pub, drinking beer and watching football and Formula 1 - so didn't sign on to the forum until now!
Glad to read your posts because I suspected that what the guys in Musandam call Kingfish or King Mackerel are similar/same species as what you guys call Spanish Mackerel (being fairly new to this type of fishing and living in England, I had only previously seen these fish on Rex Hunt TV shows!).
Just to clear up a point re the fish in the pic I posted, it was taken on a Wahoo stickbait not a popper, though it did take only an inch or two below the surface because that's how we fish them. We did see other Kings almost as big as this launching themselves vertically at our stickbaits, one or two of them biting through our leaders at the same time. One memorable fish must have jumped 8 feet clear of the water striking at my stickbait - but it missed the lure and the leader completely on the way up and on the way down!
Those teeth do leave some serious marks on the lures but I have been really impressed with the durability of Wahoo stickbaits and GT Mania poppers. Both types of lure have come through major collisions with sizeable Kingfish and GT and occasional mis-timed casts into cliff faces, coming back battered but not destroyed.
Off to the Seychelles early December to see what we can pop and jig there.