Sailfish on Stickbait

[Nick Bowles]

We have been trying for a while now to catch a sailfish with stickbiats and finally we puzzled one out on Monday!
 
I went up to the Musandam to join up with Grant and his Dad Dave the winners of the competition with Off the Charters TV program. I met up with the guys and had a few beers and an awesome chicken curry cooked by Anura at GT House. We talked over a few tactics for the next day and made up some gear. After seeing all the sailfish over the last few weeks I tried a new set up with a stickbait for the sailfish. I read an article I think it was a kiwi guy that was fishing in Rompin with stickbaits and using assist cord and single hooks and he said the rig had worked well, so I thought it was the type of set up that would work well for us.
 
I set up a 90gr Ocean Active pink Ulua stickbait with two assist cords off the back with 2 x 5/0 Owner Gorilla livebait hooks and then off the middle hook I put a single assist cord with a 7/0 Owner Gorilla hook. I made the assist cord off the middle hook about 8cm so that the bend of the hook was a couple centimeters short of the back of the lure and then the two back assists were about 12cm long. Now when I looked at the rig it was by no means a beautiful things or something that looked legal. But at the end of the day we have tried so many different rigs with limited success. So if not why not!
 
We woke up sparrows crack to an awesome morning with some coffee and breakfast. We got on the water and headed straight for the top of the Musandam. The pressure has been low and not to many fish feeding although there is a lot of showings on the finder. So we were hoping for the fishing to pick up. We got to the first fishing spot and started throwing a few lures for the GTs. The current was perfect, the water clean and loads of baitfish but the GTs were not playing the game.
 
We moved to a couple of areas. I finally managed a small GT on the jig with a new Jekyll 411 rod I was testing. The rod is small but awesome fun! We moved again and did a long drift along one of the walls and had a couple of bigger GTs come up for the lures but nothing stuck. Then out of nowhere we had two sailfish come up after the big stickbaits, this is when the adrenalin kicked in and lures flew in every direction! Grant had a sailfish after his lure and I was watching him and not my "sailfish" bling bling lure coming to the boat. As I looked around at my lure I had a sailfish all over the lure and with one more twitch the sail hit the lure and I set the hooks with a good few strikes! No way that fish had a chance!
 
The sail dropped vertically down tail first shaking his head. This went on for about a minute with the sail sitting about 5m below the surface vertically shaking his head. Must be that he had hit so many lures in the passed few weeks and never got hooked before!! We started to get worried the fish would come straight up and land in the boat! The fish then turned horizontal and headed for Iran at a 100 and plenty kms an hour! After about 200m of 50lbs braid pealing off the SR12 and KGS bending straight from the butt the fish slowed and I got him under control, after a few awesome jumps and fish started to come back towards the boat. About 5 minutes later and a few last jumps I finally had my sailfish on stickbait free casting! We got a few pictures and released to fight another day.
 
After a bit of a break and a swim we carried on fish. We caught a few more small GTs and a kingfish on jig. Grant got a massive bigeye trevally on light tackle. We had a couple of big GTs come up for the stickbaits but none of them hooked up. We also had another sailfish on briefly but threw the hook.
 
We got back to GT House and had another excellent meal cooked by Richard of Wagyu Steaks, Jumbo Prawns and a few glasses of wine! But in all it was a fantastic day out on the water and already a great season starting to unfold!
 
cheers,
Nick

[colin tecofsky]

Awwwwwsome      Nick well done hoping to do the same to a NZ stripey this summer thats if they cooperate bet your still fizzing.

[David Noble]

Very nice Nick 

Had them one time I went to Kuala Rompin, Malaysia - 3 sailfish all lit up and going nuts over the stickbait at the rod tip.. Plenty of strikes and follows. Haven't yet converted a hookup to actually landing a fish, cagey buggers...
Gotta say, everytime I read your reports, the photo's, scenery and fishery you have all look great. That boat is a stunner, locally built to your specs is it?

Cheers David

[Jay Burgess]

Amazing photos as usual Nick, thanks for keeping us updated!

Congrats on the sailfish.. had one Sail go nuts over a popper in 6m of water here in Western Australia but no hookup  GT trebles aren't the best for stickfaces!

[Jonas Holmsgard]

Hi Nick,

Congratulations! Those sails looks like a lot of fun on the lighter gear. We have had them chasing poppers and flappers in Panama when fishing for roosters and cuberas. Only a couple of hookups and jumps on spinning tackle though, never landed one while casting. Maybe I will get a shot in November;-)

/jonas

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Colin, I was really chuffed to have caught the sailie on stickbait as we have had a lot over the last couple of weeks and the trebles are no good! I think the articel that I read where I got the idea for the set up was a Kiwi and he was also planning on trying the rig for stripys!! Really hope you get one! Keep us updated!

Hi David, I've heard Rompin is awesome with loads of sails, on the bucket list! The sailies at the boat is hectic, lures flying everywhere, screaming, groaning etc! All good fun! Many thanks for the comments, Musandam and Oman is an amazing place and taken us sometime to get everything right but slowly winning. The boat is a locally built Seamaster by a company called Hareb Marine, they have modified a few things to help us.....

Hi Jay, The trebles were driving me nuts! Fish on, fish off, fish on fish off!!! The problem is that when you fishing for GTs you don;t expect a sailie to come up in shallow water and once it is pricked by the treble that fish is heading for the horizon!

Hi Jonas, Definitely we will have a go in November, they will still be here in good numbers. We have two rigs that we hope will be successful so will keep a rod spare with a "sailie rig"!

cheers,
Nick

[Kasey Leong]

Hi Nick,

You'll find that the way most people rig to fish for Sails at Rompin here are with 'Baker rigs' both off the middle and off the back, using either cable ties or rubber bands.

Might I also suggest using finer gauge (and really, really sharp) hooks, as you don't have the same pressures as GT popping or jigging. The finer gauge helps in hook penetration, somewhat.

Some people do use assists but nowhere near as long as the one you've rigged up. Whatever works, I suppose!

I'm by no means an expert on sails and topwater, but I would say that choosing when to strike on a sail can make the difference - and also a big source of frustration.

Hooking a sailfish with trebles is almost impossible - forget about it!

[Barry Kurten]

Howzit Nick,

QUOTE ... "Must be that he had hit so many lures in the passed few weeks and never got hooked before!!"

Are you trying to tell me something !?!? 

Great catch man !!!!!
Cant wait to get back from holiday so i can give the Pink Ulua a go up there !
Nice trick with the assist hooks and thanks for sharing the info for those of us who are a little "unfortunate" when it comes to hooking and landing the Musandam sailies 

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Kasey, MAny thanks for the info, I appreciate all of the help and advice I can get with sails, as we have seen a lot over the last two seasons but never really targeted them and when they have hit the GT lures with the trebles as you say no chance! With out second boat coming into the Musandam we now have a good chance to make this into a sailfish destination, which is exciting for us, but only if we catch them!! One of the reasons I used the longer assists and heavier hooks was when the sail hit the lure that the hooks and assist would work like grappling hooks and the weight of the hook give momentum to hook up the fish. Was just what we thought would work sitting around the fire talking fishermans tails! But I'm back from Maldives next week and will try the rig you suggested. Would you have a picture by any chance?

Mr Barry, It was totally not intentional................ I tried to call you on the day to give you the news but I think you had already flown to SA, was awesome big guy! When you back we will arrange a trip and just use sticks to target the sails. Found them in a new place. Hope you have an awesome time at home and send through the pictures of the kob!!

Cheers,
Nick

[Grant Marshbank]

Awesome report Nick and well done again on the Sailie!!!  Was stoked to have been part of the experience!  Thanks again for a fantastic trip!!

Enjoy Maldives ya lucky fella!

[Nick Bowles]

Howzit Grant,

It was great to meet you guys and had a really good time! hopefully next time the big big geet will play the game!!

cheers,
Nick

[Kasey Leong]

Not my picture, but you can see it like this:



I hear the important thing is to make sure the gape of the hooks sit out/clear the belly or thickness of the lure

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Kasey,

Many thanks for the picture. I'll give this rig a go this week when we go up to the Musandam. My thought about the earlier rig is that when the sail hits to lure the hooks swing into action and the momentum from the swinging hooks is what gets the hook up. But this rog looks like the wide gap of the hooks will work well.

Hope fully have a couple of pictures asap!!

Cheers,
Nick

[Matt Kris]

Whoa!!