Words By: Kit Belen
Photos By: Kit Belen and Leng Chua
The summer is officially here, warm days and nights have come and shall be staying with us for the next three months or so.
While some might be putting their gear away for the summer, those who brave the heat at times hit some pretty good fishing with almost no one else in even the most popular spots.
Summer fishing is only for the brave or the hard headed. Then there are those that are simply too hardcore to put the rod down and fish through the summer.
Truth be told, fishing in the Mid-East summer might surprise you with some pretty memorable trips. Put in mind that the period of daylight in the summers are longer, use this to your advantage if you plan to go on a trip. Start very early since the sun will be up earlier than usual, or you can choose to go out in the late afternoon and stay out until the light fades, which would be around 7:00 p.m. or so.
The possibilities
Inshore in the morning
There are cooler days in the summer if you just watch the thermometre, these days are ideal for wading around the mangroves and flats, which can put you into some decent fish. The edges of these flats and mangrove areas are bordered by deep cuts and canals that hold fish, fishing them with soft plastics or spoons can produce some fish that would surprise you.
My preference is to stalk the shallows in search for grunter and bream on the fly rod, fishing with tiny soft plastics will also produce, however, bear in mind the fish would be extra spooky in skinny water and would bolt away at the slightest unnatural splash. Flies, on the other hand, hardly make a splash when they land and are the main advantage of this system of fishing in shallow water.
One thing I love about the summer is the good visibility (when there aren’t any sandstorms) because the mornings are mostly very clear. Sight fishing the flats with a mirror-like surface is the stuff of dreams! A slight ripple on the surface indicating feeding or cruising fish really gets your heart racing, it’s almost like a drug that makes you forget about the heat. Then at about 10:00 a.m., it hits you, you get reminded that you are in the Middle East, it’s summer and it’s time to pack up.
The real Arabian Nights
Offshore at night, a few miles off the coast of Fujairah, in the Indian Ocean; it would not be your ideal way to spend an evening, but if you are brave enough to try it out, there’s some fine fishing for tuna and dorado off the East Coast. The tuna get a bit more active at night and hold shallower in the water column than they do in the daytime, making it possible to target them with lighter gear and smaller jigs.
Glow in the dark jigs charged with a few flashes from your point and shoot camera and the jigs light up like a Christmas tree. These jigs mimic the bio luminescence present in quite a few forage species that tuna feed on, on top of the list are squids.
You don’t really need to wait long if they are around a spot since bites are almost instant and the action consistent, as Leng and Luca found out one summer evening. Just because it’s warm it doesn’t mean the fish have stopped biting. With a little planning, you get to enjoy the spots all to yourself while the others stay home watch fishing shows or fish with their play stations.
There is really a lot of fishing you can do in the summer, you just have to be selective of the time of day you go, or choose the days where the daytime temperature drops to comfortable levels, and in those days that you feel the itch, but the weather doesn’t cooperate, then your only solution to get your fishing fix is to do some maintenance on your gear, replenish your tackle, respool your reels, tie flies – the list is endless.
