I must say that it has been one hell of a season with running trips in Southern Oman, Hatteras USA, Maldives, Musandam and then our local charters in Dubai and Fujairah UAE. We are only a small group and just loving what we are doing but unfortunately we don't get to spend a lot of time together and actually fish together. As we were coming to the end of the season we had a gap in the calendar and thought we would do a day trip up to Musandam in the 40degreeC heat.
We all met up at our villa GT House in Dibba Musandam. Great excitement, a few cold beers, a well braaied (BBqd) fillet steak and a lot of trash talk. Nothing like a good trip with the boyz. Obviously it is always a bit of a competition setting up gear and after a few hours of debating, some arguments and then a general consensus on the tackle we were ready for our day out.
Our fishing room at GT House
To many choices!!
Jon setting up gear
Waking up early the next morning was a bit of a slow process, we put it down to the hot weather...........The team was Jon Viney our Store Manager, Capt Cameron and Capt Damon two of our Guides and Captains, Anura our legend Sri Lankan that looks after all of us and our villa and Humaid our new Omani crazy Captain! Unfortunately David, Allan, Summer, Olga and Michelle the remaining OA team member were not with us but still were there in spirit!
Fishing port where we moor our boats.
Enough rods to start a commercial fishing fleet!
Al Sayyad the legend! And Al Sayyad 2 our new boat.
We headed out of the marina and up into the Musandam fishing along the way and trying quite a few spots. The competition was heating up and any mistakes made had people wearing the pink hat or pink scarf courtesy of our Pink Buff club (long story!) Now Anura has been with us for a few years and had never really fished before he started working with us. But over the last year he has taken a very keen interest and has learnt a great deal, read knot books back to front and has built up his own little arsenal. So this was his first full day out to fish with all of us! Anura was the first one to have a hit and got cut off by a barracuda! Then he again had the second hit and got cut off by a kingfish! Now he was very bleak as the lures are not cheap! But little did he now luck would be on his side!
Cam with the pink scarf after a bit of a mistake!
We got to the top of the Musandam and water was clean, current was pumping and straight away Damon hooked up to a nice GT. I was basically allocated to skipper for the day! The captains getting there own back on me after all the grief I've given them over the season! But I quickly saw that the fish was hooked with back hook in the mouth and the front hook in the side. So the fish was being pulled in side ways, so I did a sneaky and kept the boat in reverse and slowly pulled the fish across the big current. The fish gave Damon big stick and after about 10 minutes he realised what was happening and the captain got a bit of an ear full! But still a good laugh watching him bend on the Wild Violence!! Damon landed a decent GT which was released!
Bending!
Still bending!!
Finally a hard fought GT at the boat!
Damon with a nice GT.
We fished around a bit more and then found a shoal of kingfish (Spanish Macks). It was amazing on popper and stickbaits, we were getting hit by kingfish on almost every drift, the fish were hitting the poppers from underneath and flying 15ft into the air with the lure in their mouths before throwing the lures! Very cool to watch but a bit frustrating not hooking them up. But finally Jon and Anura went tight at the same time and 2 good fish. A bit of chaos on the boat with flying kingfish, blistering runs and still more kingfish around the boat hitting other lures. Finally the captain managed to get the boat and team under control and we worked the fish to the boat. Anura boated his fish first and I think he or us did not expect the size of the kingfish. A really great fish on popping tackle at 20kg+. His first big fish!! Jon landed his fish and these two fish were destined for the pot so we took a load of pictures. After a good few high 5s and excited chatter the boyz were back onto the next drift, but unfortunately we did not hook up anymore kingfish but still had a number of spectacular hits. Really amazing session of fishing!
Musical chairs with two hook ups
Jon getting his fish to the boat on a nice light Terez rod
Very happy boyz! Fish almost as big as Anura!
Definitely bigger than Anura!
Had to get into the action!
Again!
We started to head back to base and tried a few more spots and again Anura was into the action with hooking 2 small GT and landing both of them. these are Anuras first GTs. Cameron also got into the action and landed his first GT on his new Hots 711MH and Stella 10000 rig. So he was well chuffed. Finally the last spot of the day in about 45 degreeC heat Anura again showed us all how it was done and caught a great queenfish.
Cam bending on the 711MH
Not the biggest GT but the end of the day a GT is a GT and always an honour to catch one!
Anura in action
Anura with his first GT with Humaid our Omani Captain, nicknamed Omani Einstein!
And again!
GT number 2 on a Ocean Active Stickbait.
Now he is just showing off!!
Awesome queenfish!
Boyz having a sleep on the way home, to much excitement!
So at the end of the day Anura cleaned us all up and won the day! It just shows that fishing does come done to luck and possibly beginners luck is stronger than anything else. It gives us a great feeling of accomplishement to see Anura catch these fish and realise that we have through the last year taught him to become a great angler and hope that one day we will have a captain running charters in Sri Lanka??? Also it is not always about catching the monster fish it is about getting out on the water with friends, colleagues and enjoying yourself! This was one of the best days I have had out all season and I look forward to fishing with the boyz again soon! It has been a great season and you guys have been the best and make Ocean Active the company that it is!
Team picture
Tackle Used:Rods: Hots 711MH, Carpenter Wild Violence 80XH, Shimano Terez, Hots 77XH, Carpenter Endless Passion 85/36, Shimano Aerocast
Reels: Shimano 5000, 8000, 10000 (SOM 16k Spool), 18000 and 20000, Twin Spin 5000, 10000, Stradic 8000
Line Sesame PE6, PE8, Sunline Monster PE10, Tufline 50lbs, 80lbs, 100lbs
Lures OA Stickaits and poppers, Craft Bait GT3, Carpenter Gamma 200, Diawa Dorado Slider, Needle Nose Plugs
cheers,
Nick
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