We’ve just had this great update on the start of the 2024/25 seasons in Oman and Dubai from our friends at Ocean Active. Here’s all the latest from these two intriguing fisheries:
Our seasons have started in both Dubai and Oman and you could not have two more diverse locations. Dubai, one of the most modern cities in the world, and then Salalah, southern Oman, one of the oldest and most remote places on the planet. This makes for such amazing contrasts and experiences and only one hour forty five minutes direct flight apart! Everything is different about the destinations, the water, the people, the fish species, the weather, the food.
In Dubai we start our season at the end of August/early September when the water temperature starts dropping from 35 degrees C (yup read that right 35!!). Once the water temperature starts dropping, massive shoals of smaller to medium queens move into Dubai, giving us the perfect start to the season with 20-30 queens a trip being the norm. This season was no different.
In Oman the local monsoon known as the Khareef carries on blowing and bringing in rain and wind until mid-September and then starts to drop. We generally don’t get the boats into the water until early October as the water can be coloured and the large swell makes it difficult to get close up to the rocks and permit zones. This is normally the time when the team at OAF get busy and start the season by bending a few rods and training guides. The start to this season was fantastic and everyone on the trip, two guides and two owners, landed an Africanus on the first weekend, keeping the roll going from last season where every client, guide and owner landed a permit!
We are into our 20th season and a lot has happened and changed since the beginning, but we have always maintained a positive attitude and kept our operation fresh and relevant. As the original operator in Oman we have focused on leading the way, opening new areas, and developing new ways to operate. We are very excited to welcome Mohammed Al Faour as a partner in OAF. We first met Mo as a 15 year old in Farlows in London, many moons ago. Mo became a client, then a great friend and fishing buddy. Mo has fished with us in Dubai, Oman, Seychelles, Russia and Norway so was a natural progression to join the OAF family.
Mo was one of the lead characters in our film “Dubai on the Fly” which was the first fly fishing film in the Middle East. Mo is one of the first Emirati fly fisherman to travel the world fly fishing and landing a lot of the recognised fly species. We will become the first fully owned and operated Emirati fly fishing company in the UAE along with being a fully Omani owned and operated company in Oman with our partner in Oman, Yousef Al Shanfari (Around the Ocean). We are very proud that we have worked in our local communities to build these relationships and skills with our friends who are not detached business sponsors but involved partners.
We have a couple of new guides joining the team as well. Ben Pellegrini has joined the team in southern Oman. Ben’s fly-fishing journey spans over 25 years, from his home waters of South Africa’s Labeobarbus rivers to the renowned permit destinations of Oman, Mexico, and Seychelles. Ben’s previous work in the field of environmental management, fisheries science and ichthyology will allow him to actualise his passion for developing knowledge about fish behaviour. Ben will join up with Greg Maxwell to run our trips and will be exploring a lot of the beaches and inshore areas in southern and central Oman. In Dubai we have Nadeeka Pawan joining our long standing guide Ramesh Srimal. Nadeeka’s background is watersport and boats and we have been training him as a fishing guide. We look forward to building his skills as another great Sri Lanka fly fishing guide.
We have built a lot of boats over the years and have fine tuned the design through massive amounts of trial and error but we are super happy with our new 27ft fully customised boats for our operations. The first boat Inkwazi with the T-Top will join Impi, her identical sister in Dubai, then the other boat Blochii an open 27ft will join Africanus in southern Oman. They are both fully rigged with twin casting platforms with stainless steel leaning bars, Seadek on the casting platforms for grip, running twin 115hp Four Stroke Yamahas, Garmin Electronics, Thuraya Sat Phones, Waterproof USB Charging Ports, Yeti Coolers and then all the fly fishing gear you can imagine topped off with wonderful Thomas and Thomas fly rods. We are happy with these additions offering additional capacity and able to accommodate larger groups
If you are heading through Dubai en-route to Seychelles, Oman, Tanzania, the Maldives or any other destination in the region, do consider Dubai for a day or two. Or if you are feeling adventurous and want to add the Africanus permit to your species list then Oman is definitely worth a look. Please contact Olly Thompson for more details and pricing or call the office on +44(0)1980 847389.