Southern Oman October 2011

Since my last visit to Southern Oman in April 2011 we have had many inquiries from friends and anglers that wished to fish with us in this amazing destination,
I contacted Nick from Ocean Active and we set up dates for 2011 and 2012.
Raymond and Igor are my companions for this trip, we made it to Dubai airport and got picked up at the gate by Nick and Kegan, Nick took the 10 hours drive to Southern Oman and we finally reached our destination to be greeted at the villa by Ashraf the owner of the lodge.
Our first day was full of excitement as we where all waiting to hit the water and see how long it will take before we get our lines tight.
We landed some nice size fish on that day, the biggest estimated to be around 44kg to 45kg by Nick, Yes Southern Oman still hold big fish right at the beginning of the season, the only problem we had is that the water clarity is poor, but for the first day everybody was happy and we all had the opportunity to land GT’s,
The clear water was only at a specific part of the islands and we manage to land 7 out of 9 on our first day, the trip was set with dedication to jigging as well,
Due to the limited time that I had on the previous trip we did not get any chance to jig,
As for this trip the plan was to jig for at least a day or 2, prior to the trip I was talking to Nick on a weekly basis to sort out the spot and the point for the potential Amber Jack. And boy did we hit JACKPOT!
On our second day the water clarity remained the same and we had the slowest day on this trip, we decided to jig and we had some fun and good time, right before we called the day off, Nick said lets give popping 30 minutes before we run home,
I looked at the water and said to myself there is no way that this water will hold GT’s,
Raymond get a massive swirl’s behind his popper, the fish missed his popper, came back again and hit it with revenge!
Raymond fought the fish like a champion and landed his first big GT’s, Nick estimated the fish between 47kg to 48kg, took a quick pictures and released and off we go back to the lodge with a smile on everybody’s face, Raymond saved the day for us!
On the third day the water start to get better at some point and we decided to stick to that particular spot, we doubled out and landed 2 nice GT’s, looking at the water and the way the current was forming we knew sooner or later we will have our shot at that point,
We put the time and all our effort knowing that the big one will come from here!
I get inhaled by a big massive fish that took my stickbait 2 feet from the surface; the fish took a prototype lure and with all it’s power; started peeling line like no tomorrow!
I tightened my drag 3 times until it became locked and from the side of my eye I could see where it is heading, yes right towards the edge of the drop off,
This fish will mark a memory in my life; I had never fought a fish with a complete locked drag and not been able to stop it!!!
I get reefed with anger but again this is part of fishing!!!
We decided to jig and got rewarded by black tip trevally, spangled emperor, grouper, brassy trevally, yellow dot trevally,
Our 4th day was dedicated to jigging and with the knowledge and the intel that Nick gathered, we where right on the spot to be rewarded big time, I won’t comment much about it and I will let the pictures do the talking,
We where sore from pulling fish after fish and decided to call it off and head to one of the island to take a break and have lunch, we popped for 2 hours and we manage to raise and hook a couple of fish.
On the 5th day and our last day started we launched from the marina at 6:00 AM in the morning trying to benefit from the early bite, we found a new spot and right after 2 minutes of popping I saw a black shadow coming towards my popper and hitting it twice, unfortunately he missed my lures but I saw over 8 GT’s chasing my popper, I shouted to Raymond to cast on the right direction and there it was, the dream shot, Raymond was tight followed by myself,
Raymond get rewarded with a nice black GT pushing every inch of the 35KG,
Igor right after us comes tight with a black tip trevally, we then decided to move to a different spot and landed a couple of GT’s ,
We had an amazing trip complimented with great company good laughs, I can’t thank Nick from Ocean Active and Ashraf the owner of the lodge for the hospitality and the service provided to us on this trip!
all pictures provided by all anglers so i can't take full credit for the shots.

Tight lines
Sami