8 Kiwi anglers made the long trip to Oman this April with the ultimate goal of catching their personal best GT. Months of preparation went into the trip, from booking lodges, boats, airfares and also making sure all tackle preparation was going to be up to the punishment of these rugged fish.

The trip started in Auckland with the long flight to Dubai via Australia, with a half day stop over in Dubai some of the team got a tour of the City with my good mate Nick Bowles then a quick stop to his high end tackle store for a few last minute lure purchases we then set off on our last flight to Salalah, Southern Oman. One night in a hotel in Salalah and then the guys where picked up early in the morning for a 3.5hour trip through the desert to a small boat harbour then a 1 hour boat trip out to the Hallaniyat Islands where a small lodge would be our home for the next five and a half days of fishing.

The Hallaniyat islands is a remote group of islands in Southern Oman, the fishing possibilities are endless and fairly untaped. Not only do some of the worlds biggest Gt's live in this area there are marlin, sailfish and tuna roaming these waters. One day while running between islands I saw the biggest marlin I have ever seen tailing down sea, there are stories where commercial fisherman have to cut marlin in half to get on the back of their pick up trucks! One day I will go to this area to target these marlin but for now these Omani GT's have me a little obsessed.

Trip 1 

This was one of those trips with a lot of stories with massive bust offs and huge fish lost. One day we almost lost an angler overboard due to line digging into the spool on a violent bite which dragged the angler across the deck, the force of him hitting the gunnel broke the 130lb braid at the spool, wow this was a true wake up call to how powerful these fish are. 

On the last day Mark got a bite out of a monster fish, I watched a huge black GT hit his lure going away from the boat, no matter how much drag Mark put on that fish he could not stop it until it hit rock and broke off. I felt really gutted for Mark as this was a fish of a life time and by far the biggest GT I have ever seen.

The biggest GT of the first trip was a massive 45kg and some nice fish in the 34-38kg range and some smaller models in the 15-18kg as well. We had a bunch of queenfish and yellow dot trevally and even a milkfish as a welcomed by-catch.

Steve with a stunning fish

The suprer hard fighting yellow dot trevally

The milkfish, hardest fighting and fastest fish I have even seen and would love to catch one on fly!

Trip 2 

Another great bunch of kiwi's fly in for 5 more days of fishing. There was not as many bites this trip but when the boys got shots they got the fish to the boat. 

This trip we had two first time GT fishermen coming to Oman to catch a fish of a life time and put an extra tick on their bucket lists. Both these guys amazed me with the share hard work they put in, not only during the trip but the months leading up to the trip. These guys put time in at the gym and down at their local footy fields trying to get more distance with their casts and in the end this hard work really paid off with both them catching two stunning fish each. 

One of our anglers hooked a stunning Black GT in only 1-2m of water, the fight was brutal and not one minute during that fight did I ever think we were going to land it.  The deepest water we got during the fight was 3.5m! but with a little bit of luck, some great angling skills and some wicked driving by our super captain a stunning fish came on board to be measured, photos taken and released.

The trip ended on a real high note with one of our anglers getting two fish on the last day and one of those fish was on the last cast!

The hard work paid off for Mike and a big tick off the bucket list.

Boys taking a rest between drifts

Paul with a stunning black GT hooked in what seemed like a puddle.

Super Captain! with so much energy and the drive to get just one more fish, legend!

Longtail tuna

Pinned to the rail, from this to

THIS!

Last cast, last fish, sun going down on an amazing adventure. You can even see the lights of the lodge in the background!

Camels on the beach, stunning drive along the coast to get to the airport for the long trip home.

If anyone is interested in joining us next year we will be fishing Oman in the first two weeks in April 2016. We will be going down to the Hallaniyat islands for 5 days and also doing a 5 day live aboard trip in Musandam, Oman. The focus is GT's but the Musandam trip gives topwater anglers shots at other species including sailfish. Please contact me at [email protected] if you need any more info. This really is a trip of a life time and very affordable.

Tony