The hunt for a monster giant trevally began with an early departure from Khasab port in Musandam with Ocean Active Fly. To say this is a rugged region of this planet is an understatement. Until 2008 this region was only accessible by air, boat or a ten hour drive. Now there are fast ferries from Muscat, Oman and an excellent road from the United Arab Emirates border to Khasab.
It’s significantly cooler up here compared to southern Oman. When we left the port it was about 70°. I was under-dressed and had to dig my rain jacket out for warmth. There were some patchy clouds highlighting the huge mountains.
When Granny and I were here in 2015 we never hooked a GT. I had one beast come up under a popper and turn away. I blind casted my 12-weight and a sailfish sized popper for three straight days. We caught other fish though that included this beautiful blacktip trevally along with several orange-spotted trevally, a halfspotted grouper and a rainbow runner.
Catching a big GT in the Seychelles on fly is a common occurrence. Big ones down there are usually slightly over 100 cm long fish. Here in Musandam the big boys commonly surpass 130 cm but very few have been taken on the fly. Enticing them to eat a fly is a chore. And if you do hook one landing him is the next problem with rocky shoals in every direction.
Sammy needs his GT quest to end. It’s been long going so rather than blind cast his 12-weight all day our guide David is chucking a huge hookless teaser on a spin rod. If a GT follows, Sammy will get the fly in the zone and hopefully hook up. I continue to stubbornly blind cast. I was prowling with a huge chartreus Clouser down deep on my Sonar Titan Big Water Taper 450 GR.
Unfortunately one hour, two hours, then three hours went by without much action. Sammy had something blow up on his popper that could have been a small GT. We’ll never know. And our highlight was when two huge sailfish followed in David’s teaser. But neither paid any attention to our flies. Sammy’s GT issues are starting to remind me of my marlin curse.
Despite the slow fishing there’s a lot to take in and one thing is far beyond the scenery. Each day Iranian smugglers make the 45 minute boat ride across the Strait of Hormuz to buy goods then resell them in Iran. With the sanctions long going on Iran this is big business. The Omani’s turn a blind eye because it’s great for the Musandam economy. But on the Iranian side of the Strait the smugglers are often busted. No doubt the hostility between the USA and Iran is higher up. Every smuggler that passed I waved to and they all wave back.
We got one fish today right at the end and it was a new species for me that I’ve been waiting to catch for years. This is a yellowtail barracuda (Sphyraena flavicauda). I was down deep off the bow bouncing my Clouser near bottom when I got whacked. Up came a mouth full of teeth and lucky for me I had him hooked right in the corner of the mouth.
There was one more highlight today when a baby 8 foot whale shark swam up to the boat. It was awesome but not quite as exciting as the last time I saw one. We packed it in midafternoon and got ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow is Sammy’s last fishing day this trip and hopefully he’ll have some last day magic. Now it’s time for big fat steaks on the grill!
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