Fly Fishing

AvidDavid · Location: Long Island, NY

Near the end of October, I (an American) will be visiting Bahrain (off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf). Since it is an island, surrounded by saltwater, I suspect that there are fish present. Does anyone have any suggestions about fly fishing the waters around Bahrain? Species? Locations? Access? Should I take my 8 wt. flyrod? Sun block?

Thanks for your help!
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nicko · Posted: Mon 10/06/08 7:58 am Post subject:

Hi I cannot give you any info on the island of Bahrain. But I do have a friend, that is also involved in the flyfishing business, that was trying to convince me to go with him to the Oman gulf to sight fish for giant GT. I am not sure if these fish go as far north as the Bahrian Gulf. It might be worth cheking into it. The only problem you will need more like a 12 wt to go after those fish. Not much info but I hope I got your hopes up, Nicko

AvidDavid · Location: Long Island, NY

Thanks for the suggestion. Wow! I have seen some pictures of Giant Trevally (GTs?). Those reef dwellers get pretty big. I better start some heavy lifting in preparation if I'll get into those. I still don't know if they are found as far up the Gulf as Bahrain and I don't have any clear info on what fish are found at Bahrain. Although some info suggests that fishing near Manama (the capital) may be diminishing, there must be some fishing around the island of Bahrain in other areas. I'd be happy to catch a porgy or a sea robin.

sultan · Posted: Sun 01/02/11 3:41 pm Post subject:

Going Fishing on Boats ? im searching for information in fishing in bahrain , since im new in this hobby, i tried my luck this december near the Muharraq bridge, no good luck, and hidd power station area... there's usaully a good catch.. the local fish name is "Shaari" and still after googling im not sure of the english name, but it looks like seabream.. http://www.me-fish.com/fish/_fish.html?fisch=red_seabream . the fishes are around3 to 10 inches big.

ive no clue of weigths/sinkers, what basic baits i should use, i dont find any worms here , so im using prawns....
i'll be looking forward to these posts to get some idea of fishing maturely..

AvidDavid · Location: Long Island, NY

Sultan:

I posted that original question several years ago and I visited Bahrain a few weeks later. There is a FishTale about my experience on this site:

http://www.fliesandfins.com/article862.html

The water was very clear and I could see some activity down to at least 3 meters. I was fly fishing, using an intermediate sinking line with clouser minnows and small flies tied in the fashion of Enrico Puglisi minnows using similar fibers with flash included. I used flies that I, myself, had tied (and I am not a particularly good fly tier)!

Fish were clearly interested in the flies and were chasing them for the first few casts in any location. To regain interest, I needed to change flies frequently or cast to a new location. Occasionally, fish aggressively attacked the flies (I believe that they were more like aggressive attacks rather than feeding attacks, since the hooks were seldom in the mouths of the Lihia, which I believe are also known as queenfish) I believe that if you read all of the posts on this site, you will read that there are often times when fly fishermen catch more fish than the bait fishermen. I don't know why, but we fly slingers take great pleasure in outfishing bait fishermen and gloat about it whenever we get the chance!

The other fish, Shari or Shaari, (picture showing me holding the rod and the fish) was a clear "feeding take" with the hook in the mouth. It was a phenomenal fighter for its size! I believe that they are called Emperor fish; but, my guess is no better than yours!

My short adventure was restricted to fishing from "land" on the grounds of the Ritz-Carleton Hotel in Manama. My identification was checked several times to confirm that I was a guest at the hotel. Hence, I do not recommend wandering onto the grounds to try your hand at fishing without being a registered guest!

I tried several locations on the grounds (all on reclaimed land, that was created by dredging up coral and sand from the bottom of the Gulf and piling it up to create dry land). I saw fish following my flies at every location, so I suspect that the entire island is surrounded by clear water and eager fish. Sizes were not impressively large; but, the species that were unusual to me were very exciting!

(Friends, a few days prior to my arrival, had caught ~100 fish from a boat in a little more than an hour... but they have a favorite location and they use a GPS to go to the same spot when they fish.)

AvidDavid