Southern Oman – March 2014
By John Cahill
Having known my good friend Mark Harris for a few years now
I have always been enthralled by the stories and photos he has bought back from
his trips fishing in Southern Oman.
Never before would I have thought of the Middle East as a good fishing
location let alone one that is red hot.
The plan was hatched over a year ago and dates were locked in with Ed
Nicholas operation, No Boundaries Oman.
With both boats secured during some prime dates it did not take long to
fill the crew including Stephen Callus, Jason Jeffries, Toby McClure and my business
partner Andrew Smith. There was a good
mixture of GT experience and youthful exuberance on board.
The trek was an adventure in itself, and after a day in
Salalah we completed the overland journey across the desert highlands down to the No
Boundaries lodges in Shuwamiyah, settled into comfortable surroundings and met the
crew. Onto the fishing, the weather was
a mixed bag and it dictated our fishing range.
On two of our six fishing days we were restricted to fishing inshore but
that’s ok, we intended some time doing this as the area has numerous inshore
species that can be effectively targeted on casting tackle including the highly
prized ocean bream, permit and spangled emperor. On the other four days fishing conditions
were quite good and the No Boundaries 33 foot casting boats had us out at the
Hallaniyat Island in 60 to 90 minutes depending on exactly where we were
fishing. Everyone had different goals on
this trip but a high priority for everyone was the chance to tangle with world
class GT’s – fish in the category of 50 kilograms, the unofficial benchmark for
a monster class GT. This meant some
specific tackle requirements clearly, and for some of us it would mean fishing
PE10 tackle for the first time and drags approaching 16 kilograms, a
significant step up from PE8. When Ed
Nicholas first inspected every ones gear it was clear he meant business and
wanted us to achieve our goals of not just hooking, but actually landing there
monster fish. Drag settings were
adjusted to the point of lock up, and hooks were significantly upgraded to the
point that many poppers sank except for the larger more buoyant selections in
the lure roll. Big poppers were going to
rule the day, and they did.
The fishing we experienced was to put it bluntly, off the
charts.
The number of times we
experienced pack attacks of GT’s in the category of 40 to 50 kilograms plus, we
lost count of.
In the early days our
conversion rate was poor, hooks were straightening, hook ups were missed and
dropped fish too common although we were ticking along nicely mostly due to the
sheer number of opportunities.
The amount of
extremely large queenfish kept you entertained endlessly as they continually harassed the
lures however endless hookups to 10 to 15 kg queenies keeps you out of action
and wastes much needed energy.
On PE10
tackle they are a pain in the butt and not to mention keep eating lures before
the GT’s can register their interest.
On
two days in particular the GT bite was insane.
The average weight I would have previously thought unimaginable.
A 40 kegger would be bought on board and Ed
would be disappointed, “Just a baby”.
The
overall stats were impressive; 27 GT’s landed with 6 fish genuine 50 kg plus
fish – not guesses, these were weighed on the boat, tagged and released.
It was impressive to see the fish handling
practises of the crew.
Mo and Yassar the
two skippers of the No Boundaries casting boats treat GT's like a member of the family. A sideline highlight was Andrew and Ed deploying a satellite tag onto a solid GT, funds for this tag were raised some time ago and its great to see one hanging off a GT.
You can book your own monster hunting adventure in Southern Oman by visiting
No Boundaries Oman
I doubt you would be unhappy with any aspect of a trip with these guys, Ed and his staff are competent, entertaining and professional and we have no hesitation recommending them. The businesses motto of "Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time" is right on the money.
Successful lures (GT sized) for the crew included
Adhek Big Buffalo
Fullscale Kong 180
Hammerhead E cup
Temple Reef Lambo 150 S
BCS Wavewalker
Siren
Temple Reef Ballista Bull 160
Enjoy some images from our adventure
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| Jason and his black beast |
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| Spangled emperor were prevalent inshore and partial to a sinking stick bait |
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| TMac and a grumpy inshore bream taken off a bait ball |
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| Mark is pleased with this dark Geet |
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| Toby and his monster :) |
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| Andrew Smith and his bus sized GT! Adhek Big Buffalo did the damage |
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| Genuine weights, no guesses here |
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| Sat tag being deployed |
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| And ready for release with her new hardware fitted! |
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| Big Buffalo strikes again - large chuggers, especially those able to take large strong hooks were vital |
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| Jason - seriously its that big! |
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| Andy and the boys giving this GT a bath |
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| Crunch - these guys love diving for the reef |
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| Experienced GT angler Stephen Callus |
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| Bus |
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| Take a breather Tobes, take a breather |
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| Ed Nicholas and a GT in the order of 55 kilos plus |
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| Lovely bull mahi taken on stick bait near some flotsam |
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| Queenfish on Lurenzo Espetron |
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| The authors big fish on Temple Reef Lambo |
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| Crazy country |
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| Andrew and Adhek Gecko eating bream |
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| Double trouble - the SACL Mikros appealed to numerous inshore species |
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| Ton upon ton of inshore mullet |
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| Andrews gnarly big bream |
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| Chunky GT plucked from the queenfish for Steve |
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| SACL Mikros eating queenfish, a moment later the hooks were in Mark, a moment later they were deep in Yassar! |
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| Now that IS a queenfish - 115cms is more than enough |
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| Squidding in Oman? you need to catch dinner |
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| See what happens when your not watching Ed? |
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| Rafts of monster milkfish |
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| Double hookup on the first drift - Stephen on the bow and Mark at the stern |
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| Bucket mouth monster |
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| Oh Jase...... |
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| Inshore action on the sardine balls |
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| Weigh, tag, release |
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| Ed in beast mode |
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| Say no more, this fishing destination is off the chart |
Postscript - April provided even better fishing than we experienced, and by a good margin! The scores of 50 even 60 kilogram fish was simply unchartered territory. The monsoon will very soon shut this fishing down however until the new season begins later in the year. As a fitting end to this blog, in April Ed Nicholas was fishing with friends and first fish of the day he scored the fish of his dreams - a 25 minute fight ensued against a locked drag - 5 times the spool on his Stella 18,000 almost emptied, all against impossible pressure. Somehow Ed managed to boat this fish, few would I assure you. Al big fish on No Boundaries go over the scale. This fish hovered between 68 - 72 kilograms..... the all tackle IGFA world record is 72 kilograms. Of course, this fish was tagged and released. Congratulations Ed on your exceptional operation and to you personally as an exceptional angler from the Ebb Tide Adventures Team - here is the fish.
