Hots in Oman with Ocean Active

[Nick Bowles]

Over the last two years I have been lucky enough to get to now Minami-san the President of Hots and Chris Teng the Field tester for Hots and owner of Wei World in Taiwan. Minami-san has been a great help for my trips to Japan for the Sportsfishing Show and Chris I had the privilege to fish with in North Carolina for Bluefin Tuna and also met up at the shows in Japan. Both really awesome guys and incredibility knowledgeable when it comes to popping and jigging!

This year at the show I spent a lot of time discussing with team Hots the rods and products for our new relationship in Middle East and South Africa. I also wanted to test out a few of the rods in our Omani waters for the big GTs. Minami-san got the rods to me within 24 hours and I was lucky enough to be able to carry them back to Oman with me from the show. I was going to test the Gipang 77XH (for stickbaits), Gipang 77XXXH (for poppers) and the Gipang 711MH (light poppers and stickbaits). I wanted to test the rods before Minamin-san and Chris arrived for their trip in Southern Oman so I could have some feedback and ask any questions I may have.


UPS delivery of the rods

Weapons of GT destruction!

I left Japan with my new Hots toys and little did I realize that I was going to get some amazing results on the rods! They exceeded all my expectations and I can now say with the utmost confidence that they are great rods well suited for big GTs. I tested mainly the 77XXXH on my first trip to Southern Oman and landed a 50kg+ GT in next to no time along with several 40kg fish. The rod is easy to cast, has a lot of power and is especially easy on the body for such a strong rod. Then the story of the 711MH will be revealed in this report!


77XXXH in action on a Southern Oman Bus

50kg+ GT landed in about 3 minutes on the 77XXXH

I had been communicating with Minami-san and Chris making all the arrangements for Southern Oman from tickets to transportation. Finally the day came and I met the guys at our villa in Shuwaymiyah on the mainland. We had a great first local meal. The guys were really tired but in true fisherman style they set up all the rods and tackle which was really great for me to see, I did a serious case of stealing with my eyes. I could see from the start that both Minami-san and Chris new what they were doing and we were in for a great trip! We got to bed and fell asleep very quickly.


The guys rigging up in our mainland villa

The alarms went off with it still dark outside. A quick shower and breakfast and we left the villa to meet up with Capt Saoud on one of the 39ft Center Consoles in the mainland marina. We had left the boat in the water so we could get an early start. We headed out to our island villa to drop off the gear and get straight into the fishing. The boyz were itching to get into the GTs after the reports and pictures of the last trip!


Loading all the gear to head out the the island villa at sunrise

One of the 39ft Center Consoles

We started about 1km from the marina and on the first drift Minami-san had a good hit and set the hooks! Minami-san was using the Gipang 75XXH and after a great fight got a good 38kg GT to the boat! Awesome to get straight on the board and good to get my nerves settled! It is always tough on any trip till you get the first GT then you can breath a bit easier! Another drift and Chris hooked up and the new BT73XXXH (same rod as Chris landed the 320lbs+ Bluefin in Hatteras on our last trip). It was a small fish and Chris made short work of it with the new rod! Now everyone was happy and I think the long travel time was already forgotten!!


Minami-san putting in the casts with the 75XXH

Minami-san into the first fish of the trip.

Great first fish as a warm up.

Chris into the next fish

Not the biggest Oman GT but they all count!

We fished a few more places and moved around the islands trying to locate the fish. But the tide was full and not much current so we decided to go and do a bit of jigging. We have been doing quite a bit of exploring and jig on most trips as there is great potential and we have caught some really good fish. It also allows us to rest GT spots when they are not at there optimum. Minami-san and Chris are pros when it comes to jigging so it was a pleasure to watch the guys and learn a few new techniques and also to understand why they were using certain jigs and colours etc. Almost straight away Chris hooked into some nice AJs, Minami-san also caught a yellow snapper which we kept for the BBq which was one of the best fish I have ever eaten! After an hour or so jigging the current started to pick up so we continued on the GT search!


Fishing one of the small islands

Chris in on the jig and 48XXH jigging rod

Saoud landing an AJ for Chris

Chris's first Oman AJ on a Silver Ghost jig

Another AJ

Chris casting off the anchor hatch

Shell Shaping popper, working like a dream!

The fish hitting the popper

Chris in action, putting the pressure!

Hallaniyat Monster

Battling to lift the big girl

Awesome colours

Side shot to see the real size

Very happy team Hots

After a lot of high 5s, hugs, whoops, more high 5s, we got a few pictures and got the big girls back in the water. Straight away she gave a few good kicks and away she went ready to smash another popper another day! On the boat the adrenalin was pumping and the excitement was overwhelming! A true monster of a GT caught on the new prototype BT73XXXH and on our first day of the trip! Things could not get better!

After a good long break of discussing the fish, the take and rod we decided it was time to reset the drift and start again. Hard act to follow! We did a couple more drifts and moved to a few new positions, I was watching Minami-sans lure, a big fish hit the lure from directly under the lure, fantastic take, Minami-san set the hook and the game was on! A good strong fight and Minami-san had the fish to the boat. A good 40kg GT. We got a few good pictures and released the fish.


Minami-san with a good fish

The day finally started coming to an end with the sun starting to dip over the horizon. We tried a few more spots and turned and headed for home! We arrived back in the Marina and were greeted by the team. A great start to the trip 4 GTs with one true monster! We all got showered and settled into the villa. A good braai (BBq) with fresh fish and some fresh fillets pan fried, nothing like fresh fish! After a few game plans were set in place for the next day we all got to bed early for a good nights solid sleep.


On the way home.

Another great day in Southern Oman coming to an end.

Little bi of sashimi in the evening!

[Andrew Susani]

Hot's could make a killer brochure out of this post!    

Great stuff again, crazy that the monster G didn't reef you in that depth of water on such a long run   

[Dmitrii Novgorodtcev]

Great report, Nick, as usual. I have been reading your recentt reports about Oman and this place has become an obsession for me!

I noticed that all Hots GT rods have K-guides. Not many makers use this type of guides for GT rods. They used to be considered not so powerfull in comparison to regular guides and making more noise when casting. Your reports prove that these guides are no problem in power, but What do you personally think about K-guides and their usage after testing most powerfull Hots GT rods?

[Nick Bowles]

Chris bending

Another good Southern Oman GT

I had still been working my 125gr blue OA Popper on the 711MH. I was putting in some long casts trying to call the fish from far and wide as the water was calm as glass. I was busy day dreaming when a massive fish came up directly from under the popper and caught me by surprise! The fish missed the lure and turned around for a second strike, I put my rod flat and started to wind like a wild man! This just angered the fish more and she came flying after the popper with mouth open, she looked like a whale shark coming towards me with open mouth! The fish engulfed the popper about 10m from the boat, totally amazing hit, I pumped the fish about 10 times hoping and small 125gr popper with ST66 3/0s would dig in deep and hold! We were in 9m of water and luckily the fish swam towards the boat and passed the bow, I had the spool locked in my hand and trying with all my power to hold the fish, the 711MH was bent over double but amazingly enough had an immense amount of backbone for a small rod.


Launching a few lures

Bending on the light rod

Great backbone for a small rod

There it is, 711MH mildly strong!!

Amazing fish on the light rod, very happy!

Check the shoulders on this fish!

Great to have caught this fish with Minami-san on the boat, very special

One last picture, not easy to pick up this big girl!

Swimming away strong!

Hallaniyat Shower, best part after a hard fight!

We tried for a few more hours but the current had died and the sea was flat with not much happening, so we ended up heading for the deeper water and did a bit of jigging, we caught a few more AJs and then as the sun started dipping we headed for home. Another amazing day in Southern Oman!

After a great meal and a few stories of the days fishing we all headed for bed. But the weather report was not looking good and wind was predicted for the following day. During the night the wind arrived early and started pumping around 15 knots.

We woke up the next morning to a lot of white horses blowing from the SW. We had breakfast and ventured out. After a few hours of rock and rolling we had a decision to make. We were going to get a gap in the wind early afternoon but it looked like the wind was going to blow for the remainder of the trip. I made the decision to stop the trip short and try drive up to our Musandam operation to try and get another good days fishing in. We had caught some big fish already and thought it would be good to try another destination to get some variety! We headed back to the island, packed our bags and headed back to the mainland. A hard decision knowing there are a lot of big fish around. But I thought it would be good to turn this trip into the Oman Odyssey trip and show Minami-san and Chris all of Oman and fish both our operations.

We arrived back on the mainland, packed the truck and headed up North. We made it as far as Haimah in the dark and decided to stop at a small hotel, we check in and then headed to town for a local restaurant and dinner with the local towns folk! A true experience and some great food! Not something that will be in your travel guide!


Oil pumps in the desert

Nothing for miles!

Chris always playing a few jokes, he tried a bit of hitch hiking in the desert but not to much luck!

Dinner at the local restaurant in Haimah, awesome food.

Haimah Hotel

After a good nights sleep we carried on up through the desert to Muscat, where we had a bit of western fastfood at Mc Donalds and carried on up to Musandam in the north. The trip took 12 hours but was a proper road trip with good company and conversation. It was good to be back in Musandam and meet up with all of the team. I have been away for a while so was great to relax with Anura and the team sorting out everything from a good prawn curry to huge steaks on the braai!


The Musandam villa "GT House"

Fresh longtail tuna sashimi around the fire pit

Dinner outside at our villa in the Musandam. Great to be back in the Musandam, place is amazing.

We met up with Matt Born and Gerhard Ziehenberger they were staying at our villa. They were both fishing on the 32ft Center Console and we would be fishing on the 40ft Center Console, so the competition was on!! We all had a great evening and dinner and got a good nights sleep!

We were all up early the next morning for a quick breakfast but it seemed the wind had followed us, but we decided to try get out and luckily after an hour the wind dropped and we had a great day out. We managed to get 1 GT on top water and 3 GTs on Jig plus a kingfish on jig. The fish were not big and biggest in the 25kg range. We also lost two good fish that broke one line off and the second the hooks pulled. Matt and Gerhard on the second boat got 2 GTs jigging with a big fish around 42kgs on jig. So in all a worth while move going up to Musandam. Great to be back in home waters and catching some good fish!


Loading up the boat in the morning

Traveling up in the two boats early morning

Team Hots

Minami-san letting loose

Famous current of the Musandam.

Minami-san fighting his first Musandam GT

Good GT

Chris hooked up on jig

Chris with a GT on jig

Me getting into the action on jig.

Chris with a kingfish on jig

Orange spot trevally on jig.

Longtail tuna some more sashimi!

Our Captain Damon, pink buff, long story!!

Matt and Gerhard on the 32ft with Capt Cameron. Having a bit of lunch

Gerhard with a big GT on jig

Team shot

Team shot at the villa with Cameron, Anura and Mangala

On the last day we headed for Dubai and did a bit of sight seeing going to the Burj Al Arab (7 Star Hotel), Burj Khalifa (Tallest Building, Atlantis and several other places. We also spent a bit of time in the Ocean Active Shop. Was great to sit with Minami-san and Chris and discuss what they thought of the trip and fishing and putting together a list of products from Hots for our shop. Nothing like first hand advise! I think we are going to have some fantastic products very well suited for our fishing!


This is the size of the GT the guys want on their next trip.

In the OA shop in Dubai

Atlantis Hotel on Palm Jumeirah

Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the World

Burj Al Arab 7 star hotel during dinner.

Final dinner with friends and family.


But as all trips they have to come to an end. It was sad to see Minami-san and Chris leave after such a great trip and they have truly become great friends and clients, I look forward to their next trip to Oman in the near future.


Minami-san and Chris with local Arabian head gear.

Cheers,
Nick

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Andrew, Many thanks, we had some great fishing, pictures that definitely a good few brochure shots there that we will be using! I think on the big fish we were very lucky that Chris has some serious power to pull the fish before it got to the bottom. With the big fish you have to be lucky to get them in!! But happy this one did not join the long list of big ones that got away!

Hi Dmitrii, You welcome to come and fish anytime! We have been working on getting our operation up to the required level and now we can focus 100% on fishing as all logistics, lodges, boats etc are running well! I have used a wide range of popping rods over the years but I have not used many rods with K-guides. So it was very interesting for me to use them for a long period and try them out on our big GTs, and all I can say is I'm very impressed and they work very well. I did not get any tangles on the guides and also I was getting some amazing distance on my casts. As for noise I think all rods have noise when casting heavy PE. We caught some monster fish on 73XXXh, 77XXXH and 711XH and they all held up well and were really comfortable and easy to fish with. I'm going to be trying out the 83XH, 79XH and 70MH Rompin, so hopefully a few more good fish will fall victim to the Hots rods.

Cheers,
Nick

[Rob Langridge]

Another fantastic trip report Nick.

That is a colossal of a fish chris caught on the second day of the trip. Its easy to see that skeik ali Minami and skeik ali chris have plenty of character about them with the arabian head gear picture. Great trip great report nick. You are the man at present.

Cheers Rob

[Mark Harris]

Another extremely impressive report Nick and thanks so much for sharing again.

There is almost nothing left to say about the quality of the fish!

Those are a very interesting comments about K-Guides and you are clearly a fan. After hearing that some leading Japanese popping rod makers do not think these are suitable for even medium weight GT rods, it is very interesting that the experienced guys at Hots think otherwise and have put them on their heavy gear.

And, as a total aside, you are the first person I have seen with the same badly colour-matched Stella 10000 set up as me  !

[Dmitrii Novgorodtcev]

Mark,
You can save your "bad color-matched Stella set up" by wearing gold watch with blue band!

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Rob, Classic! Totally agree with you, Sheikh Minami-san and Sheikh Chris are both great guys and a lot of fun on the trip! They are always joking and playing jokes. Really enjoyed fishing with them and we have a couple more trips lined up! Thanks for the comments but I'm lucky to be in a great place with a great team that makes it easy!

Hi Mark, LOL, we either both have great taste or terrible taste! Love this set up! I have only just started using it for the bigger fish but works like a charm!

I have used and tested a lot of popping rods and I was a bit of a skeptic of K-guides but as with most things fishing you have to try new things out, so that is what I did and I find the rods are great and the quality of the rods, guides, weight, binding, warranty everything is really good and I have not found any faults to date. I have put the rods through a lot this month from locking up drags, casting in bad conditions, rod getting banged around etc. I have full confidence in the rods and guides and until something breaks or goes wrong that I can fault. A 62kg GT on the Hots with full drag lock is about as big as you could hope for on any rod. I'll be using a couple of the Hots rods in the future along with my Carpenters and Race Points, I feel that I'm now finally finished with building the arsenal and happy to stop buying rods for a little bit!

Cheers,
Nick

[Mark Harris]

Hi Mark, LOL, we either both have great taste or terrible taste! Love this set up! I have only just started using it for the bigger fish but works like a charm!
Cheers,
Nick

Hah!  No doubt about the quality of the set up. A SOM 16000 spool on a Stella 10000 is my go to set up and once you realise that it handles big fish it is hard going back to the much heavier 18000. Perhaps though I wish I had not bought a blue spool to go with gold and gun metal knob  .

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Mark, The set up can definitely handle big fish and I was impressed with it the last couple of trips! I'll be using it a lot more, but it is also hard to put away the 18K for the heavy lures and when there a few big currents around! But I really enjoy changing between the different set ups, gives a lot of good options for different lures, conditions etc. What is the old saying, When I die I hope my wife does not sell all my fishing equipment for what I told her I paid for it!!

Cheers,
Nick

[Andy Rowe]

Nick, Congratulations on some more trophy mega-fish, it's becoming embarrasing to see you catching these beauties on PE6 gear

So many giants in one area, a truly amazing fishery.

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Andy, Many thanks! Truly amazing place to fish at the moment, and I personally cannot believe all the big fish. I always say if we have a chance at a 50kg+ GT in a whole trip we lucky. But hopefully this will carry on for the rest of the season and clients can get a few more trophies and sore arms!! I think I was more lucky than anything else to get those big fish on PE6. I must say I would never had thought it possible a few months ago.  All good fun!

Cheers,
Nick

[Sami Ghandour]

Glad to see another great trip organized by Ocean Active ended with amazing result!!
well done nick and a big congrats to Minami-san and Chris from Hot's!!!

[Nick Bowles]

Howzit Sami, Many thanks! Looking forward to you arriving next month! Hit it!!