Love at first bite

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An early riser heads out On Golden Pond.

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It isn’t all work, work, work you know! Jim and John take a break.

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The Overall winners enjoy a moment in the spotlight.

The UAQ Fishing Festival proves fishing experience is not a pre-requisite for success.

Watching the rising sun bathe the tranquil creek at Umm Al Quwain with golden light is recompense enough for the nauseous level of sleep deprivation that two hours of sleep and an early morning drive engenders.

It's the early fish that catches the worm though and, as I stand on the waters edge with an invigoratingly strong coffee in my hand, the Marine Club behind gently hums with activity as the organisers prepare for the Fishing Festival ahead.

Hooking up with Luke Chang, an enthusiastic fisherman and skipper of our craft for the day, he impatiently checks and rechecks his watch. "We need to get a wriggle on," he mutters quietly under his breath - with nearly eleven hours of boat time in the baking sun ahead of us, to be honest I'm struggling to see what the rush is!

Casting off from our mooring, Luke drops the hammers on the twin Yamaha 225hp outboards, and as we fly over the glassy surface of the creek ‘Team Shocho Boto Too' shout introductions to each other over the howling rush of the wind.

David Learman, MD of a brand design agency in Dubai is probably the most experienced fisherman of the guests aboard. A founder member of www.gofishdubai.com David spends much of his time plundering the Gulf waters with rod in hand.

As for the rest of the team, our experience of fishing allows us to be labeled as ‘enthusiastic amateurs' at best.

Jim Bolssens runs his veterinary practice out of Sharjah, and John and Julie McNamee, a Principal in construction supplies and a teacher respectively, have enjoyed the occasional charter, but confess to being less than expert in the art of angling.

As each of the seventeen boat entries in the Fishing Festival had been pre-registered with the local coastguard by the organisers, a perfunctory check of paperwork allowed us to be quickly waved on to our first drop point.

Heading out of the creek to the outer channel mark, we lowered Sabiki rigs to the sea bed and within minutes were on our first fish. As Jim and David made the most of the small shoal of yellow spot trevally we had found, the live bait-well was quickly populated.

The action on the lines swiftly attracted barracuda and it wasn't long before we were collecting our second species of the day. With prizes available for ‘Most Species Caught' Luke explained his eagerness for an early getaway.

The six o'clock start time and tidal conditions meant there was a small window of opportunity to hook into the prized Kingfish - a member of the foraging mackerel family.

Our late getaway meant we'd missed our chance and almost on the dot, Luke's prediction about when the fish would stop biting was fulfilled and it was time to move on.

Cruising out into deeper water, Luke used the depth sounder and fish finder to guide us onto fish and, although the pace was less frantic, we were still steadily hauling catch aboard.

Low speed trolling was paying dividends, as was live bait rigged to a ball sinker that was free to run up the line to a single tied hook.

Voracious scavengers as they are, the barracuda kept taking whatever we dropped over the side, but with a four fish limit on each species, the majority were released.

As Luke patiently coached us through the various methods of fishing (including spinning, trolling, live bait and bottom fishing), he generously shared his wealth of experience and imparted lots of handy advice.

Unsure how we could keep track of who caught what, Luke allocated us each a number of rubber bands we would tie around the tail of our catch to easily identify it - the simplest ideas are always the best!

When trolling the skipper also demonstrated how spooling a different length of line out on each rod (counting a different five second increment for each rod), would allow four lines to be used simultaneously without tangling.

Placing the shorter rods and line lengths closer to the stern also prevents the lines snarling.

After my previous experiences on charter vessels where fishing is akin to a blind date (someone else hooks you up and leaves you to reel your prey in), this trip was a far more educational experience.

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