INDIANANGLER

Hi guys,

I had a pretty interesting weekend.
I went to Maktoum bridge (Dubai) & fished there for some time. I did manage to catch about a dozen sherri (Spangled empror) & was actually pretty dissappointed as I kept on losing a lot of bait. (Shrimp) This was rather strange as I couldnt even feel the fish nibble. I am still trying to figure out what was eating my bait. It could probably be crabs.

While fishing the water was suddenly disturbed with schools of little fish jumping out of the water. I realised that there must be some fish preying on them. I tried my rapala without any success. I tried different lures, floating & sinking type. Silver, blue, orange, yellow, green colours, bud didnt get anything. At one point of time the fish came right upto the water edge & with the sunlight hitting from overhead I could see a shoal of @ 20 - 25 GT feeding on smalled fish. This was a real teasing time for me & I felt helpless.

Any ideas guys ? tips? colours / types of rapalas ?


Anyway that was my story for Friday.

in the night I checked with some guys from a dubai fishing forum to find out their plans for Saturday. I was told that they plan on taking a trip for barracuda, not far from where I live. @ 10 - 15 mins drive. We dicided to meet at 5am since sunrise was at 5:48 and we expected them to hit around sinrise (which I heard was the best time for them)

We kept spinning till we got bored & decided to move to another location for Mangrove Jacks & hamor. I started packing up to move at @ 6:15 when one of the guys decided to spin for one last time. he instantly landed one, although ont big. But this was a good enough sign that they had now arrived. Knowing that barracuda feed in a particular area for @ 40 - 45 mins we then started landing them one by one. In that short span of time, the 3 of us landed 23 of them, though some not big.

We lost 3 rapalas, lost around 10 of them that slipped between our legs while unhooking (we were standing on the rocks), but had a great time.
This was the first time in my life that i have ever caught barracuda & the fight was an absolute thrill. I should be going there more often now, but doubt that I will keep the catch. I dont want to empty the ocen of the thrill that I get this sport. I did keep the 6 Cudas that I caught as I'll be going for a barbecue this weekend )

here are a few pics of the ones we caught.

My first )




The catch: 23 lined up, lost @ 10 by careless handling & 5 broken lines.



The one which I'm holding is the one to my extreme right hand side in the pic (in my lot of fish) I am sitting on the extreme left of the trio.



I dont really know what the weight of the fish was, but we were struggling to carry them all back to the car.

Hi Keyur,

For GT's try surface poppers that make a splash. Dull Yellows - Yellow/Green, Blue ones should work.

Refer to this thread:

http://www.indianangler.com/viewtopic.php?t=498

You're at the right of the trio correct (looking at the picture)?

Don't eat too many Cudas and when you do eat the smallest ones only, the ones in the pictures look fine to eat.

All the Best,

Bobby

Hi Keyur,

Nice catch.

Cheers,
Apoo

Hi Keyur,

I am quite sure I have seen poppers in Dubai, may I suggest you to to your local Yo-Zuri dealer and order some through him.

Option 2 is to buy via the internet or make your own. A popper is perhaps the easiest lure to make.

Regards,

Bobby

I tried getting the dealers to order some for me. they mentioned that they have to order a minimum 700 - 1000 lures at a time. So no idea when that is gonna come.

Havent thought of making any...will try & find some info on making poppers.

A very simple way to make some is to break the lips/vanes of old floating lures.

Dont break any lips on lures guys, use a Floating Minnow type lure backside front

Thats what I do if I cannot find a popper..

Yup that is a more sensible alternative. Flip the lure and the hooks around and you have a noisy popper.

I'll try the ulta pulta lure....lets see if it work for me.


Hopefully I'll see the GT's around again this weekend

Keyur,

Please note the time the GTs were hitting in the surf and make an analysis from the link below by choosing your location so as to find at what tide and time were the fish hitting the surf.



http://www.mobilegeographics.com:81/index.html

This will be very very usefull if your fishing the surf, on which tide and time has to do something with the fish.

I am also a frustrated GT fisherman, considering it took a long time for me to figure out where the fish are (untill I started to look at the tide tables), then I was watching them feed like rats right at the bottom of my foot, but they won't take my lure....Then I hooked three of those monsters and they Busted me off all the time.

A tip to make them take your lure is to throw the popper and retrieve it along with the escaping bait when the bigger ones break the surface. i.e. Wait 'n Cast with accuracy.



Bobby, I think I am understanding what you said...

Cheers,
Maruthu

Hi Maruthu,

I went to the spot @ 2 hrs before HT....so I would get the tide coming in. The GT's were feeding for half hour @ 1hour before HT.

will check it out again this weekend.

Keyur,

Try to find the Hopkins 75 grams or the 90 grams spoons. People have landed several GTs with that from the shore in Chennai. I tried an imitation of that lure and had a hard hit while I was standing in knee deep water in the surf as soon as the spoon hit the water and I fell down missing the hook up....sshhhhh, don't tell this to anyone that I fell like a kid .

http://tackledirect.com/hopnoeqplain.html

However, the same Hopkins (imitation) lure did not work in the harbour when the GTs were feeding.

Cheers,
Maruthu

Hi Guys,

The trevally you guys are talking about in Dubai I persume is the Orange spoted Trevally. To see what a UAE Gt looks like check. Nick's site www.oceanactive.com . The gallery for April and March 2007.

The Gts are found only around Musundum area where the water is deep and the currents are furious.


Tight lines

Jeen

The Gts are found only around Musundum area where the water is deep and the currents are furious.


Tight lines

Jeen[/quote]

Hi Jeen,

if someone else told me that they saw GT's at Maktoum Bridge ,I wouldn't have believed them. I was trying to figure out what was feeding cos it caused a lot of commotion. It was only when they came to the wateredge where I was standing (if u look at my previous pics with the spangled emperor & Silver Grunt) next to the railing, that I saw that they were GT's. the sun was almost overhead, hitting into the water & even the bottom of the creek was visible. It was really unusual to see the way they would prey. A shoal of @ 20 - 25 of them would make a dart for the smaller fish & then just stop still for some moments & make another dash around.

I have already gone through the Oceanactive website in the past, so I definately know what a GT is

Thanks for the info.....now I need some luck

Hi keyur,

I am really excited about GT under the bridge. Me and my friends have been hunting for GT around the UAE for more than 10 yers now and came across them around the nortern tip only a year ago. We have various theories about their movement in the Gulf. This is very refreshing News and throws quite a few of our equations overboard.


Thanks, Good luck and tight lines .


Jeen

Hi Jeen,

I suppose you are also on the fishing reports.net web site too, cos I saw your name there. (Jeen raj ??)

where in the UAE are you ? I've heard that RAK is also a good place to fish. I've havent been around much. Only fished in 2 locations in Sharjah where I have seen Kingfish (didnt have any lures at that time) but havent caught any.

Althought I'm from Dubai, I have only started fishing in Dubai @ a month ago.

Yuo can give me a buzz on 050-4538208