A MIXED WEEK FISHING

For this fishing week we had returning old friends Pat, Chris and Alan, joined by Steve, on the Reef Raider and Mikko, Henri and Sami, a group from Finland, on the Tropical Star. Mikko and Henri had fished in Oman before and Sami was on his first popping trip. It was a contrast in fishing styles between the two boats, with Pat and company wanting to have fun fishing with light tackle and enjoy as a group of friends fishing together, while for Mikko and group it was about fishing with us for big GT, as had been recommended to them by Hesh from KBE,who had also given them tackle advice and lures to carry on their trip out with us.

It really did not take long for us to get into the fish with Mikko and on day one in shallow water his Hero Cubera was smashed by a big GT that pulled hard against the almost full drag set by Mikko. Deft boat handling by Dilip got the GT pulled into deeper water where the fight was more in our control and after a few minutes we had a 141 cm GT – a 48 kilo fish – boated and an elated Mikko with his personal best GT. He did not mind the fact that he was quite bruised from not having a fighting belt on through the fight, but this is really not advisable to most anglers.

Meanwhile, Chris was dominating the front of the Reef Raider, casting with a 140 mm floating stick-bait and we were purposely fishing the shallows in search of fun-sized fish. We were drifting past a rocky beach with many large rocks visible above the water surface and Chris’s lure landed just in front of one of these rocks. Two handle turns of the reel and there was the characteristic “boom” of a big fish smacking a lure. The next second, the line was disappearing of the reel really fast to confirm it was a big fish. However, it headed straight towards the rocky beach and right in-between a very narrow channel with rocks all around. As expected, the line did get stuck in the rocks and with all hope gone we decided to try to retrieve as much of the 150 plus yards of line that had come off the reel spool very quickly. Once we had gone in as close as we dared, with less than a foot or two under the boat, we decided to pull on and break the 50 lb Jerry Brown line. However, the line – much to our surprise – did not break and after a few pings off the rocks it came free and we saw our still-hooked GT a farther 40 yards off the bow in a completely opposite direction. Putting as much pressure as we dared on the already damaged line, we nursed the fish into deeper water and guess what?! We landed it finally!! It weighed 32 kilos and for a PE 3 GT it was an awesome catch out of nowhere. Lady Luck did exist this day.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures and we will be back with more very soon.

Tight lines,
Team GFA

Tackle Used

Popping Rods: Temple Reef, Ocean Revolution, Racepoint, Major Craft, Daiwa Saltiga
Popping Reels: Shimano Stella, Shimano Saragosa, Daiwa Saltiga
Popping Lures: ASWB, Smith, Williamson, Kokari, Souls, Cubera, Orion, AOF GT Candy, Amberjack Lures

Jigging Rods: Shimano, Ocean Revolution, Major Craft, Penn
Jigging Reels: Shimano Stella, Penn Slammer 3, Shimano Saragosa, Shimano Twinpower
Jigs: Williamson, Fisherman Andaman, Seven Seas Hooker

Species Caught: Giant Trevally, Coral Trout, Grouper, Bohar Snapper, Bluefin Trevally, Barracuda