Farasan Islands

Based on our short visit to the Farasan Islands it is definately the nicest place i've seen in saudi arabia. just a short 35 minute boat/taxi ride from jizan, off the southwest coast of saudi, lies a series of 7 small islands known as the Farasan Islands. this is supposed to be a mecca for scuba divers and snorklers. we were fortunate enough to get an invite from our saudi boss and one of the other saudi's in our shop, who are from that area, to come down hang out with them and their families, they even let us stay in one of their houses, which was a kind gesture. upon our arrival to the islands, the first thing we noticed or didn't notice was the absence of trash littering the ground. unlike the rest of the country they apparently try and keep this place clean. out of all the islands to choose from we chose to stay on the main island and see what it had to offer. there is a lot of history here and unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see any of it, i wanted to fish and the others either wanted to swim or snorkel. when we got off of our boat/taxi, we payed some local to drive us around. first stop was lunch but then we were off to the water for some recreation. while the others did their thang, i quickly rigged up with an olive and white clouser and took a stroll down to a point that was riddled with big rocks. on my 2nd cast i set the hook on something and once i did it was off to the races and i could not slow it down. i think my fingers were smoking from the fly line ripping acrossed my fingers. i started to really get nervous when i only had maybe a few feet of backing left, i tried palming my reel in hopes of slowing this hot fish down, to no avail. at this point the fish finally got it's wish of being free when my tippet snapped. that was a heart bracker but at least i got all my line back. after that i only managed roughly 8 of the smaller fish. we were only there a few hours then it was time to head back to the main land. next time i hope to get on one of the smaller islands to see what lurks in some deeper waters.