Musandam Magic

[Ifish]

After a spectacular drive through the mountains, leaving the sky-scrapers of Dubai behind and stopping for a photo of the odd camel, we arrived the border post.  A policeman waved us through after a quick passport check, we were now in Dibba, Oman. It’s a quiet town. From the border to our hotel the goats outnumbered the people by about 5 to 1 and there were weren't many goats...

We were met at the hotel by FC and Keegan from OceanActive who promised a good days fishing the next day. Having done enough research and seen the evidence on various internet forums, YouTube etc, I was confident they weren't just talking a good game.

We left the next morning at sunrise and it wasn’t difficult to see how rich these waters were. We drove past school after school of tuna on our way to the GT spots - it was teaming with fish!






A school of big milkfish were scared off by the first few casts and after half an hour or so my first GT was on. The deep burn set in fast and after a painful battle, the fish was landed, photographed and released….





Not long after and nowhere near long enough to recover from the previous fish, a bus exploded from the depths and the reel began to sing….with FC's help on the drag and a 250hp Suzuki in gear, we managed to stop the fish from breaking us off. There was a welcome distraction from the pain when a local in a nearby boat hooked a sailfish on his hand line…..He landed it with far less effort than I was putting in on the GT which was still somewhere under the boat. A few minutes and photos later the fish was  back in the water and I was in pieces…







We managed one more smaller GT and decided to take a break. The heat was intense, the GTs had gone quiet and my arms were about to fall off. We dropped a few lures off the back and did a spot of trolling. I had just about got comfortable when a Sailfish took off on one of the rods. A good fight on a light rod and a few spectacular jumps later, the fish was on the boat. It was nursed back to health and released - high fives all-round….






Heading home, we threw poppers at a few schools of tuna. They were pretty shy and quick to disperse. We did get one that was not fortunate enough to make it back and we enjoyed some fine sushi that evening.

All in all a fantastic trip and without doubt the best fishing experience I have had. A massive thanks to the Nick, FC, Keegan and the rest of the team from OceanActive for organising the trip.

If anyone is thinking of going to the Musandam, stop thinking and go…its unreal. And if you don’t catch fish, its still some of the most remote and dramatic scenery you are likely to see from a boat.

[shamwari]

Hi ifish

Super report and pics - the colours on that stick/swimbait in first pic look amazing - what is it ? Fourth pic down a brilliant example of using rods backbaone to put max pressure and the pic with someones back to the camera is very novel - first on the net I reckon - good stuff !!!!

[Tommo]

Great post Ifish. What species of tuna were you seeing/catching? Did you see any longtail tuna? What depth of water were you plugging in for GT's, was it mainly over reefs, or around visible structure, protruding from the water?

[WalkersKiller]

Great stuff Ifish!!! :sml:

[TUNAMAN]

Awesome man...... great to see you in the corner on leaning back and keeping pressure on the Buss GT.

[shagnrelease]

Great stuff!! Glad to see Keegz made it down there in the end , good lightie!

[Ifish]

Thanks Guys.

Shamwari - Can't remember the brand, but they were big floating stickbaits and poppers.

Tommo - the tuna were longtail. The GTs were right up against the cliffs, v deep.

[Big Van]

Congratulations great report, photos and fishing. Those GTs are awesome fish to catch.
Tight Lines

[Nepptune]

Super report and pics - the colours on that stick/swimbait in first pic look amazing - what is it ?

Absolutely awesome stuff Ifish, what a fantastic trip, and some incredible fish, and superb images!!! Like Shamwari commented, I love that one of the guy holding the GT from behind...

As to those poppers and stickbaits, from the pics, I think those that are in that image are both OTI lures... the popper is a Komodo I think, which I'm not 100% about, but I'm pretty certain that the Stickbait is an OTI Phantom....

OTI Komodo: http://www.jignpop.com/komodo.aspx
Popper in pic is on the bottom left of the colour chart

OTI Phantom Stickbait: http://www.jignpop.com/phantom.aspx
Stickbait in the pic looks to be the black one...

Awesome report, thanks for sharing.

Nepps

[Gerhard]

Awesome report...

I am still sad I could not afford the trip with the boys to the Mussendam while I worked in Dubai...  :sadd :sadd

Maybe one day I'll get there...

Did visit Dibba and did a some light lure fishing from the side...

[REEFMAN]

Brilliant stuff Ifish! One day when I'm big! Musandam is on the bucket list...

[waz]

Howzit Gents,

What an awesome days fishing that was, well done Ifish you put some serious pressure on those gt,s! just to answer some of the guys questions.

Tommo- The tuna we mainly getting are the longtail, they are really full up here in the musandam mostly we get them between 5-12kg, we got a real donkey yesterday which i wll post pics of shortly, must be close to 40kg!!There have also been some really big yellowfin around 50kg class fish. we are mostly fishing up against the mountains, also some sea mounts and prodruding structure which have awesome under water structure, ledges and drop offs, Gt Heaven to be honest!

Nepps- You are 100% on the lures, the stickbait is an oti phantom and the popper a Komodo

Shag, yeah i made it hey, and the fishing is really mind blowing, nothing like im use to back home, there is also good potential for marlin up here, the guys have been hooking into them not to far down the coast!unexplored marlin waters, im sure that will get you going.

Guys seeing as Ifish started this thread, i will continue putting up reports of what we getting under this topic, and i have a few awesome reports lined up for you guys to enjoy!

Cheers
Kegan

[shagnrelease]

Howzit Gents,

What an awesome days fishing that was, well done Ifish you put some serious pressure on those gt,s! just to answer some of the guys questions.

Tommo- The tuna we mainly getting are the longtail, they are really full up here in the musandam mostly we get them between 5-12kg, we got a real donkey yesterday which i wll post pics of shortly, must be close to 40kg!!There have also been some really big yellowfin around 50kg class fish. we are mostly fishing up against the mountains, also some sea mounts and prodruding structure which have awesome under water structure, ledges and drop offs, Gt Heaven to be honest!

Nepps- You are 100% on the lures, the stickbait is an oti phantom and the popper a Komodo

Shag, yeah i made it hey, and the fishing is really mind blowing, nothing like im use to back home, there is also good potential for marlin up here, the guys have been hooking into them not to far down the coast!unexplored marlin waters, im sure that will get you going.

Guys seeing as Ifish started this thread, i will continue putting up reports of what we getting under this topic, and i have a few awesome reports lined up for you guys to enjoy!

Cheers
Kegan

Hey mate,

good to hear from you, keep the reports coming bud.

Re the marlin, got passport will travel!!!

[waz]

Hi Guys,

As promised I have a few reports lined up for you, We had some guys from khazakstan come over and stay with us, hoping for that elusive 50kg gt, which most of us dream of!!
The first day started off with a beautiful musandam sunrise, it wasn’t long before we found some tuna feeding on the surface, a few throws later and the guys managed to bag a nice dorado aswell as a few longtail tuna, arguably the best sashimi around.

After a few more tun and a couple of dorries we moved onto the gt spots,  first drift and the saltiga dogfights were singing, sergey managed to bag hi,self a nice gt of between 15-20kg, Next drift vitalik went tight with a good fish which pulled really hard in the screaming current, goodfish of about 27kg! we managed a few smaller gts during the day, on the way home we stoped off at another spot and the guys had good fun with the queenfish, they managed to land about 10 in half an hour, these fish are really good fun and give an awesome account of themselves on light tackle.

[waz]

Sorry guys slow connection, the pics are coming!!

[waz]

more..

[waz]

more..

[waz]

Day 2

The day started out in a similar fashion to day 1 were we managed to get a few dorado and some more longtail tuna, after that we spent some time jigging for the reef dwelling species and managed to get a few awesome fish including a nice barracuda, after a quick stop for a swim and some lunch the current was once again pumping as you can see from the pic and it was time for the gts, the guys had a good afternnon session and managed two double ups and a few nice size fish.

I hope you guys enjoy the pics, ill post some more reports soon.

Cheers
Kegan

[waz]

some more..

[waz]

Pics