Persian Gulf

The variety of fish in the Persian Gulf are endless. Small fish are abundant and so easily caught that you get quickly spoiled and want to move on to the bigger fish.

The fishing gets slow in the heat of the day for the bigger catfish, the best fishing was in the morning, evening, and right after dark. There are a few charters that fish for sailfish and tuna in Dubai. These boats troll fresh ballyhoo behind skirts. The best fishing for the tuna and sailfish is during the winter, when the water cools down. During the summer the fishing is almost non-existent for these game fish. I went out one day, I caught a 55-60 pound cobia on thirty pound stand up gear. We also landed a couple of barracuda in the four foot long range, and lost one nice kingfish.

The fishing was good enough off the pier that I didn't spend the money for going out on the boat. I was just as happy fishing with my friends right there off the pier. Lure fishing in Jebel Ali off the pier didn't produce much. A few bonito and small tuna followed our lures to the pier but never took. So that left us with bait fishing. We tried about everything, and found that the majority of the fish stayed on the bottom.

The little guys would hit almost anything. We would go to City Center mall in Dubai, about a 45 minute drive away, just to get bait, which usually consisted of cuttlefish, squid, and yellowtail scad or mackeral. Shrimp worked well for the small fish also. I'm not sure what types of fish they all were, mostly various types of seabream, but they all hit readily and provided much fun and action during the slower times with ultra-light tackle.

The bigger guys usually consisted of skates and saltwater catfish. Shimano Baitrunner reels or baitcasters with line-out alarms such as the Garcia 6500c are a necessity. Without these reels, you will quickly find yourself scrambling to catch your rod as it flies off the pier. I was lucky enough to catch mine. Two other guys weren't. Wire leaders are a must, as the barracuda and puffer fish will slice even the thickest mono leaders very quickly. Sliding sinker rigs worked the best for me, as the fish could take line easily and not feel the weight, and still allowed quick access to change leaders and weights.

The best rod/reel setup I found was a Daiwa 9 foot surf rod matched with a Shimano Baitrunner 6500 loaded with 20 pound test. With this setup, I could cast a two or three ounce weight quite a distance. Even with this heavy setup, I had a fish attempt to spool my reel. After the initial runs were over, and about 20 minutes later, we discovered I had hooked a big skate. I was disappointed, as I had hooked several skates already, but with the strength this one had, we were hoping to see something new. If you have room to store it, a 7 foot medium baitcaster such as a Fenwick Seahawk 791 with a Abu Garcia 7000 would be perfect, but lack of space forced me to use two piece rods.

Surprises here occur every day. One day I let a friend, Tim Hendrix, borrow a rod. It was a 8 foot Abu Garcia medium action with a Pinnacle Baitfeeder 40 reel and 10 pound Ande. He was having fun catching small baitfish on a sabiki rig. The sabiki rig had size 14 hooks, each with a single squid tentacle, enticing the small bluegill sized fish. All of a sudden the rod doubled over, and after some confusion, the fish started to peel off line. Since it was my rod, he handed it back to me. He had never caught a decent sized fish and was unsure what to do. I wanted to see him land this fish, and the smile on his face was more than enough for me after I handed it back to him. The fish ran and ran, peeling line off of the reel with ease. I felt sure that a stingray had grabbed the bait. After about 15 minutes, we finally got the fish to the top of the water. The fish had ran all the way up to between the aircraft carrier and the pier, which left us very little room to play him. However, with the 6 pound leader, we let the fish do what he wanted. Until he decided to go under the pier. With some coaxing though, he came back out to the net. But to our dismay, he wouldn't fit in the net! He was too big. Finally a miracle happened and the fish folded in half in the small net, and we brought a 15 pound trevally onto the shore! The first one I had ever seen in real life, it was a very beautiful fish. Gold with a few scattered black spots. Embedded into his fleshy lip was a single size 14  hook. We took some pics, and as luck would have it, a water bottle broke in my backpack the next day, soaking the camera and ruining camera and film.

Later that day I surprised my friends again by landing a two foot barracuda on the same rig, then doing it again. Eventually I brought it up and the rig had no more hooks. How I landed the first couple of barracuda on it without getting bit off is a miracle. The fish's teeth or so sharp you don't even feel them bite. Your line just goes slack, and you know you were just cut off. One of the things I like to do with Sabiki rigs is to cut them in half. Tie swivels onto each end or loops on the ends. The other ends usually still have a snap swivel on each end, and you can place a weight there. Then you have a three or four hook rig that is a bit easier to handle.

Such is the ways of fishing in the gulf. In Bahrain, we couldn't cast a bait out without it being hit as soon as it hit the bottom. Baby barracuda were in great numbers, and hit the squid quicker than we could bait it up. Two and all three of us being hooked up at a time was common. After dark, we saw more stingrays swimming on top of the water than we could count, and blue swimming crabs all over. Yes, the fisheries here in the gulf are still alive and well.

PERSIAN GULF 1998

PERSIAN GULF 1999

Came back to the gulf in March 99, only to find that nothing has changed with the fishing and it is still as great as ever!

The catfish that thought he'd knock down my rod holder and drag my new "Innerline" rod in the water. Luckily I jumped and caught it in the air, landing on the pier with a thud! There is something to be said about Shimano "Baitfeeder" or bait casting reels with line-out alarms! Needless to say, that's all I use there anymore.

A blue swimming crab I caught... At night you can see them swimming on the top of the water with their hind legs.

A nice skate that put me through a workout, actually sucking down to the bottom to where I couldn't lift him or do anything for a while.

Yin cast out, hooked something decent only to have thought he lost it. He brought it up, all that was left was this head! Some shark received an easy meal.

Speaking of sharks, here is a baby nurse shark that I caught and quickly released.

And two sharks that Yin caught. I think they were small blacktip reef sharks. Luckily, we were using wire leaders.

A small trevally that nailed a jighead with a strip of squid.

While at the Hilton in Bahrain I decided to test the waters. Using ultra-light tackle I found non stop action for small queenfish. Great fun to catch and highly acrobatic!

A nice sea bream of some sort, highly sought after and called "tai" in Japan.

Sunset off the pier in Jebel Ali.

Tim and I with yet another decent catfish.

Yin with something that I have never seen before.