April has historically been an excellent month to fish in Oman for big GTs. It’s the month before the monsoon season, and therefore marks the last month of fishing before the season ends.

Because of that, when a trip cancellation meant that myself and a group of friends (Maurice from Rotterdam and Dave from London) would have an opportunity to fish this prime month, we jumped at it! We knew going into this trip that it was going to be a case of high risk and high reward. If the winds dropped enough to let us get to the islands, we should have red hot fishing. However there was also the chance that the winds would be pumping, preventing us from hitting the islands, so it was really likely to be a case of all or nothing.

On this trip we were to be the last group of the season fishing, with just one boat operating for the duration of our trip. Because of this, we were able to get there a little early and get set up, as well as have a go at some land based fishing. After enjoying some much needed warmth from the moment we got off the plane, we jumped in the car and began making our way down the incredibly scenic coastal road towards the No Boundaries camp. All the way down we were seeing spots that as well as looking amazing, also screamed of fish.

It was therefore with high hopes that we set out the next morning, planning to have our first session of casting lures off the shore. Upon reaching the coast at sunrise, we noticed that there was quite a bit of swell running, resulting in a lot of white, shallow water before you could reach the deeper parts at the edge of the wash, where we hoped the predators would be patrolling. I was fishing what is primarily now my seabass outfit, in the form of the new Yamaga Blanks Early Plus 92MXL, and casting a Megabass Zonk 120 (my favourite minnow as of late). This outfit allowed me to whip out some really massive casts for this light lure, but despite that it was still necessary to wade out 20m+ until you were between waist and chest height, to really get beyond the swell.

We started casting and working a small section of the coast with our lures, and it didn’t take long before I had a strike, and the first fish of the trip was on! Sadly I didn’t get any photos, but the fish was a mulloway (or cob) of around 45cm. By no means a big fish, but it was my first mulloway on a diving minnow, and we were happy to have gotten a fish after only a couple of casts. Thankfully though this was not to be the last, and the mulloway kept following in quick succession with us getting around a dozen for the morning between us.

Just as the sun was starting to rise in earnest I lobbed out a cast which, after about 5 turns on the handle, got absolutely nailed. Line started disappearing from my Stella 4000 at a ridiculous pace and I began tightening the drag, but was conscious of the fact I was fishing PE2 line on a seabass rod, using the standard hooks and split rings on my Zonk lure! In my time fishing I have actually never been spooled, and there was a point when I had a little over half my spool out without having even gotten 1 wind back on the reel, where I was seriously wondering whether this would be it!

Thankfully though I managed to slow the runs, and began the long process of wading along the coast and working this fish back through the surf. After around 20 minutes or so the fish was back near the shore, and we caught a glimpse of silver. It was my PB Queenfish by a long margin. While by no means the biggest or the rarest fish I have ever caught, I think that for me catching this fish on seabass gear while wading in warm water and watching the sunrise with camels on the shore for company, will mean that it stays in my mind as one of my most memorable captures to date.


The first day of the boat fishing part of our expedition came along, and we loaded the boat with a ridiculous amount of kit in hope of a mission to the islands. Unfortunately though the wind had other plans, and we were not able to make it out. The plan was to head south and cast along the cliffs for the bream which Oman is well known for in the light tackle community. It was however to be a very slow day. Water temps were very warm and we noticed a lot of dead fish along the coast. We are not sure why this is, but perhaps it was shutting down the bite.

We did finish off with 2 bream for the day, both of which fell to my Megabass Zonk 120 (yes there is a trend developing here!). Maurice also raised one on a Feed Cone 25 popper, but it didn’t commit.

Day 2 was much of the same on the wind front sadly, and we decided to head a little north of the ramp to try some light jigging marks. We got a couple of taps, but nothing hooked up. Then all of a sudden the wind died down, and skipper Yassir made the call to go for a quick run out to the islands and see if the fish were playing ball! We were well and truly excited at this point, having prepared ourselves for another inshore day, but we quickly started getting the GT kit ready for action.

From the very first drift, I had some follows on the Temple Reef Ballista Detonator 168BM which I was using, which was my star-lure last trip. Mid-way through the second drift though I noticed some fraying on my mainline and went to re-tie a leader, and just at that moment I hear a lot of commotion and see that Maurice is on big time! Something big and angry has engulfed his Feed Pin 180 and is making for the horizon. This was Maurice’s first experience with a big GT, and he now knew what I meant about the power of the things! It was a great thing to be there and watch a friend get his dream fish, and after a few pics, a tag, a weigh and release, we had the first 40kg+ GT of the trip on the boat.

It was time to reset the drift and make another pass of the mark. We began casting, and I picked up a nice Queenfish. Around the same size as the one off the beach, but a lesser catch on PE10 than on PE2! Then Maurice joins in the casting, and second cast – he is on again! Unbelievable. The Pin 180 was certainly the favoured lure that morning. This fish seemed even angrier than the last, and put up one hell of a fight. It was a wonderful looking fish, very dark in colour, and we now had two GTs above 40kg on the boat in the space of just a few casts.

We were at this point now all hoping that our plans of ‘high risk and high reward’ had paid off in spades. After this fish though, the bite really shut down. We kept popping a range of marks up until lunch time, at which point we dropped a couple of light jigs over the side for a bit of fun.

We picked up a few small bits and pieces, and Maurice dropped a really nice fish on the jig. Then shortly afterwards the Jigging Master Fallings jig I was using got slammed. I was using a PE3 jigging combo (Temple Reef Mytho and a Wiki Jigging 900H reel) and I knew I had to put on as much pressure as I could to try and keep this beast away from the reef. I hit max drag on the reel and started applying a lot of thumb pressure, but the line just kept going – which made Yassir think I was snagged on the bottom, until the high speed bursts of the fish and my excited yells made clear this was a great fish! Unfortunately though after ripping off over 150m of line under full drag and lots of thumb pressure, the leader got mauled on the reef. The one that got away, which I can only imagine was a GT or large Amberjack or similar, but who really knows.

The afternoon saw us casting on some very shallow marks, in search of more big GTs. By this time Maurice had switched to the light tackle, and I had moved from popper to stickbait, in the form of a BFP Mafia One 180gr. I really loved the action of this lure, with heaps of flashing and side to side roll, which gave me a lot of confidence about getting a strike. On a few of the drifts I was getting follows from smaller GTs, but they were not really committing. At that moment Maurice hooked a garfish on his PE4 casting kit, which in turn got inhaled by a good sized GT! Luckily though after a couple of blistering runs, the GT threw the hook – which was the best result as any attempt on landing it on PE4 in such skinny water was bound to end in tears.

Just as we were getting ready to head back, I lobbed my Mafia One towards a bommie that was protruding from the surface of the water, and after a few twitches, it was BANG – fish on! Given how shallow we were, we needed to pull this fish out and pull it out fast, so a lot of drag was put on, and the spool was getting grabbed as hard as I could as I shuffled down to the back of the boat while Yassir drove for deeper water. I lost a lot of line initially, but then slowly started making ground towards the still-moving boat. I had had some big fish on the last trip to Oman in October so knew what to expect, but this fish was a nightmare to pull towards the boat so I was really expecting a great fish. You can imagine my disappointment though, when I finally get the fish near to the boat and see that it’s only a small fish, but one of the trebles has hooked up on the side, so the fish was getting pulled sideways through the water making it feel much larger than it was. Oh well, at least our GT drought had been broken for the trip, and we went back to camp much happier that night.

What we did not realise though, was that the weather was not going to be friendly to us on our last 3 days, and with the exception of one very brief window at the islands on day 4 (where we didn’t raise any fish), we were relegated to inshore fishing for the balance of our trip – which meant no more GTs. Rather than spend more time chasing the bream, we opted to dedicate the majority of our time to chasing bait balls, in the hope of queenies, mahi, trevally and anything else that might be around. There was mounds of bait around, but the predators were not too interested in our offerings and so the fishing was slow and I won’t give a full run down of those days, but we did land a few more good fish on the light tackle.

Some standout captures were this great Queenfish caught by Dave as part of a double hookup on his Yamaga Blue Sniper 77/3 rod and Tacklehouse K-Ten Minnow, and Maurice’s Mahi which he took on his Carpenter PE4 gear and a Smith casting jig.

After the way my October trip finished up in Oman last year this was a much slower trip, but it was still great to get back over there and extract a few nice fish. I am already booked again for April next year, and if the weather behaves, am sure we’ll get some great action!

Almost all tackle used is available for sale at Adventure Angler, at www.adventureangler.net

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