OMAN THE GREAT ARIBIC SEA PART II

We went fishing with our usual guides , found the dolphins but not one single tuna fish , only some small tuna fish by vertical jigging. The day after instead, we saw fins: they were tuna fish and really big ones , at 40 mts from the boat. Unfortunately we had a sardine as a hook and we were not able to reach them with the throw. We could do nothing else than insult each other .

The day after the sea was rough so we decided to go fishing in a stream or better “wadi” as they called it in Oman.

Two days were left and two of the elder fishermen offered to take us fishing . The morning after at five a.m. we were on the boat, grinding out miles till the shore was far away and then definitely disappeared. Hamed sighted some dolphins on which we jumped and they threw a sardine . We drop a jig but without success till when on another shoal , Vincenzo heard a stroke and had the Tamentai bent as never seen before. And I hooked a fireball. That’s the moment: the big tuna fish . A quarter of an hour fighting and then I started seeing him : the flat sea , the tuna fish rising slowly form the depths was something spectacular and I was tight like a string. Then he was just under the boat , Hamed took the rope and with four- five blows the fighting was over.

The day after instead of yellowfin we found small tuna fish from 3 to 5 kgs and we caught 130 in the morning and 40 in the afternoon , in addition Hamed exclaimed at a certain point: Msuhe which means GT. A small shoal of fishes were swimming afloat two – three miles from the cost. We therefore threw a POPPER but nothing happened . HAmed threw a sardine alive without hook which immediately was caught by the big predator- a GT of about 20 kgs , whose back appeared afloat. The evening just before, we had been told that that was the season when the GT arrived and during summer there were shoals of 400 – 500 pieces some kilometers far from the cost and they found them by sailing around and sighting the fish wakes and then by throwing sardsines by hand

Were not enough those last days to convince us thoroughly to come back , other reason would have convinced us : the fact that ALI had seen in 4 days time 4 marlins and hooked one of them by throwing a KARA by hand , a couple of pictures of 450 kgs marlin caught by hand . In addition we discovered a wonderful boat , with all necessary requirements to make serious fishing , from tuna fishes to marlins by jigging and then we met a lot of very skillful and experienced fishermen as only few guides can boast of being . At any rate the undersigned will go back to Oman the next summer to search for pelagic GT and queen fish , small tuna fish and marlins , which are all kind of fishes arriving in such season .

Oman remains an open chapter ..

THE GREAT ARABIC SEA PART I

We were aware that Oman was a hard challenge for fishing and , on the contrary, not knowing exactly what we were to face , it spurred us further to set out on such scouting in an area where till today no one ever went fishing with duns.

Our trip, apart being a nice fishing adventure, was a wonderful experience with friends in a hard and nice place , where we met extraordinary fishermen, fishing master guides who became our friends.

The morning of the second day , we were already on the boat trying immediately to jig . At the second drop , after a while I saw a 25 kgs Cobia who left the hook, and then nothing else till Rasheed sighted a shoal of dolphins. He went in the middle and started to draw with a half kg homemade kona . We , the perfect pretty boys fishermen protested and went back jigging.

Upon returning , a little bit in low spirits , 2 boats arrived and unloaded just in front of us 700 kgs of tuna fish in 30 and 70 kgs pieces. Those fishermen were speaking English and explained us that the fishing is done by sighting the dolphins , going in the middle of the shoal and throwing by hand a sardine ; if in such a way you do not catch tuna fish , then you change the shoal of dolphins.. we felt stupid but at the same time encouraged-

The following days we knew other fishermen and we became friends but the elder and more experienced ones made us understand that when they were fishing tuna fish they did not want anyone on the boat also because in one single morning they could earn unbelievable lot of money .
The problem as that our boat was without GPS and that Rasheed never departed from the cost in search of dolphins , while one finds tuna fish generally between 30 and 50 (sea) miles form the coast . Just to relax a while, we decided to go to the isle but when already at 30 km from Ras Al Had we saw the sea was read and when we arrived in Masirah we had to acknowledge , resigned , that the Red Tide was everywhere . We discovered some sheltered bays and we fished gilthed bream and small size spangle emperors . We found other clearer points but the Red Tide was at 50 mts from the shore and in fact , in spite of the wonderful shape of the spot , we did not have good fishing.

It was a pity as the spot should have been really a good one: sand , rocks and coral all together , with the shallow water descending at 30 mts from the shore. One should also take into account that there had been red Tide for 6 months and even if some times the wind was cleaning the spots , sweeping the Red Tide away , it wouldhave been difficult to find fish in such conditions.
In the evening we wandered along the harbor, where the water was clear and -what a surprise! - we found a shoal of GT hunting and we caught one after of the other . Evidently they were present in the area but who knew where did they go with such a sea.
The following morning we came back to Ras Al Haad determined to catch tuna fish and nothing else for five days.

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