Fishing Halaniyats

[Cam Mundy]

Taking some R&R in Salalah after my tour of duty on the Halaniyat Islands and thinking back on the fishing over the past few weeks. The Halaniyats are a magic place to visit and fish, the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful and the Omani people genuinely friendly and hospitable  and always  go out of their way to make you feel  welcome.  Our hosts on the island Ashraf and his son Kareem and their Bangladeshi staff are always on hand to help and make sure you have everything you could possibly need, the food is also fantastic with Egyptian, Arabic and Bangladeshi influences and most importantly Kareem is now an accomplished biltong maker!

Often back home I’d be fishing in an area and wonder what the fishing would have been like 50 or 100 years ago, well now I know! The area is crawling with fish and the ocean topography is unique around the islands you’ll do battle with massive Giant Trevally in 3 meters of water, Jig for Amberjack as shallow as 40 meters, and 10km away you have 2000 meters of water where I’ve seen Striped and Blue Marlin on a few occasions basking on the surface.
 
This past month the water started out soupy green but within a week had become crystal clear the cleanest I had ever seen it on the days with no wind the sea was incredibly calm and you could see the bottom in 20 meters of water as if you were sitting at a depth of 3 meters, not great for GT fishing, but still amazing to be able to peer over the side of the boat and look at reef structure you’ve only ever seen on your sonar before.

We had some great days and some quite patches but that’s fishing I was able to get most the guys onto good fish but a few missed out unfortunately, however everyone is keen to come back next year to get back in the ring for another swing. 
The main target is the GT’s which patrol the area like Krakens, these have to be some of the biggest meanest fish on the planet you don’t fight these guys it’s more of a barroom brawl when they hit your lure it’s like having a 7 foot biker covered in tattoo’s come up and tap you on the shoulder and ask you to step outside for a word.  Watching guys getting slammed against the boats gunnels and pulled all over the show will never get old, it’s just sheer power on display even fishing with the big Stellas and PE 10 is no guarantee, guys were getting reefed with the drags ramped up to 20 kilos!
We also had had some great jigging action with plenty of Amberjack around as well as Seabream (Soldier), different Trevallys and the odd Cobia the best fish to come out on Jig was Sami from Saltywater Tackle’s monster Amber on his new prototype jigging rod which is a beaut I can’t wait for him to put it into production I’ll be first in line for one.

One of the other highlights was the 2 days we spent chasing Sailfish with the Brazilian guys who are a bunch of nutters and will always be welcome to come fishing with me, next time I may even get that 60 kilo GT and earn my free ticket to San Paulo! When the GT fishing went a bit quite we headed out to an area close to the continental shelf and chased around the ocean casting lures at free jumping packs of sailfish at one stage I counted 8 sailfish jumping in an area of about 20 square meters absolutely insane! We even hooked and landed two on jig and dropped a couple of others over a space of two days we landed about twenty fish and probably dropped twenty more.

A big thank you to all the guys that fished with me you were all great guys to have on Sea hawk 2 and the Blue Canoe!  I’m looking forward to having you out again soon.

[Charles]

  Wow!!! Something to dream of!!!!

[isivuba]

awesome pic and report... Cam Mundy you have the best job in the world some monster fish you guys catch and thanks for sharing. One of the things on my bucket list to do.

[REEFMAN]

Great report Cam... some awesome fish too!!
I smark the pink shirt bro.

[jaenswart]

That's a very dark saily, what a beautiful created and some super pics. Cam, What camera do you use again?

[Cam Mundy]

Great report Cam... some awesome fish too!!
I smark the pink shirt bro.

Ha ha I wear the pink with pride!

[Cam Mundy]

That's a very dark saily, what a beautiful created and some super pics. Cam, What camera do you use again?

Hi Jean my Last Camera bombed out so I bought a little Nikon S8200 Coolpix before the trip most of the GT and saily shots on the boat where taken with it. The reason I bought it is it had the widest angle lens I could find in a small camera. The aerial photos where taken from the second boat with a Canon eos 50 with a canon Zoom lens if I remember correctly. 

I'm going to be investing in a more serious camera soon as Photo's are an important part of what I do I've been saving for a while but I'm hoping the investment will pay off.

[Capt. Hook]

Awesome pics, awesome fishery

[The Herbmeister]

World Class! Great pics of monster fish ....

[Kumz]

  Super report and catches .... 

[WalkersKiller]

Superb pics Cam, and awesome fishing mate well done!

[Prego]

You lucky BAAS TED!
Loving the saily's on stick bait action.
Where are the guys getting those hooks guards from, they look a great idea?!

[Happy Dog]

Some awesome fish feeling

[Cam Mundy]

You lucky BAAS TED!
Loving the saily's on stick bait action.
Where are the guys getting those hooks guards from, they look a great idea?!

They are an Owner product if I remember correctly I'll have to double check in the OA shop

[shagnrelease]

My sack my boy, I missed this one!!! Magic stuff and awesome images, Man I want a boat and some clients and some flyrods for the billies please, make it happen captain chaos!!
Just awesome!

[MIKE PIKE]

Another mindblowing report with eyeball popping pics ... ... way to go Cam .. .