Oman seasons starts with Ocean Active, GTs, Kings (Couta) and Sharks!

[Ocean Active]

Every year we are lucky that our season in Oman seems to start  earlier and earlier, or the fisherman are just getting more and more desperate  to fish. The Summer in the Middle East and Oman is brutal with temperatures  getting over 50 degree C and humidity often 100%. So not a place you want to be  playing outside, unless you are a crazy GT fisherman. We have still been  running a few trips in the last month to test the waters and fish. We have had  some success and decided the time was right to start the season with a big  BANG!!
We put out the feelers to start the season with a liveaboard  trip up in the Musandam and it was taken up like a GT chasing a garfish! Jon  and the team put the trip together sorted out all of the logistics and the trip  was set for the first weekend of September. We had a fantastic turn out of  friends, and staff. The group consisted of AJ, Richard, Erik, Saif, Mark,  Gavin, Allan, Paddy, Damon, Cameron, Brett, Jon, Anura, Hassan and all the way  from the Med old friend and guide FC Lubricator!! The scene was set for an epic  Hollywood block buster, action, drama, suspence and the big feel good finish!!  The Ocean Active team worked flat out to sort out all of the logistics, fuel,  drinks, tackle, etc etc. The boyz are legends!
We all met up in Dibba Fishing Port to get all the gear onto the  boat which was no small feat. We had more gear than 3 fishing shops! We used  sherpas, boats and muscle power to get everything onto the 80ft Liveaboard  Dhow. We finally were ready to set sail for an amazing trip and to start our  Oman season! We cruised up into the Musandam following the setting sun, a good  few stories were told and a small bit of tactics and tackle was spoken on the 5  hour cruise, till finally we put down anchor at the top of the Musandam.
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Using one of the small boats to get tackle onto the Dhow

Sunset leaving the marina

The team socializing on the upper deck
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Sunset on the dhow

Fishing gear!!
There were a lot of festivities over the weekend and old stories  told again and new ones made all to a lot of laughter. The first day the guys  had some great fishing. Damon with Al Sayyad 1 caught a good number of GTs in  the morning and afternoon sessions. The guys fished hard and got the results  with some big GTs up to 40kgs. A few of the guys stayed on the dhow and caught  up with friends with some swimming, food and beverages. All a lot of fun. The  afternoon session everyone got out on the boats and had varying success.  Finally the first day came to an end as all the boats headed back to the dhow  for another great meal after a successful first day of the season with big GTs,  Kingfish, Sharks and Tuna!

Our home for the trip

The boats ready for action

Capt Damon bending on a good fish

Damon with a big Musandam GT
Uncle Uncle with a Shark on popper

Gavin bending on his Hots Rod

Uncle landing a good GT on Pink ASWB

Gavin very happy with his PB GT

Erik into the action on lighter gear

Erik with a smaller GT

Gavin bending on Al Sayyad 1 with a nice king

Big king on Al Sayyad 1

Uncle with a GT on a Hammerhead Tobi
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Hassan landing a GT on a Hammerhead Popper

Erik with a big Musandam GT

Lunch time swim!! Pool noodles......

Paddy into the action on jig

Paddy with a GT

Erik into the action

Erik yellowfin tuna chopped by the taxman!!

Gavin bending on a big king after an aerial attack!

Big king on an ASWB, one of the lures of the trip!

Gavin with his biggest king, awesome fish!!]
Uncle bending on the light gear

Sunset GT
Next morning guys were up early having breakfast and getting  gear ready. As the sun started to rise above the horizon all the boats headed  for their secretive spots. The fishing was a bit slower and the conditions were  flat and hot, but with a lot of effort the guys had varying results. I was  fishing with old friend FC aka Windpomp, aka Boomslang, aka Lubricator and it  is always good fun and laughs. FC had flown in from captaining his Yacht in the  Med for this trip and had not managed to land a fish yet, so the stakes were  high!! We had fished a good few spots with no success and finally we were  fishing along one of the shallow reefs. FC was throwing the Race Point 200 and  kept asking me if he should change from his Cubera popper, I was quietly  laughing to myself saying no carry on casting it is the right lure, meantime he  was sweating his ass off and red in the face!! Finally FC gave up the game and  picked up his light rod with PE3 and a small stickbait. On the second cast FC  had a big hit in shallow water and line started to melt off the reel, but not  towards the shallows out towards the deep!! Cam got the boat into gear and  started following the fish to try get some line back, everytime we gained a bit  of line and stopped the boat the fish took off again on another blistering run!  Again we followed, this went on for a good few minutes and we started trying to  guess the fish, I said Kingfish, but then the fish took another run straight  down, so it changed to a GT, then the fish came up and run along the surface so  back to a kingfish. Finally FC got the fish close to the surface and we saw a  monster kingfish!! After a few more runs we got the fish under the boat and  realized we had no gaff as we normally land most fish by hand, this was going  to be interesting landing a 30kg+ king by hand! I let the fish swim passed us  once, to see the hook set and then a second time to get it nice and close then  on the third time FC got the fish right close to the boat and I grabbed onto  the tail with both hands with water going everywhere and trying to control the  fish. Cam jumped next to me and grabbed the tail with me and we pulled the  monster into the boat!! An awesome fish on the gear!! A lot of high 5s and  pictures! FC trip had just been made with his biggest King ever.

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FC bending on his light gear!

Landing the big king by hand

Monster King!

FC and Cam
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Proper Croc!

We fished a few more spots and then headed back to the boat for  lunch. The fishing had not been as good as the first day but a few more GTs and  kings were landed. We had lunch on the upper deck and stories were already  flying about an amazing trip. The afternoon session some of the guys fished and  some stayed and relaxed on the dhow, but finally our first trip of the season  came to an end with new friendships made, new memories forged and all agreeing  to the next liveaboard. We landed about 20 GT, 3 Kings, 2 Sharks and half a  Yellowfin Tuna along with bonito and longtail tuna.

Brett bending on day 2 on the Endless Passion 86/40

GT and Gamma

Brett with his GT

Allan bending on his FCL 81EXT

Nice GT coming to the boat

The Hammerhead G-Cup strikes again

Allan chuffed with a decent Musandam GT
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved; it was  a great start to hopefully a great season with new destinations, online shop  and many big fish! The prizes for the trip will be announced on our FB  www.facebook.com/oceanactive for more info.
Cheers,
Nick
 

[SAfish]

Epic!! One day . . . 

[L Hooker]

Awesome report and congrats to all the guys on some fantastic catches !!

[REEFMAN]

Wow some great fish so early in the season! Some monster Couta! 

[Abaddon]

superb ALL ROUND - report/catch/pics/scenery - JEALOUS BEYOND !!

[Bwana]

Great report Nick thanks! Haaibo that is a bus King!

[Kegan]

awesome stuff nick, good to see all the gents together!

[Fishaholic]

Thanks awesome report!! Awesome fishing! 

[Seventenths]

  hope these fish hold out for us in October! Awesome fish and report!

[Ocean Active]

Thanks Guys!!


7/10s The fish will be here full up in October. Normally the main Couta run is October along with GTs and Sails! Rory Mundy and his brothers are here this week and just picked them up from the airport so hopefully they will put a few fish on the deck!

[Seventenths]

Thanks Guys!!


7/10s The fish will be here full up in October. Normally the main Couta run is October along with GTs and Sails! Rory Mundy and his brothers are here this week and just picked them up from the airport so hopefully they will put a few fish on the deck!

Pictures please for us fish starved people....

[Ocean Active]

Hopefully a few days time.........

[carll]

 Thats a Awesome report and picture's !    Thanks for sharing with us  ! 

[deezynking]

as always OA, superb post. some monster coutas