Summer Heat in Musandam Oman

[Nick Bowles]

After about a month of not fishing and staying mainly indoors in the Desert Heat which is averaging about 43 degrees C everyday, Jon, Barry and Craig did a trip up to the Musandam on our 32ft Center Console and both the fishing and weather was red hot!! With the water temperature sitting around 34 degrees C it is amazing that fish will still hunt and feed in these waters. it goes against most things that we as fisherman think about when it comes to water temp. Most of the big GTs have moved off to deeper water but seems that because there is a lot of baitfish around some fish have stayed to brave the summer heat! The guys were putting buffs and towels around their necks with crushed ice to keep cool! Anything for a fish!! Love it!

The guys stayed at GT House in Musandam and fished early the next day with Anura and Hassan, the guys caught 3 sailfish, 4 small GTs, 1 queenfish and Hassan our Omani Captain lost a monster kingfish estimated at over the 50kg mark on stickbait. All the fish were caught on stickbaits or jigs. It was a great day as all the guys caught their fist sailfish an on light tackle.

Looks like our season is going to start a month early in Northern Oman, which is awesome! So it is a mad rush now to get the boats back in the water and start caching some fish!!

We have a few more trips this coming week so hopefully we will survive the heat and catch some good fish!

Gear:
Rods: Hots 77XH, Smith KGS70MH, Racepoint 200, Shimano Terez
Reels: Stella 18k, Twin Power 8K, Accurate SR12
Lures: Ocean Active Stickbaits, Siren, Shout Jigs.

Cheers,
Nick


Jon bending on his first sailfish

Sail jumping

Jon very happy with a very well deserved sail!

Happy Happy!

Releasing to fight another day

Craig fighting his sail

Close to the boat

Craig very happy with his first sail caught on a Smith KGS70MH

Craig releasing his sail

Hassan bending on the monster kingfish on the Hots 77XH, unfortunately the hooks pulled.

Barry with on of the small GT on stickbait

Jon with a small GT on jig.

[Nathan Cefai]

Saily time good work mate

[Nick Bowles]

Sailies are thick at the moment, awesome on the light tackle but bloody hard to hook up on stickbaits, hopefully master the three single hook set up on the stickbaits!

Cheers,
Nick

[Ben Lovelace]

I'll bring the crushed ice, let's go!!!!!!!!

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Ben, We going to try a couple of charters over the coming week, when you able to go?? Maybe test the rods? Stay a night at the villa before and get an early start. We also putting together a weekend liveaboard if there is enough interest at short notice so we can get out of the heat and into to the AC during the middle of the day, most probably next weekend. We will use both boats and looking to get 8 people together.

Cheers,
Nick

[Chris Dennis]

We just booked some trips but our first one is in October - looking at those sailies maybe we should brave the heat as well and think about some earlier dates !
What type and size of stickbaits worked best for the sails ?

[Ben Lovelace]

Hey Nick, I'll have to check with the BOSS, my wife, but send me the details on both

This is when you know your addicted, fishing in 48 C temps.

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Chris, I think Richie came in and booked a few trips. It is a tough call the fish are there usually from end of August, but have come earlier this year. The fishing should be good but the heat is hectic! But normally Aug/Sept are very good months for species and quantity. We going so if you keen give us a shout! Might change our tunes after a couple of sauna trips!

Hi Ben, Will send some details once we got the plans together. Definitely now we have problems with addiction when we heading out in temps you can slow cook a chicken in! 

Cheers,
Nick

[Ben Lovelace]

I bet I can make beef jerky on the runway right now.

[Nick Bowles]

And cook some eggs for breakie on the engine covers! So now we got fishing and food sorted out!

[Matt Born]

sign me up!!!
 
love it that Hassan wears the same track suit as he does in winter.....

[Andrew Susani]

Man you guys are certainly pushing the boundaries of human existence, taking on the hard task of working lures and battling monsters in that sort of temperature.  Is there much humidity?  We nearly die here when it is mid 30s, but the humidity is 80-95% almost every day in summer 

Interesting that you are smashing the sailfish at the moment, they are getting them north of here at the moment, along with small marlin.  Next year we might head north in winter for a few days and see if we can find some - it would be incredible to see one materialise behind a lure here but I don't think they are too common locally.

Are you finding them in the same locations as the GTs?  Or in more open water?

[Barry Kurten]

Hi Andrew,

Thankfully there is not as muh humidity up in the Musandam as there is elsewhere in the UAE, so it makes it a little more fishable  , But still very hard work and slightly not so clever on our part  .. Air temps are between late 30's and mid 40's. Water temp is also up in the 30's.
But when you are desperate to fish, its never too hot

The sailfish are all over the place in the Musandam at the moment and all those that we hooked, and those that we landed and those that we had follow, were all while fishing for GT's. You see this big black figure in the water behind your stickbait and if they are keen to eat , they hit the lure , if not, they just swim up to the boat to get the heart racing 

Cheers
Barry

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Matt, This is right up your ally! A bit extreme! Hassan at least cuts down on cupboard space and can put more tackle!!

Hi Andrew, If the fish are there we don;t have much option, got to go!! We leaving early morning and usually back by midday so it is not to bad. For the fishing as Barry said the sails are in the same places as the GTs. Quite a unique place the Musandam as the mountains drop into the sea and you have a small shallow ledge about 3-5m where the GTs partol and then drops into 20-60m of water. So can do GT and bluewater fishing at the same time, depends which side of the boat you cast!

Hi Barry, Round 2 next week? Hopefully I'll make it this time??

Cheers,
Nick

[Nick Bowles]

The last couple of days I spent up in the Musandam. It was great to get back to home base after traveling around the last couple of months. Anura and Mangala have done an excellent job of fixing up GT House with new paint, pictures, paving etc. Really makes a difference and the place is looking amazing, almost have to behave ourselves! After setting up the tackle and having Anuras famous Sri Lankan Chicken Curry we headed for bed.

Early up the next morning a bit bleary eyed but very excited. Quite something to head for the marina before it is light and the temp is 37 degrees C and sweat is already pouring off the forehead! We loaded up the bat and headed for the top of the Musandam. On the way we passed a lot of big shoals of small tuna and quenfish. We were mainly targeting sailfish on fly but obviously had a few sneaky GT rods.

We got to the top and thought it would be rude not to do a few drifts for GTs. On the first drift Richard went tight and a GT on his light gear but pulled the hooks close to the boat. We did another couple of drifts and I was using my light 30lb spinning gear with a small pressbait when I hooked up to a small MT (mini trevally). I hooked the fish across the current in calm water behind one of the rock outcrops, but when I pulled the fish into the 6knot current all hell broke loose and the small fish started giving me a tough time, awesome stuff!! I would gain a bit of line and then he would put his head down in the current and fly off again. After about a 10 minute fight I got the fish to the boat and landed my first GT for the new 2012/13 season! One of the smallest GTs I have caught but it was totally awesome and I loved every minute, just goes to show a GT is a GT no matter what the size!!

For the rest of the morning we put out teasers and targeted salies. We finally got a sailfish up on the teasers and teased the fish to the boat, pulled the teasers out, took the boat out of gear and I put the fly out towards the fish, the fish came took a look and turned away, I ut another cast out and the fish came back with a mission and hit the fly, I struck the fish twice with the 12# outfit but the hooks pulled and our saily swam away laughing at us!!

But in all it was a great day out and I was very chuffed to have my first GT for the season. When we got back to the marina it was about 47 degreesc! It will be a month or so before any of the bigger fish start showing up in the Musandam and another 2 months before we start in Southern Oman but you never now we might get lucky and land a few big fish early!


Anura in training to be most probably one of the first Sri Lankan GT Captains!!

Gear ready

Richard

Bending into a feisty little GT

First GT of the season for me! Size does not always matter!

Waiting for the sails, can be quite tiring waiting, very hard not to go back to casting lures!!

Capt Cameron, looking for the fish.

Al Sayyad 2 out 32 ft.

Cheers,
Nick