Musandam, Oman Dec 2010

Musandam have always been a special place for me ever since I set foot on this place.
From the cliffs that meet the sea to the smugglers that are running along the coast,
I have to say that this place have a charm of its own,
Despite the good size GTs and the challenge that the terrain offers, I consider Musandam my holy city when it comes to GT fishing.
This is my 3rd trip to Musandam in 4 years.
The plan was to fish with Wahib and David as I had fished with them on my first trip to Musandam and since that time we became very close friends and mates,
Unfortunately David gets stuck in London with his plane due to a snow storm that hit Europe, so it ended up just Wahib and me,
Nick from Ocean Active picked me up to join Wahib for a quick bite and off to Musandam we went.
We fished for 3 days with rough conditions as the water temperature dropped and the water turned more greenish.
We managed to hook nice size fish but luck was not on our side,
Wahib landed a nice fish estimated between 38kg to 40kg according to the chart, he had the fish in less then 5 minutes and everybody thought it was a shark until it start moving the boat,
That was the highlight of the trip and the biggest fish landed on the first day, that was his biggest GT ever and what made him happy is, he caught it on his new Smith Komodo Dragon rod.
Unfortunately the lion jaw *a particular spot in the area* did not produce the same quality like before but we still jigged a couple of fishes here and there,
Our second day was really slow with 5 hits with no hook up, I was using barbless hook for the entire trip while targeting GT and that made me think for a second to change to barbed hooks but I kept on pushing my luck and I end up paying the price!
On our 3rd and last day Nick was pushing as fast as he could to catch the right tide, made it to the fishing ground as early as possible and it took less then 10 minutes to see Wahib getting smoked,
He landed an estimated 25kg GT followed by myself with 3 hook ups and 0 landed, the first hit was a black GT that literally cleared half of his body out of the water but unfortunately turn unbutton and so did the 2nd and the 3rd hit, we saw colors on my last fish to come unbutton 10 feet away from the boat,
We moved to a different area and Nick point to us where to cast,
It took Wahib 1 cast on his Orion Crazy Dog to disappear between the rocks with a singing reel; the GT fought like a beast and reefed Wahib.
Out of no where the long fin tuna start busting and we decided to give it a try, I cast my Moutoukenmaru only to see it going airborne with a missile attached to it,
The kingfish manage to leave a nice mark on the lure after catching our eyes with its spectacular aerial display.
To summarize the trip we had a great time and as always the service and effort that the guys from Ocean Active provided us is second to none,
I would like to thank Nick and Captain Keagan for the hospitality that they showered on us,
We will be back!
Tackle used
Rod: Smith komodo dragon
Race Point
Carpenter WV & SP78H-SHP
Sevenseas Big Pop
MC-Works
Hots
Lures: Craft bait, Hammerhead, Moutoukenmaru, Orion
Line: Jerry Brown, Sunline, Varivas
Tight lines
 Sami

New Jersey Bluefin tuna on Top Water 11/22

Had a call 9:00pm last night from Adam asking if I would like to join him for a Blue fin tuna hunt,
They’ve been some report in the past week, ended up catching 2 hours of sleep and back to Brooklyn to pick up my tackle from the shop,
Met up with Adam and Greg at 6:30 am, we launched out of Barnegat inlet to head North, after a good ½ hour we start spotting birds and splashes under the birds,
Made a cast to a nice pod and came in tight on the T’b lure prototype in 16cm 90g, I had the fish in less then 3 minutes in the boat on the Race Point,
A nice 58 inch hit the deck with cheerful joy around,
Adam kept on pushing north and we encounter another feed, all 3 lures went Airborne and I look at Adam’s face to see the joy and the sound of his reel ZZZZZZ,
Fish on, the fish took the lure 10 feet away from the boat, Adam landed a nice 56 inch fish on the BD rod and the lure that the fish hit was the Volador, took a quick photo and released the fish to fight another day,
The wind started to pick up and Adam came tight again on the Tailwalk Gunz in Pink, this was a nice hefty fish estimated in the 130lb range and over the 62 inch mark, we had it to boat side and after a nice fight we released it,
We called the day off at 11:00am, nice Monday to start the week J
I would like to thank Captain Sherer from Shore Catch Guide Service for a great day spent on the water.
Hope we will do it again.

Tight lines
    Sami

  

Cape Cod Blue Fin Tuna Video.

Paul's Tuna from Eric Kulin on Vimeo.
Compliments from Captain Eric Kulin (Snapshot).

Cheers,
Paul.

Cape Cod 10/19/2010

Went up to the Cape with Sherman and Benson from New York.
Met up with Captain Eric and 1st mate Jason of Livewell charters in Green Harbour at 6am. Weather was chilly in the lows 40s, headed out to the fishing grounds and saw tunas scattered and jumping in all directions ranging from small 15-20 pounders to nice 200lb fish.
As usual the fishes dived as soon as we approached them and we had to depend on the birds to lead us, after a couple of cast, we saw a couple of birds flying low and staring at the water, casted 3-5 yds ahead of where the birds were heading and let the lure float on the surface for a couple of seconds before working it, i was working my lures really slow as they didn't seem to be really agressive. About 10yds from the boat and as soon as the lure stick its head out from the water, a huge boil came from behind.
@#$% he missed it! 4 times it happened to me on different lures!
Made another cast and again let it sit in the water and work it real slow, sweep...stop, sweep stop, another boil surfaced but this time the line went tight, FISH ON! i thought to myself and fought the fish in, it was a nice 53 inch keeper.
After the 1st fish was landed we headed towards the south east corner of the bank and was greeted by a whole fleet of boats, many familiar faces, Capt Josh, Capt Dom, Capt Richie...
After saying "Hi" to Dom and Konishi-san who was fishing with him we headed out in search of more fish and again i worked the lures slowly and was rewarded with another fish, it was slightly bigger then the 1st fish 56inch estimated and brought it alongside the boat only to have the belly split ring failed on me and the fish escaped before any photos could be taken.
It was a nice day out and even nicer with the fish coming back, been a real bad season and i'm glad they are back! On the way back we saw a commercial boat trying to haul a 800lb to their boat.
Here are the tackle used,

1st fish - Souls PS-075P3CS, Shimano Stella 10000FA with 16000 spool, Souls Nardo lure, Varivas SMP PE8 and our own 130lb loop to loop twisted shock leader with 130lb bite flouro leader.
2nd fish - Race Point Special, Shimano Stella 18000SW, Shout prototype lure, Varivas SMP PE8 and our own 130lb loop to loop twisted shock leader with 130lb bite flouro leader.
Other Rods - Smith Tokara
Reels - Shimano Stella 18000SW
Lures - Carpenter Gamma & Pandora, Daiwa Dorado sliders, Shimano Ocea pencils, Souls Brabus and Bombers.
Here are the some of the pictures, in case you guys don't recognize me...yes i cut my hair
Cheers,
Paul.