Oman No Boundaries Hosted Trip Report – February 1st – 8th

Oman No Boundaries Hosted Trip Report – February 1st – 8th:

When I first heard about people fly fishing in Oman around 2015, my initial thought was the comedy movie “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”, literally. It seemed so exotic and so far out, even in an industry where traveling upwards of 72 hours to the most untouched and inhospitable crevices of the planet to catch fish is routinely accepted behavior. Flash forward nine years and Oman is not only one of the hottest angling destinations in the world, it has the potential to be a world renowned location, on par with its infamous counterparts in the southern Indian Ocean. In early February, myself and five close friends decided it was time to finally check it out. We arrived in the city of Salalah on the southern border of Oman with Yemen, spent a quick night by the marina and the following morning jumped onto the beautiful Notus Temptress mothership with the No Boundaries crew. We were off!

 

 

As impressive of a fishery and country as Oman is, it is completely and I mean COMPLETELY different from any saltwater fishery that I have ever visited. You are not fishing flats by any means. This a wild and dramatic landscape of cliffs and ragged, raw mountains that disappear into the Ocean abyss, only connected by the piles of fallen rock and broken down mountain that has accumulated over millennia. This connection point, where these rocks meet the surf is where all the magic happens as fly anglers. A perfect habitat for crabs, baitfish, goby, various crustaceans, octopus, moray eels, and hundreds of other forms of life that call this area home. The relentless swell and surf of the Arabian sea delivers an endless supply of food and nutrition keeping this fully intact, biodiverse ecosystem thriving and healthy. As a group of fairly well traveled anglers, we had never seen so many crabs in our entire lives nor school’s of baitfish nearly as big – some the size of football fields. It was truly remarkable!

 

 

Our first half of the trip was spent on foot, pursuing a wide variety of shallow water species around the Hallaniyat Islands. Each mission began with a boat ride into a pristine beach, where we would jump off the center consoles with all the necessary gear and walk long beaches, rock outcroppings, cliffs and boulder gardens looking for any potential swimming targets. Here we landed some of the most beautiful fish you will ever see – Broomtail Wrasses (females and males, they look completely different), various kinds of Parrotfish, Twobar Bream, Triggerfish, Trevally and dozens of other, wildly exotic and unique species. We saw some of the legendary Giant Trevally that call these waters home but were unable to present flies to any of them. To be honest, I am not sure our 12wt’s would have been able to handle most of them. These are true, Oceanic GT’s that look more like Volkswagen’s than they do Jacks. 

 

The second half of the trip, the wind and swell finally laid down and we were able to head inshore to a series of beaches and cliffs north of the town Hasik. Our primary target here was the infamous Africanus species of Permit. In the modern fly fishing world, Oman has become synonymous with this very particular species of fish, one of the four primary Permit species that made up the Permit Slam. It is the only place in the world where you can realistically target the Africanus Permit on the fly. The Africanus are a deep water fish and do not have the tendency or I should “tastes” of their cousins to pursue food in the shallows, except seemingly in the unique circumstances of southern Oman. Here, the Africanus literally ride the notoriously large swell and waves into the cliffs and fallen rock, using the surge of water to hunt crabs and other crustaceans and devour anything that falls into the whitewash. This is not like any Permit fishing you will do anywhere else in the world but somehow it is equally as exciting, if only for the fact that it is also seemingly dangerous! These fish are doing their thing in an incredibly dramatic and dynamic environment. Five foot plus waves, rolling in one after another, smashing against thousand foot limestone cliffs. The guide who is running a 20 foot plus center console is carefully navigating the submerged boulder gardens while gently finagling his anglers into each nook and cranny of this wild terrain as they look for any signs of Permit – tails, flashes and shadows. Even though we had very tough Africanus fishing, this was by all means an exciting experience for a group of anglers such as ourselves. None of us had seen anything like it before. 

 

 

Overall our fishing proved challenging for the week. As a completely open, unprotected oceanic fishery, it is quite vulnerable to changing conditions even in a place where the conditions tend to be relatively stable. We saw big shifts in wind direction, wind velocity and swell which all contributed to ever changing logistics, fishing locations and most importantly fish behavior. The primary target species were tough to come by but we did manage to land some beautiful examples of Africanus Permit, Bream, Wrasse and Parrot Fish. 

 

What cannot be emphasized enough is the sheer wildness, beauty and spectacle that is the landscape of Oman. This is the most impressive, raw and dramatic place I have ever seen in my life. Many of the settings were straight out of a James Bond movie. Rugged, rocky mountains descending thousands of feet directly into the ocean with head turning sheer, white limestone cliffs that make you feel absolutely miniscule. The environment was surreal in many ways and a pleasant reminder of the vastness and range of natural beauty still left on this earth. We came for the fishing but what we all took away from our experience in Oman was the feeling of being in an otherworldly setting amongst only ourselves and a few other local net fishermen – a world of its own – pristine, perfect and resolutely unchanged by man. 

 

 

Adventurous fly anglers are starting to take serious note of the raw fly fishing opportunities in Oman. Omani Permit have been making waves and can be targeted frolicking rocks, beaches & surf. No Boundaries Oman features the regions only fishing liveaboard. If your interested in fishing for Omani Permit and other species, please contact WorldCast Anglers for more information. Be sure to stay updated on the WorldCast Anglers Hosted Destination Offerings!

Christopher B. Littauer

WorldCast Anglers Vice-President

February 1st – 8th, 2024

No Boundaries Oman