Jigging Trip with Capt. Ali 14 Oct 2023 at Khorfakkan

Due to work I had to pull out from the fishing trip on 8th October. On Tuesday a Chinese friend invited for a trip with Capt. Ali. I immediately accepted the offer. It is way too long to wait for the next planned trip on 29th Oct. 

Usually, I take the motion sickness medicine when I leave my home usually around 3 am. Last few trips I have started feeling nausea around 11 am. During summer the waves have been high and the boats rocking. The medicine apparently is effective for 6 hours only. So, I had the medicine 30 minutes before the trip. When the boat ride started, I took a comfortable space and had a nap until we arrived at the first location. The Sun was just coming out. 

The depth was 105 meters. I felt the waves were slightly higher than expected. It was windy as well. I was expecting the boat drift to be higher than normal so dropped a 320 grams seafloor control Arc. I was using evergreen Poseidon slow pitch jerker 603-6 with Shimano oceajigger 4000HG spooled with sunline ULT PE 1.5. I jigged up to 20 meters and dropped back. When I was lifting through 2 meters, I felt the jig was taken. As I tried to set the hook the fish was not there. I was just slow pitch jigging and again the fish stroked.  It was a good strike and the fish started taking few meters line. All were shouting AJ! they usually fight hard in the beginning trying to run into the rocks. As this one stopped taking line too quickly, I thought it may not be an amberjack. Well, I was reeling, and the fish was too soon near but below the boat. We could not see the color. But when the fish finally appeared it was Red Red. Yes! The Red snapper. This was my first original red snapper. I have got Pinjalo snapper many times. But deep red color on the scale was amazing!!

While I was fighting the red snapper a fellow angler got a strike and he pulled a magnificent Diamond Trevally. It was the biggest diamond trevally I have seen.

After few drifts of no strike, we moved. At around 9 am the wind reduced, and the current was close to zero. I was dropping 200 grams and 270 grams changing jigs as many times possible. I was desperate to get some strike. At around 12 pm I got a strike. Mid way I saw the head shaking and guessed it was a long tail tuna. When close to the boat I lost the fish. an hour later I got another strike but a small one. This was around 200 meter deep and pulled a belt fish. Thanked it for not taking my jig. I

We continued to change location with no luck, finally we reached the submarine. Three drifts and no activity. We reached shore by 4 pm. 

With the red snapper in my bag thanked the ocean for the great day!