Sunrise came early in Dubai today. I was glad. It was time to get up and chase down some queenfish with friend Nick Bowles, founder of Ocean Active Fly. Nick and I first met and fished back in 2014. After that one day on the water Nick had me move out of my hotel and into his house. We’ve been buds since and every time I pass through Dubai I stay with the Bowles family and we fish.
Nick has another friend Mark Taylor and his friend Trevor visiting as well. Mark and I fished together in Oman in 2019. Nick brought the big boat and all four of us hit the water together.
Several of my Seychelles guests stopped with Nick a few weeks ago on their way to my hosted trip. All of them slammed the talang queenfish and had a blast. I had no doubt we were about to lay into a bunch of fish. My assumption was correct. Once the sun came up Dubai harbor came to life with queens busting bait in every direction.
You can be surrounded by feeding queenfish but they still don’t jump on the line. These large-eyed sight feeders love to follow and investigate a fly. They often drive you crazy with their selectivity. But Nick does this enough he has tricks. He likes size 1/0 to 2 blue and white Clousers and the best way to present is to cast slightly past the school and strip your fly in. A couple fast strips to get their attention then when you see a serious follower, slow down. Its like feeding a streamer to a brown trout – if you’ve ever done that.
We absolutely crushed the queens. We don’t count so I’m not sure if we caught 30 or 40 but I do know we posed with doubles, triples and Mark cleverly set up his camera to catch all four of us with a fish in hand. Fishing was truly incredible!
We packed it in at about 11 and took a boat ride into the city. Its become tradition after a good day queenfishing with Nick. We hit the 101 One & Only the Palm for good food and beer.
Tonight we had a few drinks on Nicks roof overlooking the city. This place is truly a sight to behold. I don’t care for cities but I love Dubai. Then we closed down this great day with one of Nick’s and his son Zach’s homemade seafood, chicken, sausage paella. Life is good on the far side of the world!
0 Comments