Giant Trevally caught on a Blaze Saththa 150g popper
Oman
October 2022
It was with high expectations that I set out from home in Houston to go and fish with No Boundaries in Oman for a week. No Boundaries is well known for the huge Giant Trevally that its clients have landed over the years, and I was hoping to break my personal best of 30 kgs. I overnighted in Dubai to try to rest up a little and get over jet lag, then flew to Salalah where we were supposed to meet up with the mothership Notus Temptress and sail out to the Hallaniyat Islands. There were 8 other people on the trip; two individual anglers like me (a Belgian and an Australian) and a group of 6 (5 Australians and 1 American) who lived in Vietnam and Thailand. Unfortunately, upon arrival we were told that there was an issue with the mothership and it would not be ready to sail as scheduled. Fortunately, No Boundaries pivoted immediately and arranged for us to stay at their lodge in Shuwaimya, a few hours north. That way, we could still get out and would not lose any fishing days. The lodge was simple but comfortable and we rigged up for the next day’s fishing.
October 2022
It was with high expectations that I set out from home in Houston to go and fish with No Boundaries in Oman for a week. No Boundaries is well known for the huge Giant Trevally that its clients have landed over the years, and I was hoping to break my personal best of 30 kgs. I overnighted in Dubai to try to rest up a little and get over jet lag, then flew to Salalah where we were supposed to meet up with the mothership Notus Temptress and sail out to the Hallaniyat Islands. There were 8 other people on the trip; two individual anglers like me (a Belgian and an Australian) and a group of 6 (5 Australians and 1 American) who lived in Vietnam and Thailand. Unfortunately, upon arrival we were told that there was an issue with the mothership and it would not be ready to sail as scheduled. Fortunately, No Boundaries pivoted immediately and arranged for us to stay at their lodge in Shuwaimya, a few hours north. That way, we could still get out and would not lose any fishing days. The lodge was simple but comfortable and we rigged up for the next day’s fishing.
Lots of camels wandering around
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Short stop on the way to the lodge
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We decided to stay inshore the first day and hunt for Omani Bream and other inshore species. The Bream here are similar to the species found in Australia and other places, but they get much, much bigger. I started out by casting Sebile Stick Shadds and started landing a variety of species. Big Eye Trevally were the most prevalent, with packs of them charging after our lures. Schools of Wolf Herring were also present and eager to take small lures. The Bream were a little elusive, but I managed to land 4, 2 of which were good sized. The other guys in the boat also landed a couple smaller ones. One of the guys did get a GT of around 6kgs on the light gear. The biggest fish of the day for me was a quality Queenfish, which was caught jigging. I also got 2 Long Nose Trevally, a small Amberjack, a Bonito, and some small Blackfin Tuna. All in all it was quite a good day in terms of action.
Omani Bream
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Omani Bream
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Queenfish
The second day we decided to head out to the islands, which were only about an hour run from the lodge. We started by casting big poppers for GTs. I had a pink and silver Blaze Saththa 150g popper, which was a pain to cast on my PE10 rod but which stayed in the water well and made a lot of noise. Before long I had a big strike, set the hook hard several times, and was pinned to the side of the boat by a big GT. I had to drop my center of gravity practically to the floor and brace my feet against the side to make sure I would stay in the boat with the buttoned down drag. After a short but brutal battle, a quality GT was brought onboard. We tried to weigh it but the sling broke. It was a very nice fish but not a real giant. A little while later I got another good hit on the Saththa and landed another GT about half the size of the first. That was it in terms of strikes on the big gear, so I downsized a bit to my PE5 outfit with a Tady 45 surface iron. They are practically unknown outside of Southern California and a few parts of Mexico, but I have had great success with them all over the world. This trip was no exception, with the Tady accounting for at least 15 different species throughout the trip. I lent one to one of the guys on the boat with me and he caught several of his best fish on it as well.
A nice Giant Trevally, which was the biggest fish of the trip
Another GT on the Blaze Saththa
The first Tady victims were a pair of Blacktip Trevally. Blacktips are a striking species with bright yellow fins, and they fight hard just like all Trevallys. I also got a couple of large Bonito. Bonito often get overlooked as a gamefish, but they pull super hard for their size. The larger one ripped off about 50 yards of drag in no time flat. It was probably the largest one I have ever landed. A couple Giant Needlefish and Barracuda rounded out a good day for me.
These are the rods the 3 of us took on the boat each day
Blacktip Trevally on the surface iron
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On the third day we headed out to the islands again, and this time we were able to meet up with the mothership and transfer our stuff there for the remainder of the week. The GTs were very quiet that morning with just one swirl on the big gear. When I dropped down to the Tady I did manage to land a smaller one. Even the small GTs put up a tremendous fight and you have to really pull hard to keep them out of the rocks. One of the guys on my boat hooked one a little later and was not able to keep it out of the rocks. The Tady produced two more hard-fighting Bonito, and jigging produced another two for me.
Staying on the mothership that night was a great experience. The boat is relatively new and very comfortable. Sharing a cabin with two other guys was a little tight, but that’s usually how it is on boats and it worked out fine. Miraculously, neither of them snored. We were anchored up in a sheltered bay and the gentle rocking made it easy to sleep.
Our mothership, the Notus Temptress
On the fourth day we headed out bright and early hoping for a GT. Alas, the morning was extremely quiet with just one swirl on my big lure again and no hookups. All I landed for the morning was one Bonito on the Tady. In the afternoon I got a nice Blacktip Trevally on the Tady, and then we did some jigging and all I landed was two annoying Barracuda. The other guys on the boat got some Amberjack. I have never been much of a jigger, and was not doing as well as the other guys when we switched to jigging.
Sunrise on the Arabian Sea
Blacktip Trevally
Day 5 was unfortunately more of the same – no GT bites on the big gear, and a Bonito, a Blacktip, and a Spangled Emperor for me on the Tady. One guy on my boat got a small GT on the Tady I lent him. In the afternoon we went jigging and the other two guys on my boat did well on the Amberjack. I couldn’t seem to do anything right that afternoon, as I failed to land all 4 of my big (likely Amberjack) bites on the jig, got bitten off twice by Barracuda, and ended up just landing two Barracuda. Throughout the trip the other two guys had put some quality Amberjack on the boat, and I had only landed the one small one from the first day. It was frustrating.
Spangled Emperor
Blacktip Trevally
Day 6 was our last day and we dutifully went out again to throw big lures in the hopes of a monster GT. Again, we got blanked. I couldn’t even get much interest on the Tady. Thankfully we waived the white flag and switched to jigging. On our first drift, it was really firing. On just that drift we ended up landing 7 nice Amberjack between the three of us, along with 2 Long Nose Trevally and a Black Banded Kingfish. We also had several nice fish get unhooked, including a couple right at the boat. That didn’t sting too much given how many bites we were getting though. As we headed back up to do the drift again, we came across a plastic container that had some large Dorado under it. We cast the Tadys and immediately hooked two of them, but both came unhooked. One of them jumped and threw the Tady back at us, which is one of the downsides of those lures – you have to watch your head if you hook a Dorado. We got back on the drift and repeatedly got huge bites from Amberjack. The other two guys in the boat were using relatively light jigging gear, and their rods were getting bent at very unnatural angles. As always, there were some good fish lost and some jigs bitten off by Barracuda, but we landed quite a few fish. We ended up with 22 Amberjack in the boat, along with 4 Longnose Trevally, 2 Black Banded Kingfish, and a Bonito. My count was 8 Amberjack, 2 Longnose, 1 Black Banded Kingfish, and a Bonito which managed to wrap both the other guys’ lines before getting landed and released. It was nice to redeem my performance from the previous day. It was a good ending to the trip, and my hands and shoulder were really aching by the end and ready for some rest.
Amberjack Heaven
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Longnose Trevally
Overall, the GT fishing (and the surface fishing in general) was obviously not what anyone hoped. It had been slow the prior two weeks as well. For our entire trip, only 5 GTs were landed for our group of 9 people, and 3 out of the 5 (including the biggest two) were landed by me. The other two were landed by a guy on my boat, so the other two boats put in a lot of time for nothing. In hindsight, we probably should have focused a little more on jigging since that was what was working, but you never know that sort of thing until after the fact. We probably could have slayed the fish with live bait, but No Boundaries is strictly a casting and jigging operation. I really loved the area; it is definitely very fishy. There was tons of bait in the water, small Tuna were busting up everywhere, and we saw a free jumping Marlin, a breaching Humpback Whale, and two Whale Sharks. No Boundaries runs an extremely well-organized operation with great service. I would happily go back. My total fish count for the trip was as follows:
14 Big Eye Trevally
9 Amberjack
6 Bonito
4 Blacktip Trevally
4 Bream
4 Wolf Herring
3 Giant Trevally
3 Long Nose Trevally
3 Saba Saba Bonito
3 Barracuda
3 Needlefish
2 Blackfin Tuna
1 Queenfish
1 Leatherjacket
1 Emperor
1 Black Banded Kingfish
14 Big Eye Trevally
9 Amberjack
6 Bonito
4 Blacktip Trevally
4 Bream
4 Wolf Herring
3 Giant Trevally
3 Long Nose Trevally
3 Saba Saba Bonito
3 Barracuda
3 Needlefish
2 Blackfin Tuna
1 Queenfish
1 Leatherjacket
1 Emperor
1 Black Banded Kingfish
Best lures of the week: Blaze Saththa 150g popper, Tady 45 surface iron, Sebile Stick Shadd sinking. Not pictured: Nomad 120g Streaker Jig because I lost them all