Afternoon, I have been reading the forum for a while and thought it was time to post trips from Oman. We have done a couple of goods trips this season with some bus fish. Really awesome place and still very wild!

One of the best parts of any trip for me is the planning and organizing of a trip. It is the long hours we spend with fellow fisherman on the trip talking tactics, tackle, possible scenarios and of course monster sized fish we are going to catch (always got to be positive!) For this trip Nick, FC and I had put our game plan together and packed the truck and headed for Southern Oman. We left from Dubai UAE early morning and drove through the border at Al Ain into Oman. After a 11 hour drive through one of the most desolate desert landscapes, we arrived at the villa with a clear sky, blue water and shoals of sardines being hammered by bluefish. What more can you ask for? Ashraf and the team greeted us with the ever friendly Omani hospitality and some welcomed refreshments!

We set up our tackle late into the night. Lures were changed and re-changed as the tactics evolved and finally the excitement wore off with tiredness from a long day. 04.30 am the alarm went off and everyone was up and ready. A quick breakfast and we headed for the marina and hopefully a great days fishing. We headed out with the weather calm and the sea like glass. After a long run we arrived at the first island and a shoal of lures were launched into the water. A few fish were raised but nothing hooked up. We moved to the next island. Moving around the first point I put in a cast into the white water crashing off the point right against the rocks and my popper got smashed and after a brief one sided fight the fish reefed me. The trip had finally started and the game was on! Fish 1 Fisherman 0!

Over the next few hours we managed to raise some big GTs but we did not manage to hook up any. The sea was flat and there was almost no current. At one point we looked down into the crystal clear water and could see about 7 GTs swimming around leisurely not interested or worried about us in the boat! So we decided to head out to deeper water and jig for some amberjack and grouper and wait for the current to pick up.
After a good lunch and a bit of jigging we headed back into the GT zone and the conditions had improved. We fished along the side of one ledge and drifted across the shallow reef behind. I casted my popper off the bow and the sea exploded. The fish came up from the bottom with no warning. I hit the fish and after the initial chaos and line peeled off the Stella at a bit of an alarming rate with the water only 5m deep. After a lot of shouting and of course “mild” suggestions to the skipper on how to fight the fish, I got into my stride and pulled the fish with all my strength and energy (what was left after a day of casting poppers) to keep the fish out of the rocks. After a very intence battle a fantastic 42kg GT came up next to the boat. A few pictures and high fives and the fish was released to fight another day.

We did another drift and Nick had a big dark coloured fish roll on his stickbait. He hit the fish and we were unsure what he had hooked. We thought it could be a big Bohar Snapper but after a brief fight a huge speckled snapper came up to the boat. A few pictures and the fish was released. After a few more emperor we headed back to shore and the villa tired but content.

Day 2 we decided to head out to the far island which is about 50 miles from base. There is a small island on the way which breaks up the trip nicely. The muscles were a bit cold and stiff from the day before, FC was ready first and put out a cast as a warmer upper. First pop and the popper got smashed. Not a bad way to start the day! FC quickly got rid of the aches and pains and got a nice GT to the boat for a few pictures. We fished around the island and then on the last cast before moving Nick put a long cast into a gully between some reef. A couple of pops and 4 large black shapes came flying over the shallow reef, the lead fish hit the popper and missed, he turned back and came right out of the water and engulfed the popper. He hit him as hard as he could several times not wanting to let his first chance slip away. We pulled the fish into deeper water and after a good fight got a nice 35kg GT to the boat.

A quick drink of water and we were back in the zone. We fished along the front side of the island and had several big fish come up and hit the lures. It was almost like the poppers and hooks were to small and not hooking up properly! Finally Nick managed to hook another good fish about 38kgs and got him to the boat. Not a bad start!

We headed for the far island and arrived to some amazingly clear water. All of the rocks and sand cuts were clearly visible. The colours of indigo water, dark rocks and white sand increased the excitement levels through the roof. The one issue around the island is that the water is very shallow and the GTs normally very big! Not good for the fisherman and tackle. On the first drift I hooked up and got reefed soon after. Nick then managed a smallish GT. FC got a good sized GT after pulling it off the rocks in about 1m of water. Nick then got reefed by a monster fish over a ledge, and then he managed to land another two good GTs. The biggest being about 127cm which was around 42kgs. Some awesome fishing. We ended up with 7 GTs on day 2.

The final day the wind had picked up and we did not manage to get out to the islands after trying for about 1 hour. We returned to base and kitted up with out light rods and fished along the coast up against the cliffs. We had some fantastic fishing with queenfish, bluefish, bream, dorado (5m of water!), big eye trevally and emperor.

We had a great trip with good company, lots of stories of the fish that got away and pictures of the fish that did not get away.

The gear that we used was as follows:
Reels: Stella 18000, Stella 20000, Accurate SR30, Accurate SR12, Stella 5000, Stradic 5000, Saros 4000
Rods: Carpenter WV80, Fisherman Big Game 82, Shimano Deep Monster, Smith KGS70MH, Shimano Aerocast, Shimano starlo stix
Line: Tufline XP, YGK Jigman, Berkley fire line
Lures: Fisherman Big Mouth, Fisherman Long Pen, Orion Big Numbas 225gr, Orion Big Foot 45gr, Orion Cono Cono 190gr, Ocean Active Cubera 180gr, Ocean Active Skipjack 150gr, Ocean Active Ulua 200gr and 150gr, Halco Rooster Popper.