It’s Day 2 here in Southern Oman with my usual saltwater travel pal, Sammy Vigneri.  We should be in the Seychelles but as you know by now a cyclone messed that up.  Instead my friend from Dubai, Nick Bowles, founder of Ocean Active Fly, and his friend Mark Taylor of Norway have let us join in their fishing plans in order to keep our fishing trip dreams alive.

 

We hit the water at 6 AM sharp, all four of us in one boat.  Yesterdays gang of Yousef and his team hosted divers today.  I had my usual “permit hangover”.  I need to kick this humdrum because there’s always more permit to catch.  But honestly, I was so stoked with knocking the Africanus permit off my list yesterday I sort of kicked back and didn’t put my “A Game” behind the rod.

 

 

 

Perhaps I should say kick back and swim because that’s exactly how the fishing started.  While yesterday Nick and Mark swam to a beach and fished from shore so Sam and I could fish from the boat, we switched it up today.  Let’s just say swimming is a butt kicker of a workout.  And I mean literally.  I made my leap with no thought of a swim tiring me.  But by the time the surf pounded me into the beach I was spent.  And it really got Sammy.  I continue to forget how old I am and perhaps sooner or later I better grow up.

 

Our beach fishing began with a rest then a short exploration of the area.  Just like most remote beaches on the planet, this one was covered in plastics and odd trash items.  Not enough folks take the kick plastic bottle thing serious and continue to buy bottled water and assume their bottle gets recycled.  Don’t count on it.  The beaches of the world are proof that using less plastic and creating less trash in general is the best approach.

 

Despite the usual trash this beach was stunning.  Granny and I camped on numerous spectacular beaches in Oman back in 2015.  Our main target was the Indo-pacific yellow permit and that’s exactly what we hoped for this morning.  But the surf was high and the water was off-color from the big swell.  We went from walking and trying to spot fish to blind casting crabs and Clousers.  After two hours of nothing we kicked back and relished the fact that we are in Oman.

 

Nick and Mark came back for us around noon.  The boat can only get so close to shore to get us due to the dangers of the big waves.  You must swim out.  Sammy and I weren’t looking forward to the swim after how tiring it was earlier but we made it.  No doubt we were gasping in the boat.

 

Nick and Mark got humbled from the boat on the Africanus rocks.  They saw a bunch but couldn’t fool one today.  Let’s remember some of my thoughts at the end of yesterday’s blog – Sammy and I caught two but I think it was a fishing miracle!

 

We knocked back some snacks then fished the rocks for Africanus in the afternoon.  They weren’t around like they are in the mornings.  I’m certain its due to the tides at the moment.  We ended up fishing into some of the beach areas rather than rocks.

 

The surf was healthy and hard to deal with.  I look at the pics and can’t believe Sammy and I made a swim through them.  There’s still fish there though and Mark proved it.  He thought he saw a fish near the beach and rather then mess around waiting to see it again he made a cast with his crab.  The instant his fly hit the water he got hooked up.

 

Marks fish managed to tangle him in the rocks immediately.  It looked hopeless but Mark did what any dedicated fanatic fly fisher would do – regardless of the dangers, he jumped in and got pummeled by waves all the way to the beach.  But this gave him the advantage he needed to free his fish and the fight was on.

 

The match went on for more than five minutes.  Mark stood on a little tiny piece of beach with some rocks and got knocked over by waves several times.  All this time we couldn’t see his fish.  The one thing I have to know or I lose my mind what species is on the line.  The battle was daunting then finally Mark surfed his fish up on the beach.  It was Giant Trevally (GT)!  Although not a “giant” by any means it was a beautiful fish and a rare catch from Southern Oman.

 

Marks GT was the most memorable fish of the day.  We did however spank a few of these cute little masked triggerfish (Sufflamen fraenatum).  This is a new species for my list and I now have a long list of cool triggerfish on the fly.

 

 

At 2 PM Nick called it a day and we were about to begin our hour drive back to the Juweira Boutique Hotel dock.  Instead we had boat issue.  The steering stopped working.  While alarming to most, only because we could’ve drifted into the rocks and smashed to smithereens.  Or perhaps because we weren’t far from Yemen and that could be a bad option as well, I used the situation for a well needed nap.  Somehow I knew things would sort out and sure enough Nick got a call to Yousef and he sent a boat to save us.  All good now and I feel rested!

 

Mark and Nick crashed our deck for one beer tonight then they caught a flight back to Dubai.  Nick needs to work at home a few days and Mark returns to Norway.  It was a fun couple days with the guys.  Sammy and I remain here till Saturday and no doubt we’ll get out and fish more.  But, I’ve opted to rest more tomorrow.  My elbow troubles linger and I’m going to try to contain myself from casting.  We’ll see how that goes. . . .

 

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing