Finally we have come to the end of an amazing and very long season! We were lucky enough for our season to be extended by a month with some of the best fishing we have had in Musandam Oman for many years. But finally all good things come to an end and with temperatures going over 45 degreesC or 115 Farenheit we have now closed the season and all the work starts again for the coming season. In all the season exceeded all of our expectations with some incredable fish caught, some amazing places visited, some amazing experiences and memories that will last for many years to come. This is all owed to having a great team, great clients and friends.
When we started this business over 10 years ago as a hobby we never thought it would grow into the company we are today. This has a lot to do with some lucky breaks like finding GTs in Oman and also great help from people around us. As with everything there is always room for improvement and for this coming season we have quite a few new things happening which we will launch when they are ready. We have also been lucky enough to travel a large part of the world fishing for GTs and Tuna in Tokara Japan, Socotra Yemen, Tanzania, Hatteras USA and Cape Cod USA in the last year. I feel strongly to be able to run a business like ours you have to travel and fish different water, meet new and old friends and learn new tricks to be able to bring these home to better our own operation. But here is a round up of all of our trips in various destinations:
Hallaniyat Islands, Southern OmanSouthern Oman has truly become one of the top GT destinations for big GTs and this season was no different with us catching the biggest officially weighed GT ever caught in Oman. When we first started fishing around Hallaniyat Islands with our partner and good friend Ashraf from the small fishing village of Shuwaymiyah on the mainland with no one else about, it was a gamble that truly paid off and opened up the way for GT fishing in Southern Oman and added to our already well established operation in Musandam Northern Oman. We initially found that running from the mainland took up a huge amount of time and logistics so we moved our lodge to the island last season which proved to be one of the best desicions to enable us to operate far more effectivly and to enable more fishing hours, and to fish the correct times of day.
On the island we have increased our accommodation from 5 rooms up to 10 rooms this season so we are able to accommodate up to 20 guests at anyone time on the island. This coming season we have new boats and engines planned to allow us additional capacity and back up. But without a good team none of this would be possible and would like to thank all of our team from our partner in Southern Oman Ashraf through to captains Saud, Cameron, Damon and all the guys looking after the lodge and Kareem for managing the island. Without the proper team to enable us to run the logistics of operating on an island 30 miles off the Coast we would really battle and it has taken time but we have perfected operating in one of the toughest environments in this region.
Upper terrace of the lodge overlooking the GT grounds.
Eating lunch before the afternoon session.
But the main part is the fishing which was amazing again with some exception fish caught and some monsters that got away that will live on in our memory for many years! Here are a few of the many monster 50kg+ GTs we caught this season:
This was the biggest ever caught in Southern Oman weighed, a monster of 155cm weighed by Fukui-san from Big Dipper at a shade over 65kgs. This beast was caught by Tanaka-san the Field Tester for Carpenter. This was one of three fish hooked at the same time all over 150cm+, unfortunately we only landed 2 of the 3. This fish was caught at the end of November and the same crew coming back for round 2!!
This was the second fish of the double from above, a fish of 150cm and wighed in at 58kgs.
Tanaka-san with another one of his monster fish he caught on his trip. We caught 12 GTs on this trip all were weighed and the average weight came in to 45kgs per fish!!!! Don;t think this is a feat that will be broken easily!
It was a priveledge to have the legendary Fukui-san fish with us in Southern Oman and even more special that he caught a 46kg GT the same as I caught when I fished with him in Tokara. Repaying the compliment! Undoubtedly one of the best GT fisherman alive!
First big GT of the season caught on the first morning of the start of the season a good 143cm GT caught by good friend Wayne!
The South African crew got in the mix in October and it was young Nick that got in with a 148cm monster to outdo his Dad!
Topper getting in the mix with a monster 148cm GT in shallow water.
After many years of fishing with us and starting from scratch good friend and client Phil got into the action and landed his monster 146cm GT.
We don;t always get time to fish but I managed to land my fair share of big GTs. This was fishing late evening from the island and caught on a prototype Carpenter Rod sent to field test.
This was another monster caught on the same day while testing the Carpenter Prototypes. Great rod and put them through the full test!
This is one of my best pictures of the big fish Geir caught on the last hour of the trip and is his first ever GT and came in around the 50kg mark!!
One of the best fish of the season! My good friend Sami hooking and landing a 60kg GT in 1.5 ms of water and landing the fish in a couple of minutes on the Race Point 300. Priceless and one of the best boat celebrations I have been involved with!!
Sami was not happy mwith one monster fish he put another one in the boat measuring 149cm a few days later!!
Although Hallaniyat Islands is famous for its GTs there is a lot of other species we target and this season we caught some great fish including large numbers of sails on stickbaits, AJs, jigging and on poppers, plus a heap of fish like queens, blacktip trevally, yellowdot trevally, emperor, grunter, golden trevally, wahoo, etc etc.
Brad with a big AJ cauhgt on PE3 jigging
Sami with a great AJ caught on the OBX 400 prototype
Good friend Trev with an AJ caught popping! Anything can happen in Southern Oman
Trev in the mix again with a sail caught on a small RAL stick. Stole the show this day!
One of my favourite fish I caught this season a blood snapper on jig!! Amazing colours and fish!
Sami with one of the many sails they caught on small sticks
Great action picture of Capt Cam leadering a sail
Bruno and Cam with a sail on our second boat Sea Hawk 2
We are now deep into the monsoon and are busy getting all of the infrastructure, boats, engines refurbed to start the season late September. We really look forward to another great season in Southern Oman and also look forward to welcomnig back a lot of old friends and new clients. If you are interested in any trips or details please give me a shout as we have a few specials and offers.
Musandam Northern OmanMusandam in Northern Oman is where we started our charters and first discovered and started popping for GTs many years ago. This was the original GT operation in Oman and still considered our home base. We like playing away from home a lot, but it is always good to have a few home games!! Our lodge in Musandam is called GT House and we base all of the operations and liveaboard from the lodge. Again we are extrememly lucky to have a great team and Anura and Mangala look after the villa and all of the guests.
Musandam is a truly amazing place and like no other place I've ever been with mountains dropping into the sea, huge fjords, extreme currents etc. It is also the gateway into the Arabian Gulf. So everything that goes into the gulf has to go through the Musandam and this makes for some great fishing from popping for GTs to livebaiting/stickbaiting for sailfish to kingfish on poppers and tuna on light tackle. One of the best parts of Musandam is it is only 2 hours drive from Dubai and we fish from August through to June, so a much longer and calmer season than Southern Oman.
Some of the fish we caught his last season. The GTs in general are not as big but Musandam still has some monsters and with the big currents are most probably the hardest fighting GTs I've ever encounted.
David with a good Musandam GT
Big Musandam GT
Riaan with a solid Musandam GT that worked him big time in a strong 5 knot current!!
Terv with a black beauty!
Musandam we do a lot of shorter trips and many of the clients bring their better halves and good to have the ladies showing up the guys!
On of my bigger GTs in Musandam this last season
Musandam is also the place my Dad usually comes and gets his GT fix! At the age of 72 he is still landing them!!
The best part of Musandam is there are so many different options to fish for a wide variety of fish using a oad of different styles from light tackle to flyfishing. A few of the other species we caught this last season.
We get a lot of big kings on surface lures! A good target when in season!
Damon and Alex with an absolute monster king caught on a 80gr OA stick.
Massive quens on surface and light tackle. This one caught by William was in the 15kg range!
David with another tank queen
Sails early in the year are in huge shoals and big fish.
Another good sail.
One of the hardest quarries on surface lures, longtail tuna!
Another big longtail on a small needlenose plug.
YEllowfin Tuna on spoons and plugs. Great fin in the colder winter months when the GTs slow down.
Trev and his Dad happy with a good sized YFT
Oman is an amazing place we are very lucky to have such a great fishery at our backdoor and we have enjoyed a great run in Musandam same as the old days with catching more than 100 GTs in a 2 week period and look forward to this coming season. We will also be doing our liveaboard trips this coming season on a monthly basis so if you need any information you can contact us or go to
www.facebook.com/oceanactive for more information.
Ocean Active ShopAfter a few years now of setting up and running the first Specialised Fishing Shop in the Middle East we have learnt a great deal as running a shop aint easy for a fisherman, but with a lot of help and experience we have built up our shop to have a wide range of popping' jigging, spinning, offshore equipment including Shimano, Diawa, Carpenter, Yamaga Blanks, Smith, Hammerhead, FCL, Fisherman, Shout, etc etc. The shop is based centrally in Dubai and have now built up a large enough shop that we will be finally taking our shop online in October and will be offering all of our products, destinations, blog and reports online through our website. We will update the details once launched. But if anyone is ever in Dubai please come in an see us at the Dubai Garden Center on Sheikh Zayed Road and have a coffee and talk some fishing!
Entrance to the shop
Coffee table for some proper fishing talk!
Another view
It is finally time to let all the staff go on holiday and enjoy a couple of weeks relaxing at home with the friends and family until we start preping and getting back into the swing of preparing for the new season but I would like to thank all of our clients and also to all of the forum members that have read, commented and supported us through out the last season! Finally thanks to my great team in Ocean Active David, Allan, Jon, Charmaine, Cameron, Damon, LB, Anura and Mangala! You dudes are the bomb and with out you guys this would not be possible! Have a good break and look forward to the 2013/14 season!
If anyone wants more details on our charters, reports or shop you can find a heap of info at
www.facebook.com/oceanactive.
Cheers,
Nick
