Hello everyone;
So I went along with 2 friends of mine (but who don't free-dive or spearfish) to my favorite spot for camping (southern Qatar) on early friday (21/11) and we stayed there till saturday evening. Weather was awesome for this time of the year (minimas of 17C and maxima of 26C). So to access that camping site, I'd have to drive around 50km of highway road, and then similar distance of offroading (sand-dunes and some salt marches) and which just adds to the beauty of the trip...
Anyway, on the first day, we arrived by around 11am and settled up our camp. I then decided to take a quick dip into the water and check out some reefs and the situation there. Surprinsingly, visibility was amazing (around 10-12m), and with a pretty mild current; something unusual for that area... After being in the water for 2hrs, I already had my stringers overfilled with enough fish to feed everyone around and other ppl camping in the same area...
So we then made an amazing bbq and spent on the night then chillin, playing cards, etc... and got to meet other ppl in the same area who were line fishing for basses, mullets and small snappers and we started line fishing as well... and then went on to sleep pretty early as the next day would be the big dive....
For the next day, I planned on to dive up to different reef formation that starts by 3km till 5.5km offshore (no boats allowed in that area so a tough swim is a must!!!!).. So anyway I woke up by 6am (still before sunrise, which starts at 6.15am here) and it was kind of hard to gather the courage to have a dip in the 19C water and put on the 5mm wetsuit... Eventually I managed too
and by 6.45am I was already in the water starting the long swim.... By 9.30am I reached my spot, and initially the current was pretty strong and got me worried that I didn't calculate the tides properly (eventually, as the day progressed, current became almost zero and then started again at the end of the dive that's by around 2pm).
So in that spot, which are a variety of reef formations, huge rocks, cracks in the ground, and coral reefs with depth of 5m to 12m, I saw such variety and amount of fish that I've never seen before in one spot!!! groupers everywhere, over 100 big baracudas in schools of 10-15 on the way to the spot, trevallies, turtles, snappers, and to spice it all, a beautiful 2m shark (bull) !!!!... Eventually, by less than 2hrs, all my 3stringers were stuffed; including fish that I kept on my gun as I had no place to put fish! That included a 1.6m baracuda, and a beautiful 55lbs grouper along with another 30lbs one and plenty of other ones....
Finally; sorry with the long intro and ill leave u with pix :blackeye
On the way: Dunes, marches, and salt-water lake formations...
Camp:
and buddies struggling to wake up at 6.30am:
Big grouper & exhausted after more than 6hrs in the water:
Best all !
So I went along with 2 friends of mine (but who don't free-dive or spearfish) to my favorite spot for camping (southern Qatar) on early friday (21/11) and we stayed there till saturday evening. Weather was awesome for this time of the year (minimas of 17C and maxima of 26C). So to access that camping site, I'd have to drive around 50km of highway road, and then similar distance of offroading (sand-dunes and some salt marches) and which just adds to the beauty of the trip...
Anyway, on the first day, we arrived by around 11am and settled up our camp. I then decided to take a quick dip into the water and check out some reefs and the situation there. Surprinsingly, visibility was amazing (around 10-12m), and with a pretty mild current; something unusual for that area... After being in the water for 2hrs, I already had my stringers overfilled with enough fish to feed everyone around and other ppl camping in the same area...
So we then made an amazing bbq and spent on the night then chillin, playing cards, etc... and got to meet other ppl in the same area who were line fishing for basses, mullets and small snappers and we started line fishing as well... and then went on to sleep pretty early as the next day would be the big dive....
For the next day, I planned on to dive up to different reef formation that starts by 3km till 5.5km offshore (no boats allowed in that area so a tough swim is a must!!!!).. So anyway I woke up by 6am (still before sunrise, which starts at 6.15am here) and it was kind of hard to gather the courage to have a dip in the 19C water and put on the 5mm wetsuit... Eventually I managed too
and by 6.45am I was already in the water starting the long swim.... By 9.30am I reached my spot, and initially the current was pretty strong and got me worried that I didn't calculate the tides properly (eventually, as the day progressed, current became almost zero and then started again at the end of the dive that's by around 2pm). So in that spot, which are a variety of reef formations, huge rocks, cracks in the ground, and coral reefs with depth of 5m to 12m, I saw such variety and amount of fish that I've never seen before in one spot!!! groupers everywhere, over 100 big baracudas in schools of 10-15 on the way to the spot, trevallies, turtles, snappers, and to spice it all, a beautiful 2m shark (bull) !!!!... Eventually, by less than 2hrs, all my 3stringers were stuffed; including fish that I kept on my gun as I had no place to put fish! That included a 1.6m baracuda, and a beautiful 55lbs grouper along with another 30lbs one and plenty of other ones....
Finally; sorry with the long intro and ill leave u with pix :blackeye
On the way: Dunes, marches, and salt-water lake formations...
Camp:
and buddies struggling to wake up at 6.30am:
Big grouper & exhausted after more than 6hrs in the water:
Best all !
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