Sport Fishing Licences

I was 5 years in Qatar, from 2004 to 2005.  I was teaching students who had parents in the police force and other high-up roles and checked about licences for fishing. At no point was a requirement for a licence for sport fishing mentioned as being a required option or available. The number of fish did seem to decline close to shore due to netting in the final year.  This was because groups of low skilled workers were clubbing together to buy 25m long and 1m deep surface nets that they used to clean up fish wading through the shallows.
On arrival in the UAE, I was informed by the concierge at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Abu Dhabi that an Abu Dhabi Environment Agency licence was required.  This was purchased easily on a one year basis and required a form (the same one as for commercial purposes) to be filled out and a ID photo.  The online application requires the details from the Emirates ID card. When you book a hotel fishing trip in the UAE they sort this out for you. Abu Dhabi is not really organised for shore fishing with rod ans especially not for fly fishing, with a lot of the shore built on or fenced off by oil companies. 

For Dubai the licence is FREE (use the this link http://dubaifishingclub.com/page/how-to-get-fishing-license-in-dubai )

As far as I can tell, Kuwait doesn't required a sport fishing licence except for commercial fishing boats http://www.un.org/depts/los/general_assembly/contributions_fisheries/2012/Kuwait.pdf ) .

FatFisherman and Tackle Shops

FatFisherman Info
I have been in contact with http://www.fatfisherman.com/links_geo/middle_east/kuwait.html and have been asked to write an introduction for the page and provide an image of fishing to use on that page for Kuwait.
This has been put on the back-burner as I have yet to get around to it.  At the moment it seems like the water may finally be warming up (April has just arrived) and inshore fishing by fly may yet improve.
With that in mind I have been searching the web for information on fishing in Kuwait and thought that the following would be useful as a starting point.
Tides and weather -Kuwait
http://www.met.gov.kw/Forecasts/marine.php
The following link also shows the range of the tide, demonstrating the little tide and big tide effect of the Gulf.
http://www.tides4fishing.com/as/kuwait/kuwait
and
http://www.tides4fishing.com/as/kuwait/al-funnayhil
It also relates the solar and lunar effects to highlight fish activity for fishing times in the south and north of the country.
Deep Sea fishing link
http://www.fishfishme.com/blog/fishing-in-kuwait/
This link shows the variety of fish available
http://afishtec.com/

Many of the comments on forums are about where to get fishing equipment in Kuwait. Decathlon, the French sporting equipment chain has opened a shop in the Marina Mall in Kuwait (N29 20.449 E48 03.925 )and is well stocked with rods etc.  Nearby is (The Sultan Center), Salmiya (N29 20.520 E48 04.496) which has rods, reels, spinning/trolling lures and lead sinkers/weights.
Update - As of my visit of 10th Oct 2014, "The Sultan Center" Salmiya did have a much better selection of fishing gear than Decathlon, who have certainly let an opportunity slip by, given the extensive range they have in their French shops..

In Qatar, Carrefour at City Center mall was well stocked with line rods, reels, hooks etc. and their were tackle shops around Al Khor also (under the dark mark on the map).

There was a useful little shop for fishing and snorkelling supplies near the Qatar petroleum gasoline station just after the Gharaffa interchange beside the post box.

Carrefour in the Landmark Mall, Abu Dhabi was not as well stocked.  There were a few fishing shops tackle shops at the northern end of Hamdan Street grouped together around a block.

In Abu Dhabi the Environment Agency building is located at N24 27.797 E54 23.337 for getting your annual fishing licence - ID pictures required.  If hiring a boat from a hotel, they will sort a temporary licence for you.

After a visit to Bahrain (28th March 2014) I was located at the Ramada Palace Hotel and just 100m west beside the road junction opposite the Casablanca hotel was the Dasman Center.  This holds a branch of The Daiso.  This is a shop that stocks thousands of different items, among which are a small selection of hooks, weights  lures and other small items to do with fishing.  There is also a branch of The Daiso above the Gold Souq near the central post office in Abu Dhabi.  The Daiso may be connected with other Dasman Centers around the Gulf area.

For fish identification I would suggest http://www.fishbase.org/ and then go to the relevant country under all fishes or games fishes.  The following are the game fish links.

Kuwait http://www.fishbase.org/Country/CountryChecklist.php?c_code=414&vhabitat=sports&csub_code=

Qatar http://www.fishbase.org/Country/CountryChecklist.php?c_code=634&vhabitat=sports&csub_code=

UAE  http://www.fishbase.org/Country/CountryChecklist.php?c_code=784&vhabitat=sports&csub_code=

And with summer coming along......

 Kindle "Fishing Trip An Introduction to Fly Fishing and Trout"

Hardback version, glossy prints and paper with book box from Photobox 79-74GBP

Saltwater Flies and Lures

The images on this post show the selection of flies and lures I have used in the Arabian Gulf.

They have each performed with varying degrees of success, though by far the most successful in terms of numbers of fish, are the orange trout poppers followed by the white floating fry (of which I have none of the originals left).  The white fry shown tried to combine the qualities of the red and white poppers and fry and worked well until the flying treble was lost along with most of the tail to a toothy critter.  In the pictures, the more successful a fly has been, the less legs it has remaining attached.  The attachment of a flying treble also seems to improve the rate of hook-ups and this I attribute to the hardness of many of the fish species' mouth areas.

I have used bit detectors to construct my own popper variants as often it is difficult to get the appropriate materials in UAE, Qatar or Kuwait.  Fore example, I was unable to get olive wool for the Arno's Milky Dream fly so used some chartreuse material and white marabou and, at the time, had no internet access, so had to go off a verbal description of the fly scribbled on a piece of hotel note paper.

Some trout poppers ended up being so chewed up they disintegrated.  The one mentioned in the picture is the last of the three originally purchased.

Some of the flies are sea trout trebles and salmon doubles which are too heavy to cast from the shore or while wading with my 9'  rod with 8 wt line, and so are used  trailing from a boat, or flicked into deep water from a pier and allowed to sink and drift before being retrieved.

Al Gharriya, NE Qatar

Al Gharriya, NE Qatar.
N26 04.366 E51 21.544

Again,  this beach had easy access from the road and was 90 km north of Doha.  The journey takes about an hour but the main road goes to 2 way and is quite bumpy towards the end.  I managed to take my eye off the road for a brief moment and lost a wheel to a hole in the road.  That said, the beach is an extension of the sand on the land and plenty of wading is possible.

On the whole from 2004 -2009 when in Qatar, I observed that boat fishing is done by those with boats or who can afford to hire one.  The majority of the labourers who fish seem to use a fixed spool reel from a harbour or other raised point such as a pier.  Others in the last year I was there took to buying a 25 or 50m net with a depth of 1m floats on the top, walk out and mop up large  areas of anything that wouldn't fit through the holes.  That was the end of the "happy time" for fishing in Simaisima for me.  That final year saw me catch only 1 fish (a 5cm long needlefish) there after October 2008.  Prior to that I had averaged 10-20 fish per Friday morning session (7am-1130am).

What there was also at Al Gharriya was a large population of stingrays, which would glide pass my feet as I waded and fished the upper water column.  There area is usually very quiet, apart from a the noise of quad bikes from a resort 1km away when holidays occur.  The fish present for fly sport are half-beaks and needlefish in the main.

Simaisima, Qatar

This is a sunrise on the Arabian Gulf - The Khaleej - at Simaisima in Qatar.
N25 34.708 E51 29.302

Here there are sandy mud flats that stretch far from the shore near to the most northerly mangroves in the Gulf.  The area is eminently wade-able, with easy access from the beach or fishing boat pier.  It is about 20mins by car from Doha.
This was where I first decided to start fly fishing in tropical waters, having previously only done fly fishing in the freshwater rivers and lakes of the UK.  I had being doing conventional sea fishing with fixed spool reel from the piers and multiplier reel from boats in Qatar.  I had worked on a successful technique of  dragging a popping float through the surface with a trailing set of white flies with a 10g weight as I became fed up with cuttlefish stealing the bait from the hooks.  Prawns were becoming more expensive too so a technique without bait as just what I needed.
Needlefish, rainbow runners/Queenfish, sea bass, and others were all jumping onto my trolled flies. It was then that I realised if I could ditch all of the boxes of equipment and weights I was carrying, put on some dive boots, I could wander away from the crowed piers (where personal space was being ignored by the fishermen from less developed parts of the world) and into the sea itself.
That summer during my annual vacation back to England I purchased an Orvis 6-piece travel rod, saltwater reel and line plus a selection of trout poppers (that weren't legal for use in the lakes of NE England, but on sale in the tackle shops beside them) that looked like they would have enough colour and bouyancy to cope with the bright light of the Khaleej.

A fluorescent orange popper with orange and black stripe rubber legs caught this needlefish on the 2nd cast at Simaisima in September 2006.  From then on I spent Friday mornings wading in the sandy shallow waters up the top of my thighs following the tide up the gently shelving beaches.  I found that if I stayed at that depth of water I would be casting into the packs of predatory fish chasing the fry on shore.
Apart from the two-banded needlefish (houndfish), there were Sind half-beaks, yellow hind, banded grunters, fasker and other sea bass that found a fluorescent orange popper or a white floating fry imitation irresistible.
On some occasions I would venture (carefully) towards the trench cut into the limestone bedrock to allow deeper draught boats into the pier at Simaisima. It is a deep cut so I kept about 5m from the edge and did catch some large fish out of the hole.  However, there were other creatures in there such as turtles and large barracuda and sharks.  On several occasions I did lose the body or the whole fish to an attack during playing a fish to a dark torpedo appearing from within the trench.
The longest fish hooked on the fly in Qatar were the 1m long needlefish known as "Long Toms" which are a little unnerving when in the water playing them.   I generally tried to back towards the shore or pier to finish off landing them as their beaks are too sharp to have near your face!
A flying treble is handy on a lure here, as the mouths of some of the fish are very hard and bony and a single hook (especially a barbless one) is unlikely to find or maintain purchase.