Seasonal · 9 minute read
Book an October charter if you want a boat at all on a weekend, and January if you want the best fishing. Dubai's season runs October to May, kingfish and cobia arrive as the water cools through November, and January and February are the strongest months. October fishes well enough and is far easier to get a Saturday on.
By Roshan Shriwastav · Published
The water off Dubai cools slowly through autumn and that cooling is what turns the fishing on. October is the transition: the near grounds fish steadily for queenfish and trevally, the water is still warm, and the wrecks are starting to hold kingfish.
November and December improve week by week. January and February are the peak: kingfish and cobia on the offshore wrecks, and the most consistent bags of the year. March and April stay good and get warmer. By May it is tailing off, and June through September is slow enough that we only recommend a short sunrise trip.
Availability. A Saturday in October can be booked a week ahead; the same Saturday in January needs three weeks, and the good skippers go first. If your date is fixed (a visiting friend, a birthday, a company trip), October removes the risk entirely.
Conditions are also gentler. October seas are typically calmer than midwinter, which matters if anyone in the party is new to offshore fishing. A rough January trip that produces two kingfish and three seasick people is not the better day.
Fish. January and February genuinely produce more and bigger, and if the point of the trip is the catch rather than the day out, the difference is real rather than marginal.
The eight-hour trip is also worth more in peak season. At AED 3,400 it reaches the offshore wrecks and drop-offs, and in January those hold fish in a way they do not in October. In autumn the four-hour trip at AED 1,800 gets you most of what is available.
Departure is 05:30 to 06:00 in every month of the season, and it is not negotiable arbitrariness. Fish feed at first light, and the wind off this coast typically gets up mid-morning, so a trip that leaves at nine spends its best hours travelling and its worst hours in chop.
Rods, reels, bait, ice and crew are aboard. Bring a hat, sunscreen, closed shoes and something to carry fish home in. Take a seasickness tablet an hour before boarding if you are unsure. Offshore is nothing like the Marina.
The two trips are not long and longer versions of the same thing: they fish different ground. Four hours at AED 1,800 stays on the near grounds and the inshore wrecks, roughly eight to fifteen nautical miles out. That is where queenfish, trevally, barracuda and smaller kingfish hold, and in October it is where most of the available fish are anyway.
Eight hours at AED 3,400 reaches the offshore wrecks and the drop-offs, twenty-five to forty miles out. It costs less than double for twice the time because a large part of the four-hour trip is transit either way. In January and February, when the offshore wrecks are holding cobia and the bigger kingfish, that is where the difference in the day comes from.
The honest guidance: four hours in October, eight hours in January, and four hours in any month if anyone aboard is uncertain about being offshore for a full day.
The realistic list off Dubai is kingfish, cobia, queenfish, golden and giant trevally, barracuda, grouper and snapper, with sailfish an occasional bonus offshore in the winter months. Nobody catches all of those in a day and any skipper promising a specific species is selling rather than fishing.
The catch is yours. The crew will gut, clean and bag it on the way in, and you take it home in a cool box you brought or one they can usually lend. If you would rather not, several restaurants around the Marina will cook your catch for a per-head fee: arrange it in advance rather than turning up with a bag of kingfish at eight in the evening.
Some species are protected or size-limited under UAE regulations and the crew will return those, which is not negotiable and not up to the paying guest. Catch-and-release on sailfish is standard practice regardless of the rules.
You do not need a personal fishing licence to fish as a guest on a licensed charter boat in Dubai. The vessel holds the permit and you fish under it. This is the same arrangement as jet skiing with a guide, and it is why a visitor can land on Tuesday and fish on Wednesday.
What you cannot do is fish from your own boat, or spearfish, without the relevant permits. Recreational fishing from the shore is also regulated in places. None of that affects a chartered trip, but it catches people out who assume a charter licence transfers to something else.
Children are welcome and there is no minimum age, though a four-hour trip leaving at 05:30 asks a lot of anyone under about eight. Life jackets in children's sizes are aboard.
Boarding is in the dark. You leave the Marina at around 05:45, run out for forty minutes to an hour with the sky going light behind you, and start fishing as the sun comes up. The first two hours are the productive ones and everybody knows it, so the boat is quiet and busy at once.
By nine or ten the breeze fills in and the sea gets short and choppy. That is when the four-hour trip turns for home and when people who were fine at six start to feel it. It is also, reliably, when somebody catches the best fish of the day, because that is how fishing works.
You are alongside by ten for the short trip, cleaning fish on the dock, and back at your hotel before most of Dubai has had lunch. It is the earliest start of anything on this coast and the only one where the early start is the entire point rather than an inconvenience.
October for availability and gentler seas, January or February for the best fishing. The season runs October to May and peaks in January. October weekends can be booked a week ahead; January weekends need about three.
January and February. The water is at its coolest, kingfish and cobia are on the offshore wrecks, and the catches are the most consistent of the year.
No. October fishes well for queenfish and trevally on the near grounds, with kingfish starting to show on the wrecks. It is a genuine fishing month, just not the peak.
Because fish feed at first light and the wind off Dubai typically gets up mid-morning. A boat leaving at nine spends the productive hours travelling and the rest in chop.
From AED 1,800 for four hours and AED 3,400 for eight, per boat rather than per angler, carrying up to six. Rods, reels, bait, ice, fuel and crew are included.
Not to fish as a guest on a licensed charter boat. The vessel holds the permit and you fish under it. You do need permits to fish from your own boat or to spearfish.
Kingfish, cobia, queenfish, golden and giant trevally, barracuda, grouper and snapper, with occasional sailfish offshore in winter. Some species are protected or size-limited and the crew will return those.
Yes. The crew gut, clean and bag the catch on the way in. Several restaurants around Dubai Marina will cook it for you for a per-head fee if you arrange it in advance.
Holds the UAE's fishing regulations — licensed species, closed seasons and size limits — which is what makes one month better than another.
Leave the date and roughly how many of you there are and we will come back with the boats that are free and what each costs. No deposit at this stage.
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