Queens and Gold Spots in Qatar

[wessel]

After 5 weeks we finally got a letup in the weather on this side of the pond.
The wind died down overnight, and with it the heat moved in. (Saturday we recorded 49 deg C in the shade) At least the humidity has not started yet.

Set out early and for a change of pace, Nicole and me wanted to try some navigational buoys that is situated about 10 kilometers offshore. There is no use to try and get Spanish macks, cobia etc. The water temperature is already at 30 deg C in some places and the big fish have all left for the next 4 months.

We did a couple of drifts passed the buoy and hooked up into some small gold spot trevally and garfish. Even the grandpa of the trevallies had a go at a fly, but he did not hook up on the strike. Talk about your heart beating in your throat for a couple of seconds.

Tally for the Friday:
6 gold spot trevally
Numerous garfish (Stopped counting when the one bit me……I think his name was Bob?)

Nicole with her gold spot. (Stealth 9 weight, Shimano Ultegra 78 / Cortland 444 Tropical floating with sinking tip / Neon green Clouser)

[wessel]

Nicole and her gold spot

[wessel]

Had so much fun that we decided to do it again the following day.

That was when all hell broke loose, and was also the day we forgot the camera at home.
Sorry, but no pics of the Saturday outing.

The final tally for Saturday was:
5 Joseph Bream (Yellowish tail with a black patch near the tail)
5 gold spot trevally (15 to 25 cm range) Youngsters, but good practice for the wife who is still new at the game.
6 Queen Fish (between 30 and 40 cm) Also still babies but they were fun to stalk on a reef at the change of the tide. One thing I have learned with queenies: you can not strip fast enough.


Me with a garfish ( Stealth 9 weight / Shilton SL7 / Reo 300 grain / Neon green clouser with white flashing.) Hardly fair when using that size rod I know, but at least I was not sitting in an office dreaming about being on the water. Just use what you have got on what is there in the water I believe.


Happy fishing and sorry about the double posting.

Wessel

[jeffo]

wessel- you will find that fish you are holding in the second photo is a long tom, not a gar fish...longtom have the beak on the upper and lower jaw, gar fish only have it on the lower jaw.

[wessel]

Jeffo

Quite possible mate?

They say "color" and we say "colour". ;)

Wessel

[rivermanau]

Common names are misused all over the world eg perch cod bream etc.
The yanks call these fish "gar" check this link
http://myfwc.com/Fishing/Fishes/gar.html

Yanks call Trevally "Jack Crevalle". which they shorten to "Jacks", and Mangrove Jack are called
"Mangrove Snapper" shortened to "Snapper"
So when a yank catches a Jack and a Snapper its 2 different fish to what we would imagine.

robert

[wessel]

It has been a long time in the making, but finally I have landed a fish on fly that scared me in to the point that I thought I was going to run out of backing.

The water was at 30 deg C and I knew I was wasting my time when all of a sudden a school of mature Queens broke the surface in a feeding frenzy.

My 9 weight was at the ready, it all worked out perfectly and WHAM........ ZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
I could do nothing but watch the backing disappear at an alarming rate, and I did get worried there for a while.

Over twenty plus minutes later I had the fish boat side, but no camera on board. My first reel stripper and no camera, bugger. :-[
Queen fish is ok to eat, but tends to be on the dry side if you over cook them. (I have never had one for dinner before, but this one was OK)

Long story short - An awesome feeling having landed my first big fish on fly

[Randall_Bryett]

Hey Wessel you are fishing where on the map? Congrats on the Queenfish! Best eaten sashimi or numus..

Best
Randall

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/maps/qa-map.gif

[wessel]

If you have a look at the map, that very small little island just above the letter D of the word DOHA (Aliyah or Bird island.)

Follow the channel out from the Ritz Carlton past the Pearl Island Developement.
At the end of the channel, there are two navigational buoys as you go further east out to sea.
We normally get the bait schools between these two buoys, and this is where this baby came from.

Others got lucky in the main shipping channel between Banana island and the Doha bouy.

One guy went all the way to the Twin Bouys east of Um Sa'id to get hold of a feed.

Wessel

[Randall_Bryett]

They changed the url >:( or maybe the CIA has stopped hot linking
Interesting place mate..thanks

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/qa.html

[nathan_fishing]

i like to fly fish by not mush luck yet


_nathan_