Southern Oman Trip With No Boundaries Oman 16-20th March 2014
its Our fifth trip to this amazing place and our first with No Boundaries Oman , I'm really more than happy fishing with them , very friendly atmosphere , great African Kenyan crew
and good Gt skippers , very professional and serious in what they are doing .
I always thought fishing from the land will be an issue taking into consideration the time you spend every day to reach the islands , but it was really in our benefit as the first two days was too windy with no body fishing around the islands ( hallanyiat ) ,but we still to manage to fish full days inshore near to the land ( shwaymiyia ) .
Our team : ( Egyptian style )
Ahmed Khalil ( Dubai ) 5th timer , Amr Gamal ( Jeddah ) 4th timer , Dr. Ahmed A.B ( Jeddah ) 1st Timer his Amr friend and new to Gt fishing in Oman , Hani Maher ( Co-Hany )
5th timer and Addicted of this very special part of the world and the crazy Gt fishing there .
i meet the guys at sallalah airport and we heading directly to NB Lodge in shwaymiah ( its my first time to go to sallalah directly by fly Dubai , not driving from Dubai like the last four times ( i brought a digital scale up to 50 kg from the flight tax free with 30 $ and it will be useful later
we might need a 60 Kg scale next time ..
following the weather forecast for the last week and the updates on mobile hour by hour , we knew it will be rough first two days and we were hoping the rest of the trip will be better ,as there was a very windy weather the last 3 days and no body can get near to the sea for 3 days , our boat was the first to inter the sea after that bad weather at Sunday 5:45 am .
1st Day :
we meet our skipper Yassir and Mohammad the other skipper and both NB boats heading to the islands , in the mid way they decide to go back and fish inshore as we were the only two boats at the sea and it was getting rougher , we respect the skippers call and call it inshore .
its my first time to fish inshore in S.O , and to be honest its amazing the size and different kind of fish in this part of the world .
i manage to land 4 emperor ( 3.4 ,3, 2.1, 1.7 kgs , and some yellow spotted , long toms , lot of reef fish , was much fun .
you need to have some spare lures (10-15 cm ) as the odds of rocked or cut by long toms is high and there is real big fish in these light tackle out fit
Best Lure was Orion Mister Joe 35 , Skagit Design slide bait heavy one 120 and smith ultra slim is a real killer ( fish every cast almost )
2nd Day :
weather getting more rough , so we also went inshore , but no many bites like the first day ( was wavy even inshore ) , we try also many spots for light jigging but nothing works
at morning , we spotted a calamari school and it happen that Amr got a calamari lure and he catch 5 of them ( 0.75- 2 kgs ) was a nice dinner ,
back to casting after noon i got my first sea bream ( 1.5 kg ) , on Skagit Design slide bait heavy one 90 , on the way back to the marina we find birds diving around and casting around them we got queens , bonitos , yellow fin tunas was jumping all around as well ..it was fun by the end of the day ... no pirmit ..but maybe next time
3rd day :
our first Offshore towards to the islands , we went to one spot in sawda island and we drifted in many spots there , we cast all morning but no hits , only miss and follows
fish was shy to connect , after noon we move to the other side of sawda and keep casting, it was a queen fish madness ( 12- 14 kgs ) hitting any thing moving , poppers ,sticks
jigs , we catch alto of them ...( but still no Gts )
4th Day :
we was heading today a spot were the other boat of NB ( Lee & Stewart Newnham ... a real legend , Martin Dye ) landed 2 Gts yesterday ( 38,42 kg ) , Ahmed Khalil join us only today as he cant make it the first 3 days because of work calls , at the first drift Dr.Ahmed A.B manage to land his first Omani Gt, on a small popper 80 gram Chinese. he get it from Jeddah local market with 12 $ ( Zun Zun ) , it was a small one ..102 cm ..scaled 18 kg ..but our first on the boat
, Dr . Ahmed makes us really LOL as all of us using high end lures and his Zun ZUn was the first to work ..heheh
2nd drift .Ahmed Khalil manage to land a nice black tip trevally on Orion Big foot 140 was a nice hard fighting fish , we drifted and drifted ..but Gts are keep missing the lures of only following them !!! , after noon the queen madness start again even the was crazy about my Temple reef Bullista Bull 160 .., we get many on popper and stick bait
than me and ahmed start light jigging and get two nice one on Pe2, Pe4 set up ......But No Big Gts Yet //
at This point ..heading to the marina i started thinking about tomorrow ..our last day ...and we still far far away from our goal 50 + Gts
Dinner served at 7:00 pm as usual at NB lodge , and after dinner we started to talk to our mates on the other boat.. they lost 2 big fish today and got like 5 miss on one of the spots , so we decided to try that spot early tomorrow morning , and we set a plan with our skipper that tomorrow will be the casting day ..we will cast and cast till we get them
5th Day : ( was the day ... the casting day )
We reach the Gt ground early and we start casting and casting first drift i got a big miss ,and a follow to the boat from 40 + one , 30 Min's latter a hit near the boat but not hooked
fish was attacking the lures very near to the boats only 5-10 m from the boat , keep casting non stop all of us , all of a sudden a monster got out of the water and take Amr popper 7-10m from the boat , Amr hit it hard over and over to set the hook and here we gooooo.., Amr Was fishing almost full close drag on his 7000 Dogfight , we give the fish no chance as the skipper drag it away from the rocks than amr fight it for 7 mins and here it is on the boat a healthy Omani Gt 146 Cm ..scaled 49.6 kg on a 50 kg scale ..
the fish was hooked on a cubera 150 g, green gold .
at that point i stop ed using my stick bait and deiced to cast all day with my silver black cubera 180 g , i manage to land 3 fishes in a row ( 121cm- 29.8 kg , 118 cm -28.5kg
in 5 mints duration ..than after an hour another smaller one 112 cm 21 kg ) .fighting time was 55 second for the first one !!!! really was hooked as the books said ..
less than two mints for the other two .. i guess i was gt hungry ..heheheh
we change the amazing spot to look for a gain 60 + in other spots ..we tried many , but with no luck ..they disappears again
Ahmed Khalil manage to foul hook a milky 18-20 kg on his light tackle ,,but reefed away was to massive to stop back to the morning spot again with many cast but nothing
and in the last cast when the skipper say one last to go ,,, Dr. Ahmed hooked by a monster sure more than 55 + as a massive giant come out of the water near to the boat and splash us all with water ant took his 150 skip jack to the stone right away ...his drag was not closed enough and the fish don't give him or a Skipper a chance
monster lost to the stones ..and we went back laughing as this always happened at the end of the trip ,,, so u keep want to come for one more round .& never give up .
My 2 cents :
1- always ask your skippers what the lures they saw works in the season as some times fish prefer some colors or size ..cubera in our case ..
2- GTs like human they are tall , short skinny some have belly ,,so no chart for weight can be estimated from length ...better to weighted your self and see.
3- this trip was the first trip i got so many miss and not only me but all the angular so i guess the solution for that to do pause than work the lure again
it works with me and some times in full moon gts feed at night so not so aggressive at morning so try to irritate them ..
4-no need to carry many lures all what you need 10-12 lures you trust and keep casting all the day ..casting is the name of the game
tackle used :
Lures : stick baits : Orion -siren- SACL,Gammas ,hammerhead
Poppers : GT3 , Cubera , hammerhead ,skip jack ,Temple Reef Ballista Bull , cono cono
Rods : Ripple Fisher LC82, ( all Gts landed on them ) , Ripple Fisher Ultimo MH , H 79, OTI Tuna sniper 40-60 , 80-120
Reels : Stella 18K, 8K SW, 18K SWB , Daiwa 6500, 7000 dogfight
line : Varivas casting PE 6,8,10 , JB 130 solid
Leader : Yozuri 150-200 LB , 250 twisted
Hooks : GT recorder 06,07
hope that was useful to the guys heading there soon ..travel light ..
video will follow soon
