kingfisher_news_letter

Kingfisher Fishing News Letter 2011/12

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 20th april 2012 The southerly monsoon is blowing strong, boats are out of the water and crews are going on leave marking the end of another season.

Dear All,

This is just a short update to let you all know that all is well here in Malindi and the reason you haven’t been hearing from us regularly is that there hasn’t been too much fishing since the end of March. Although it was very late the monsoon eventually changed to “kusi”(Southerly monsoon)around the 5th April and it has been that way ever since. Thankfully, it has brought some rain with it but the coast normally receives the bulk of its rain from the beginning of May so it is still early days. The little rain we have had has brought an end to the hot and humid conditions we experienced in March\April and it is now a much more pleasant temperature.

Repair work on the boats has started in earnest with Eclare and Tina already on the slip way soon to be followed by Neptune and Snowgoose. We will leave Snark in the water just in case any bookings come along. We are in the middle of overhauling Eclare’s engines at the moment as well as the normal cleaning up and painting. Skippers and crew will start to go on well earned leave at the end of this month.

All in all it was another good season for us although we were about 20% down on last season’s bookings. I think we can put that down partly to the kidnapping incidents further north and partly to the global economic crisis. We are hoping that this coming season will be a lot better and that those of you who didn’t make it last year will be back again this year. Fish wise it was another very good season all round but especially for sailfish. Neptune was the top sailfish boat on the Kenyan coast once again with 463 fish compared to 375 last season. Most of our boats averaged over 2 sailfish per day which is very impressive for any destination in the world considering that our season is spread over 10 months at least. After a slow start the main marlin season came up trumps with some very impressive catches indeed. What really stood out this season compared to any other that I can remember was the amount of big blue marlin caught and seen. There must have been over 15 blues caught that surpassed the 500 lb mark between the Malindi\Watamu boats and many more were seen and lost. Some exceptional days were had and many Grand Slams were recorded. Monica and Herbert Lewald had an amazing day on Snowgoose on the 22nd January coming back with 1 black marlin,2 striped marlin and 6 sailfish. Also fishing on Snowgoose Morgens Thrane and Paul Erik Eriksen had a black marlin,a striped marlin and a sailfish on the 13th January. All fish were caught on live frigate mackerel and unfortunately the black marlin came in dead and weighed in at 205.5 kgs.Not to be outdone by Tina also had a grand slam on the same day. Fishing with the Schallert party from Austria they tagged and released a nice black marlin of 90 kgs, 2 striped marlin and 3 sailfish. Neptune fishing with Nicholas and Richard Stedman had a grand slam on the 12th January with a black marlin, a striped marlin and 4 sailfish. She also had one on the 23rd February fishing with Dieter and Michael Haenel and this time it was a black, a blue and a sailfish. For those of you who are wondering what a grand slam is it is when one catches three different types of billfish in one day. A super grand slam is four and a fantasy slam is five.

Once again good fishing continued well into March and in fact a few blues were caught in April as well.

We have started to get a few bookings for next season but as of now we still have a lot of space especially from August to November. There is a new scheduled airline flying from South Africa direct to Mombasa, which could make life a lot easier for fishermen from there. The airline is called One Time and the times of arrival and departure are very user friendly.

We have done a few days fishing in the last few weeks which is good. Snowgoose took out Mr and Mrs Thompson from South Africa for two days last week. On the first day they had a 30 kg giant trevally, 3 dorado and 3 kawa-kawa and on the second day an 18 kg kingfish, 2 dorado and some kawa-kawa. Snark was out today with some Russian’s and they had a very good day indeed, with 2 sailfish, a giant trevally, a wahoo and some dorado. Not bad considering we are into the off season! Hopefully we will pick up a few more bookings over the next few quiet months.

That is all for now from us at Kingfisher.

Take care,

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 18TH MARCH 2012 The off season is already upon us as the Penn Challenge 2012 is a great success and Kingfisher boats finish 1st and 2nd .

Dear All,

It is nearly a month since my last news update and with this being our busiest time of the year I don’t know where to begin! Firstly I must apologize (once again!) for leaving it so long between news updates as I know that some of you are dieing to know what is going on out here! I can think of many excuses but I think I will stick with the “we have been so busy” one. Like every year we have had the usual mad rush of all boats fishing every day before the season comes to a flying halt which basically happened yesterday. Today is the first day in at least five months that we haven’t had any boats out, so at least Mum and all the back ground staff had a lie in this morning. Sadly the lie in’s will be plenty from now on as the rest of the month is looking very bare for bookings. On the whole the fishing was very good in the latter half of February and into March with quite a number of big fish being caught. After some unusually cool weather in January and February it has become very hot in the past few weeks, and quite humid which hopefully means that it is building up for rain later in the month.

On the security front it is still very calm and peaceful along the coast and in the rest of the country which is really good news. Politically it seems that the elections will now be held in March 2013 but dates have been set and then changed already so I wouldn’t be too sure just yet. Whatever the case I think it will be a totally different scenario to the last elections and it will be peaceful.

I will start my update from the 4th March as my memory can’t cope with remembering too far back, so apologizes to those of you who fished in between. The Watamu International tournament was held on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th March but unfortunately we only had Eclare competing. The tournament was won by Simba who was fishing with a team from Marlin magazine. They had a blue marlin, a striped marlin and some sailfish on the second day as well as a blue and some sailfish on the first day so what brilliant publicity for Kenya sport fishing. Simba also won the Malindi Billfish tournament held two weekends before so what a roll she had! Neptune fishing with Rick le Monnier, Don Lafferty and my cousin Andy went out to the North Kenya Banks on the 4th March. They missed a couple of blue marlin and landed a nice stripey. The wonderful run of sailfish that we have had since the end of December continues into March with most days seeing good numbers of sailfish especially off Malindi and to a lesser extent on the “rips.” Angus went down to South Africa for a week on the 26th February and I ran Neptune whilst he was away. I witnessed the sailfish run first hand on the 1st March. Fishing with a group from Saudi Arabia for two days we had to find fish on the second day as we had blanked out on the rips, on the first day! We opted to take them to Malindi which was a bit of a gamble as most of the boats were fishing the rips at that time. Well the gamble paid off big time as we found a lot of fish between Malindi and Mambrui. We must have seen over fifty jumping in the space of an hour and although they were difficult to raise we ended up with six as well as a mixed bag of smaller fish. We went there the next day as well with Jim and Frank from South Africa , this time catching ten as well as lots of small fish. The first few days we fished on the “rips” looking for marlin and had success with Umberto and Steffano Montarsolo on the 27th when we tagged a striped marlin for Umberto. We also lost a nice black marlin right by the boat on the 28th. Although it took a while to get rid of the rust it was great to be back on the high sea’s and it didn’t take too long for it all to come back. It was also a pleasure to fish on Neptune with her new engines. I seemed to have digressed slightly in pointing out that we have had an incredible amount of sailfish around throughout the high season. When marlin were few and far between at least the sailfish were there to help while away the hours.

On the 6th and 7th March the Friends of Kenya tournament was held out of Hemingways. After starting as a small exclusive tournament it has become so popular that this year there were twenty four boats taking part. It really is a very well run and fun tournament to take part in and congratulations must go to Agreco who were the main sponsors as well as to the smaller sponsors and organizers. Once again I put my fishing hat on and fished the two days with Andy Atkins on Eclare. Andy and I managed to somehow win the Watamu tournament last year so we thought we would give it another bash. Unfortunately it was not to be this time and we finished way down the leader board. Neptune was the top Kingfisher boat in 5th position and the winner was the biggest boat in the field, Bamara. They had an amazing couple of days with a blue marlin on the first day and a big blue of over 500 lbs as well as a striped marlin on the second day. Second was Instedda and third was Black Widow. On the 8th none of our boats caught marlin, but they all had some sailfish apart from Eclare who was” jigging”and ended up with a couple of amberjack(the biggest weighing in at 22 kgs),and some ruby and red snapper. Snowgoose had a brilliant day on the 9th. Fishing with a group from Andrees Angelreisen in Germany they had a grand slam with a blue marlin,a striped marlin and a sailfish. They were part of a game fish seminar which was organized by Andreas Knausenberger and due to its success over the past two years it will be held annually. On the 10th both Eclare and Snowgoose had a striped marlin each while the other boats had some sailfish. On the 11th Neptune tagged a sailfish and Eclare had a blank but the other three boats all found marlin. Snowgoose, once again fishing with the seminar group had a 100 kg black marlin. Tina tagged and released a striped marlin and two sailfish and Snark boated a 119 kg blue marlin which came up dead off the bottom.

The 12th March saw the start of the Penn Challenge tournament which was held out of Malindi over four days. It is a charity based tournament run by a Dutch organization called the “Fishing Dutchmen”. Although it has been held for over five years now this year was by far and away the biggest with twenty teams taking part. Naturally the organization required to hold a tournament this size is tremendous and congratulations must go to Toine, Heine and of course Pierre and Pep and everyone else who was involved in making it a great success. Like most big tournaments the twenty teams fish on different boats each day and the team with the most points at the end of the four days is the winner. This year there were also boat prizes for the boats in the top three positions which were kindly donated by Penn. Our boats did not fare too well on the first day and in fact apart from a black marlin on Tarka and a stripey on Ol-jogi there were no other marlin caught and just a few sailfish. All boats opted to go out and look for the big one although the points system was very friendly towards sailfish. The second day was much better with a lot more marlin and sailfish being caught. Neptune tagged and released a striped marlin and three sailfish and Snowgoose tagged a blue and a sailfish and Eclare had three sailfish off Malindi. Sea Storm and Little Toot both tagged blue marlin estimated at over 150 kgs. The 14th was a rest day but all our boats were fished by teams from the tournament with most opting to try something different such as jigging. Neptune, fishing with loyal veteran Leo Haak tagged a 110 kg blue marlin and two sailfish and Snark tagged a striped marlin for Olaf van Hoof. They had a double strike but one broke the hook unfortunately. The tournament continued on the 15th and Neptune was the top boat of the day with a blue marlin and a striped marlin tagged and released. Eclare had three sailfish and our other three boats had one each. Going in to the last day on the 16th it was very tight between the top teams as well as the boats. Some teams decided on a tactical change and instead of going out for the big one they opted to fish off Malindi for sailfish. It paid off especially for the teams on Snowgoose and Snark as they tagged and released eight and six sailfish respectively. Tina and Eclare also stayed closer in and tagged two sailfish each. Out on the rips Neptune found a lovely big blue marlin which they tagged after a good two hour fight and estimated it at 260 kgs. In most tournaments a fish like that would take top honors but Snowgoose’s eight sailfish on 30 lb line was easily the top score of the day and their team of Iwan Raven and Jerry Vos took first place overall for the Penn Challenge 2012.

On the boats side Kingfisher did very well indeed with Snowgoose taking the top prize followed by Neptune and the overnight leader Unreel finished third. Iwan and Jerry also got the biggest fish prize as they caught the big blue on Neptune. A total of 67 sailfish,10 striped marlin,14 blue marlin and 2 black marlin were caught. The prize giving was held at Coconut Village hotel on the evening of the 16th and a lot of fun was had by all. All in all it was a very successful tournament and we hope that all who took part had a great time.

The real high light of the marlin season has been the amount of big blue marlin that have been caught since mid January. There have been at least six fish caught over 600 lbs and many more lost or missed. Last season the blues hung around until after the monsoon had changed so let’s hope the same happens this year.

We have very few bookings left now so it is time to get or “off season” minds together and prepare for taking boats out the water, over hauling engines and servicing reels etc,etc. We will always have at least one boat operating throughout the off season as we hope to pick up the odd booking here and there.

That’s all for now.

Take care.

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 19TH FEBRUARY 2012 THE COLD DIRTY WATER IS PUSHING AWAY ALLOWING FOR WARM BLUE WATER AND HOPEFULLY BETTER MARLIN FISHING.

Dear All,

In my last newsletter of the 5th February I talked of no wind and blue water. Unfortunately it was very short lived and it wasn’t long before strong northerly winds started blowing again and the southerly current was reversed and dirty green water covered all our fishing grounds way out to 30 miles. Sailfish are not too fussy when it comes to green water and colder for that matter, but marlin are not happy unless they are in warm blue water. Hence the marlin fishing has not quite been up to par in our waters in the past few weeks. Sailfish numbers continue to hit the roof though and I am sure that since November until now we must be reaching near record figures.

Thankfully the wind has died down over the past few days and the clean water has come back in as has lots of bait fish which bodes well for the last month or so of the season. It has also got a few degrees hotter over the past few days and we are eventually experiencing the sort of weather that we should be having in January\February. The security situation is still good with no incidents all to report off.

Snowgoose tagged and released a lovely black marlin of approximately 400 lbs for Mr Chadwick on the 5th February and then followed that up with a black marlin on back to back days on the 8th and 9th February. On both days the angler was Rainer Wieder who fishes with us year in year out. The other boats didn’t have any luck with marlin but most days saw lots of red flags fluttering on the outriggers signifying good sailfish catches. Neptune had 15 on the 10th February whilst fishing with Dr Althaus and colleague from Germany. Snark found a lot of wahoo off the boiling pot area and came back with 14 on the 10th and eight on the 11th. One of the wahoo on the 10th weighed a whopping 29.5 kgs which is a very nice fish indeed. It was caught byFred Wartelboer .

On the 14tha group of fishermen from Holland going under the name the “Rainbow Warriors” fished the first of six days on Neptune and Eclare. J.de Heus fishing on Eclare managed to tag and release a good sized striped marlin. The “Rainbow Warriors” have a serious competition going amongst themselves with score sheets and posters adorning the fishing club. Tina had 7 sailfish, fishing off Ngomeini on the same day. Tina was fished by Johan De Wilde and family. Johan is out here for his wedding and somehow he managed to slip in three days fishing which must be the envy of many a good man I am sure!

On the 15th Neptune had the better day of the “Rainbow Warrior” group with 18 sailfish! Eclare opted to go out to the rips but unfortunately their decision didn’t pay off and they only managed a single yellowfin tuna for all their efforts.

Both Eclare and Snowgoose caught black marlin on the 16th. On Snowgoose it was a first marlin for Wilhelm Grutter and what a happy chap he was. To cap it off he also got a sailfish and a mixed bag of smaller game fish. Eclares marlin was caught by Rainbow Warrior member J.de Heus. Considering that Johan caught the only other marlin of the group so far I don’t think he was too popular in the club that evening with his fellow fishermen.

Wilhelm added a striped marlin to his billfish cap on the 17th with a nice fish of 60 kgs on Snowgoose.

The 17th was the Morson Cup light tackle tournament held out of the Malindi Sea Fishing Club. The team of Egon Jenke, Rainer Weider and Musa took top honours with a score of 3 sailfish. Two were on 6 kg breaking strain line and one was on 8 kg line. Tarka fished by Paul Worthington, Callum Looman and Mangi was second and Seahorse fished by Bruce Buckland, Nick Taylor and Rick Bate was third.

Today is the last day of the Malindi Billfish Tournament. After yesterday Simba was in the lead followed by Clueless and Seahorse. Both Clueless and Simba had a blue marlin and seven sailfish each and Seahorse had a striped marlin so it is close going in to today. Unfortunately only seven boats are taking part which is a shame as the Billfish is one of the classic tournaments in the Kenyan fishing calendar.

Tina had a good day yesterday with Johan de Wilde and family on board again. They had a black marlin which unfortunately came in dead and they had to boat as well as a sailfish, 3 wahoo and 2 tuna.

We have a busy few weeks ahead of us so we are hoping that some big fish are caught before we wrap up the season. Historically the last two weeks of February and the first three weeks of March are the most productive for big fish. A few days ago Instedda which fishes out of Hemingways landed a 715 lb blue marlin and Clueless tagged and released one slightly smaller so let’s hope there will be more of the same to come.

Unfortunately I must end on a sad note with the passing on of two fishing friends and supporters of Malindi fishing. Monty Brown who was one of the founders of the Malindi Sea Fishing Club in the early 1970’s passed away two days ago and Dennis Froud who has been coming to Malindi for over twenty years succumbed after a long battle with cancer. Dennis was a fishing fanatic and fished all over the world capturing many records over the years. We send our condolences to their respective families.

Take care,

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 5TH FEBRUARY 2012 LOTS OF SAILFISH OFF MALINDI BUT MARLIN HAVE BEEN HARDER TO COME BY.

Dear All,

Once again apologies for such a long delay since the last update which was two weeks ago. God knows where the time has gone but it seems to have flown by in a blur! Although we had quite a few days with boats sitting at anchor it was a lot busier for us than it has been. The fishing is still very good with lots of sailfish and a fair amount of marlin about. The weather is still good with hot sunny days and cool nights. We did go through a long stage of very over cast and grey days but thankfully we are over that now. The overcast days were accompanied by strong winds which affected the sea color by churning it up into a cold green tinge which is not ideal for any fishing but especially marlin fishing. Thankfully the wind has eased and the water is nice and blue everywhere again. On the security front we have not had any incidents and all is peaceful.

After Monica and Herbert Lewalds amazing day on Snowgoose on the 22ndJanuary they followed it up with another great one on the 23rd with a black marlin and a striped marlin. Guy Raymacker and Jurgen Ludsteck released a big striped marlin of over 60 kgs on Neptune while Tina found 11 sailfish for Wilfred Van Laarhoven and Ronald Roy.

Neptune fishing with Richard Segars and Arie Theunissen was our only boat that got a marlin on the 24 January. They may not have found any marlin but the other boats got well amongst the sailfish. Tina led the way with 14 and Snowgoose and Snark had 6 and 5 respectively.

There were huge numbers of sailfish off the Sabaki\Malindi area and for four or five days the fishing was manic. Neptune had 12 and Tina 7 on the 25th while all our boats had between 7 and 3 each on the 26th.

Although there were huge numbers of sailfish close in Tina went out to the “rips” on the 27th with David Wilson and the gamble paid of for them as they tagged a nice stripey and a sailfish. Neptune stayed closer in and ended up with 11 sailfish for Alfons Claes ,Georges Bekaert and Patrick Panis. .

On the 30th Snowgoose was out on a short day and I don’t think the anglers had any idea as to what was in store for them! From the time they put the lines in the water to the time they came back it was non stop action and after seven hours of fishing they had 14 sailfish, 1 wahoo,1 yellowfin tuna and a barracuda.

On the 31st all boats had sailfish and quite a few small fish each. The 1st February was much the same although it was a lot harder fishing with the wind picking up the night before.

Neptune went out to the rips in search of marlin on the 2nd but unfortunately didn’t have any luck on the marlin side but they did get a couple of sailfish. Eclare had 2 sailfish as well and Tina had 4.

Eclare had some luck out on the rips on the 3rd with a striped marlin and 2 sailfish whilst Neptune had a sailfish and some small fish which they got jigging.

Yesterday no marlin were caught but all boats had lots of sailfish action with Neptune top scoring with 8.

Hopefully blue water and gentle winds will get the marlin going again and we will have lots of marlin action as well as sailfish to report on next week.

It’s only a couple of weeks now until the Morson Cup light line and Malindi Billfish tournaments. The Morson Cup is on Friday 17th February and the Billfish is on the 18th and 19th. Both tournaments will be held out of the Malindi Sea Fishing Club and as usual you are all welcome to either enter or to attend the auctions and weigh ins.

Another occasion to put in your diaries is the end of season KASA raffle dinner which will be held at the beginning of April at the Driftwood Beach Club. Once again there will be some spectacular prizes to be won so please buy as many tickets as you can. Tickets will be sold at the Malindi Sea Fishing Club, Capt Andys Watamu and by Kasa members.

That’s it for this week.

Take care,

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 22ND JANUARY 2012 GOOD FISHING CONTINUES BUT TOO MANY BOATS ARE LIEING IDLE ON THE MOORINGS!!

Dear All,

The good fishing that we have been experiencing for quite a while continued last week but unfortunately too many days saw boats sitting on their moorings. This time last year we had at least four boats fishing every day but this year is a very different story and what a shame it is as we are having such good fishing.

The weather is much the same as the previous week with hot clear days and the wind blowing from the north. All is calm as far as security goes with no incidents or reports of any goings on.

The Casino Tournament came to an end on 15th January and it turned out to be a very tightly contested affair! Unreel who had quite a comfortable lead after the first day was pushed to the wire by Tarka and managed to hang on to first place by just a couple of kilos! Ol jogi came in third and Alleycat fourth to complete the top four positions. There were a total of 26 marlin and 65 sailfish caught between15 boats. All in all it was a very successful and well run tournament. Kingfishers entrants, Snark and Neptune finished 5th and 9th respectively with both boats catching striped marlin on the second day. Snark was fished by Bas and Edwin Kanters and Adi, while Neptunes team was Herald Van Ieperen and Edward Ebbers. Con Jooste had a very good day on Eclare with a striped marlin and a sailfish caught on fly. Con fought the striped marlin for over two hours before getting it in range of the tag pole. Snowgoose fishing with Wilfred Van Laarhven and Roland Roy had a manic day with 10 sailfish.

On the 16th none of our boats found marlin but Con reached a milestone on Eclare when he caught his 100th sailfish on fly. All but 14 of these were caught in Kenyan waters and the majority on Kingfisher boats. The highlights of this feat were undoubtedly when he caught 28 in 5 days in 2008 and also the sailfish which he hunted for all day to complete his “Grand Slam” on fly in 2010. Well done Con.

On the 17th Neptune, fishing with our good friends from Belgium Alfons ,Rudi and Georges had a good day with a black and a blue marlin and some bait fish. Eclare had another good day fly fishing with the Jooste family. This time it was Cons brother Nic and his wife Angela who got in on the action with Angela catching her first sailfish on fly and Nic getting 4 to finish on 5 on fly for the day!

Neptune got a striped marlin and 2 sailfish on the 18th for the Werner Wirtz group . Eclare fishing with Herald and Edward had 11 sailfish while Snowgoose had 5 and Tina 1.

On the 19th Eclare was our only boat that caught a marlin with a stripey as well as three sailfish. Neptune,Snowgoose and Snark had 3, 4 and 6 sailfish respectively.

Tina, fishing with Wilfred and Roland had a very good day on the 20th tagging a nice black marlin of 100 + kgs and 5 sailfish.Eclare who was out with Peter Hoffman and co added yet another marlin to Peters over all tally when they tagged and released a striped marlin as well as 3 sailfish. Snowgoose had another day with 10 sailfish, this time fishing with the Wirz group. .

Only Neptune,Snowgoose and Snark were out on the 21st and Neptune had the most successful day with 16 sailfish. They caught the majority of these fish just outside the Watamu “mlango”(entrance). Snowgoose and Snark fished off Malindi where a lot of fish had been seen on previous days but it was slower today with Snowgoose catching two sailfish and Snark just some small fish.

Snowgoose had a brilliant day today catching 1 black marlin,2 striped marlin and 6 sailfish to record another “Grand Slam.” They were fishing with loyal clients Herbert and Monica Lewald who have been fishing with us for many years now. Neptune fishing with Richard Segers and Arie Theunissen had 8 sailfish.

That’s it from us here for another week.

Take care,

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 15TH JANUARY 2012 GRAND SLAMS GALORE AS THE FISHING TURNS HOT!!

Dear All,

I am very happy to say that the fishing has got even better since my last update. The “rips” has come alive with marlin and sailfish and hence all boats are fishing out there unless they are on a short day in which case it is a bit to far for them to go. As luck would have it bookings were few and far between at the beginning of the week but we were busier towards the end and next week is looking a lot more promising. The weather is still very good with hot days but enough breeze to cool things down. Apart from the odd quick shower here and there we have not had any rain to speak of.

On the security side all is calm and quiet and I have not heard of anything untoward going on.

On the 8th January Paul Erik Eriksen and Morgens Thrane fished the first of seven days on Eclare. Paul and Morgens are the first clients we have had from Denmark in a long while and we hope they will go back and spread the word as we used to have lots of visitors from that part of the world. Considering it was their first time fishing in Kenya they had a good solid first day with 2 sailfish,3 wahoo and 1 dorado. Snark was our only other boat out and they had 1 sailfish,3 wahoo and 2 kingfish.

On the 10th Eclare, fishing with the Hull family from the UK, was the only boat out. They left at 8.30 am and were back in by 4 pm with a sailfish and a long tail tuna.

On the 11th Neptune was out with Richard and Nick Steadman from Australia. Fishing the “rips” they had a brilliant day ending up with a blue marlin estimated at 100kgs and 5 sailfish.

On the 12th Neptune,Tina and Snark were out. Neptune had the Steadmans on board again and once again they had an action packed day. They had a “Grand Slam” with 1 black marlin,1 striped marlin and 4 sailfish. The Steadmans total in three days fishing was 1 black marlin,1 blue marlin,1 striped marlin and 15 sailfish. Tina and Snark were out with a group from Austria who are here with Andrees Angelreisen. Both boats had good days with Snark getting 8 sailfish and Tina 1 striped marlin and 2 sailfish.

Thankfully Friday the 13th did not live up to its reputation as far as we were concerned and in fact it was quite opposite on the fishing side. All our boats were out and all had brilliant fishing as did most of the other boats that were fishing that day. Tina who was out with part of the Austrian group had a “Grand Slam” with a black marlin estimated at 90 kgs. 2 striped marlin and 3 sailfish. Snowgoose fishing with the “Danes” also had a “Grand Slam” with 1 black marlin,1 striped marlin and 1 sailfish. Just to cap it off they also got a small hammer head shark! Unfortunately the black marlin died on the bottom and they had to plane it up and bring it back in. It weighed a very respectable 453 lbs and what a lovely fish it was. Neptune, fishing with Peter Hoffman and friends were not to be out done by and tagged and released a very nice black marlin of 180 kgs as well as three sailfish. Snark had a striped marlin and a dorado whilst Eclare who was fly fishing with Con Jooste tagged two sailfish on fly. They had a striped marlin up to the teasers but unfortunately it didn’t take the fly.

Yesterday was the first day of the Casino Tournament. Unfortunately we only have Neptune and Snark entered but it has been well supported with about fifteen boats taking part. Unreel was in the lead after day 1 with a whopping 3 marlin( 2 blacks and a stripey) and 2 sailfish. She was followed by Ol Jogi and Tarka with two striped marlin and some sailfish each. Neptune had one of those real off days and didn’t even get on the score board but Snark was in the running with a blue marlin and 3 sailfish tagged and released. With today to go it is still anyone’s ball game. I have just heard on the radio that Unreel has a striped marlin and 2 sailfish so they have extended their lead and Neptune has a stripey and 2 sailfish and Snark is fighting a marlin. It sounds like it is going to be another exciting day then! I will put the results on Facebook tomorrow morning and also in next weeks update.

We have had a few cancellations in February and so have quite a number of blank spaces on the bookings sheet if any of you are still interested in coming out. If the fishing continues in this vain it could be a memorable season.

Until next week take care.

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 8TH JANUARY 2012 SAILFISH ARE STILL AROUND IN NUMBERS AS THE CASINO TOURNAMENT TAKES PLACE THIS WEEKEND.

Dear All,

I would like to start by wishing you all compliments of the year for 2012. Let’s hope it is a peaceful and productive year for us all.

We all had a good festive season here in Malindi and perhaps it was too good on my side and hence the lack of updates!! We were very busy throughout Christmas and the New Year and thankfully the good fishing continued most of the time. We are in the middle of a lean period at the moment but we start to get busy again around the 12th January.

The weather is very fair with no rain to speak of, for a long while now and the wind is blowing constantly from the north. Although it isn’t flat calm we have not had any serious blows yet.

On the security side, things are calm with no incidents at all around here. Last week a boat which crossed the border into Kenya from Somalia was confronted by our security forces and stopped in its tracks!! That just shows that a no nonsense attitude is being taken up there which is good. Within the last few days the British Government has issued a travel advisory for Kenya in response to terrorist alerts. Obviously we don’t know what is going on behind the scenes but what I can say is that Malindi is still peaceful and bustling. Lets hope that the alerts blow over soon and all resumes to normal.

Now to the serious matter of fishing! Apart from the odd bad day here and there, the sailfish run which had kicked off in my last update has continued to date. Tina had 11 sailfish on a short day on the 19th December whilst Snowgoose had 9 on a long day fishing with the Oleksii Kharkov party from the Ukraine Eclare fishing out on the “rips” with Bernd and Marc Neufeldt had three sailfish and a mako shark. It has been Marc’s dream to catch a mako so what a way to end their trip on their last day out. Ivan and Andre from South Africa had two sailfish on fly and four conventionally fishing from Neptune on the 20th. There were a lot of sailfish everywhere around the Christmas period and boats were coming back with at least four flags most days. Tina had 8 on the 24th and 6 on the 25th. Neptune won the kids Christmas competition fished out of Watamu on the 26th. Fishing with Alister, Tiva, Eric and Joey they had nine sailfish by lines out at twelve o’clock! Tiva tagged and released one of the biggest sailfish of the season which was estimated at 45 kgs.

Tina continued her impressive run of form on the 27th December finding 11 sailfish for Francois Hattingh. On the 28th Francois was on Tina again and this time they opted to to try and look for a marlin out on the rips. The gamble paid off as they tagged and released a good size black marlin and a sailfish. The 28th was the first day of the Christmas Competition fished out of Ocean Sports. Sadly Neptune was our only boat taking part in what is a very popular and well run tournament. After a good opening day with a striped marlin and four sailfish Neptune couldn’t keep it up on the second day and they ended up fourth overall. Seahorse was the overall winner followed by Magoo.

Snark fishing with Manfred Gieply had 8 sailfish on the 31st December while Tina had 5. We don’t normally have boats out on the 1st January but this year we had 3 fishing. Snowgoose was the top boat with 5 sailfish.

The fishing got tougher from the 2nd January with less fish showing all round. Snowgoose still managed to get two sailfish on fly for Kiki Fernandez.

At the beginning of January last year there were a lot of marlin showing, especially stripies. So far this year has seen a slight decline in marlin numbers but hopefully that is just because they are running later than usual. Snowgoose caught a black marlin on the 4th fishing with Klaus-Dieter Jung and there have been a few stripies caught out of Watamu since the beginning of the year but otherwise it has been quiet on that front.

Snark had 8 sailfish on the 6th while fishing off Malindi and yesterday Snowgoose had 8, Eclare 5 and Snark 4.

Unfortunately I must end on a sad note. Many of you will remember Mohammed Athman who worked for us on Tina as crew and skipper for many years. Sadly Mohammed or “Asidi”as he was known by his friends passed away on 24th December after a short illness. He started working with Dad on Tina as a deck hand at the beginning of the 1980’s and gradually worked his way up to skipper in 2002 until his retirement in 2009. He will be sorely missed by all his friends and family.

This coming weekend is the Malindi Casino Competition which is normally very well supported and sponsored. We will have at least two boats participating in what promises to be a large entry. Lets hope that billfish will be around in abundance!

Have a good week and take care,

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 18TH DECEMBER 2011 NEPTUNE BAGS THE FIRST GRAND SLAM OF THE SEASON AND THE SAILFISH FISHING GOES HAYWIRE!!

Dear All,

I’m glad to say that we have had a period of very good fishing since my last update. The sailfish have really turned on recently and for a few days went ballistic! For four or five days we had unprecedented sailfish fishing. Although we have been catching them all over, the main concentration has been in a small area in the “boiling pot.” We are not too sure why they suddenly went on the boil(excuse the pun) but obviously the conditions were perfect. Unfortunately conditions have worsened in the last couple of days and consequently the fishing has switched off as well but I am sure it will come good again. Marlin fishing is in full force out on the rips and we hope that as we enter into January we will start to see greater numbers. Earlier in the month boats were seeing quite a few blue marlin but recently striped marlin have been the majority.

The weather is still very hot and clear with no sign of rain. The wind has settled into the north east making Malindi bay brown and lumpy. We have moved most of our boats inside the reef as it is not pleasant in the bay to say the least. Neptune is the only one remaining in the bay and she will move to Watamu within the next few days.

We have not had any security incidents at all and the whole coast is still calm on that front. The Kenya Army is still in Somalia but it seems to be quiet up there too as one doesn’t hear too much about the goings on.

On the 3rd December Peter Hoffman and gang got in on the GT (Giant Trevally) action. They tagged four good fish as well as a sailfish.

Martin Joswig, out from Germany with a group fished the first of five days on the 4th with Neptune and Snowgoose. Neptune had five GT’s, ( one which they had to boat weighed in at 38.5 kgs) and a 14 kg kingfish. On the 5th the boats fished up north towards Ngomeini and they found a few sailfish up there. Neptune tagged one caught on fly by Henning Heise and Karl Sputek Snowgoose had one conventional fishing. On the 6th Tina had a very good day. Fishing with Ali Mcleod and Brian Kinrade they tagged a black marlin of 120 kgs+ and a 30 kg sailfish. Not bad considering it was their first days fishing! Snowgoose had four sailfish and Neptune had three good wahoo weighing in at between 17 and 21 kgs.

On the 7th December Neptune ventured out to the North Kenya Banks(NKB) for a day trip and what a day it was! They came back with the first “Grand Slam” of the season as well as quite a number of bottom fish which they caught during a three or four hour spell of jigging. Martin Joswig who has been coming out for many years now caught his first marlin ever, an 80 kg blue. A 45 kg striped marlin and three sailfish made up the rest of the grand slam. Tina was the top boat closer in with a 25 kg wahoo and a sailfish. On the 9th Neptune headed out to the NKB’s again with the other half of the Joswig group but unfortunately it wasn’t as good as the trip before and they didn’t even raise a marlin and ended up with three sailfish and a few snappers. Eclare went out to the “rips”and came up trumps with a 50 kg striped marlin and 2 sailfish with Bernd and Marc Neufeldt on board.Bernd and Marc come every year at this time and fish two weeks solid. Snowgoose,Tina and Snark all stayed inshore and caught at least one sailfish each.On the 10th Marc and Bernd went out to the rips again on Eclare and this time managed to find a black marlin of 90 kgs approximately. Snowgoose had a very good day closer in with Jacques and Jeanette from South Africa. They tagged and released 6 sailfish as well as 5 dorado and 2 wahoo. Neptune, fishing with david Francombe and family had 3 sailfish and 2 good sized GT’s.

On the 12th Neptune kept the lads from Goodyear tyres, Jacques,Tim and Carl entertained with an assortment of 20 fish including 2 sailfish,4 GT’s,dorado,barracuda tuna and garfish.

The 13th was the beginning of the sailfish bonanza but only Neptune and Snark were in on the action as the others went out to the rips. Neptune fishing with the Ali Mcleod party had 13 sailfish and 3 big GT”s whilst Snark fishing with Keith Hill had nine sailfish.Out on the rips Eclare tagged and released a big striped marlin and 2 sailfish for Bernd and Marc.

On the 14th Neptune had 13 sailfish and Snowgoose 5. Eclare, out on the rips again did not raise any marlin but tagged 3 sailfish.Snowgoose fished closer in around the “boiling pot” and managed 5 sailfish. The 15th was the peak of the sailfish Fest with Snowgoose catching an incredible 28! Neptune was our only other boat fishing in the area and they had 18 whilst Black Widow from Watamu had around 27 and

Jasiri also from Watamu 20. There were other boats with between 10 and 15 so I should think the total for the day between all boats must have been at least 140 fish!!The rips produced as well with Eclare and Tina catching a striped marlin and 5 sailfish each.

The 16th wasn’t as productive as the days before but Neptune still managed 10 sailfish and Eclare found another striped marlin and 3 sailfish on the rips. Bernd and Marc were on Eclare again bringing their tally up to 4 striped marlin and a black marlin for the trip so far. Yesterday was also slow closer in with Neptune and Snowgoose getting one sailfish each and Snark getting one on fly and one conventional. The fish have still got to be around but the conditions are obviously a bit off at the moment. Let’s hope that it will pick up again soon.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from us all at Kingfisher. Lets hope that it will be a good and fruitful year coming up.

Take care,

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 4TH DECEMBERV 2011 SOME VERY LARGE GIANT TREVALLY HAVE BEEN TAGGED AND RELEASED AS CALM SEAS AND WARM WEATHER ARE STILL THE ORDER OF THE DAY.

Dear All,

It has been two weeks since the last update and I can’t think where the time has gone! Although we haven’t been flat out we have been relatively busy with two or three boats out most days. We have had some spectacular storms recently and have had a lot more rain than we had during the first two weeks of the month. Up country is still having a lot more than us and it is starting to cause havoc destroying bridges, roads and dams. Although the water table needs serious replenishing after years of drought there comes a time when enough is enough as it does much more harm than good. The wind has predominantly been blowing from the south but yesterday it swung into the north east and the forecast is that it will stay there now. As I said in the last update a north easterly wind is what we want at this time of year.

The fishing is still not amazing but we are catching a few sailfish and this past few weeks has seen an increase in giant trevally and some very large ones at that.

On the security side all calm and we have not heard of a hint of trouble anywhere. Malindi is starting to really build up for the festive season and it is already hard to move around town.

On the 22nd November Claude Resch and Christian Zimmer fished the first of five days on Snowgoose. It was a very slow day and they ended up with only one fish but luckily it was the ultimate fish, in a 75 kg black marlin!

On the 23rd Snark had a good day with Johan and Arulene Smal, tagging and releasing two sailfish and a 17 kg giant trevally while Malachite tagged a sailfish on light tackle for Phil Mattias.

On the 25th Neptune, fishing with Piet Mulder and Jill McCann had a lot of sailfish action and ended up with five. What made today special for the sailfish we don’t really know but there obviously was something very right as Eclare had four and a number of other boats ended up with three or four. On the 25th yearly visitors Paul ,Richard and Peter from Holland had a good day on Neptune tagging a sailfish and three giant trevally.

On the 26th Marcel Aalbregt also from Holland released a 15 kg shark( which we are still battling to identify) on Malachite. Fly fishing fanatic Con Jooste had a good day out on Eclare with one sailfish tagged on fly and one tagged on conventional gear.

Neptune got amongst some large Giant Trevally ( GT’s) on the 28th and Marcel Aalbregt and Ari Terlouw were given quite a work out. Between them they had four fish between 18 and 35 kgs, all of which were tagged and released. Snark had a very nice wahoo of 28 kgs caught by George Siwek.

On the 29th Ari and Marcel got some more stick from some large GT’s. They had four again ranging from 18 to 35 kgs as well as a sailfish, a wahoo, and a big eye trevally.

On the 30th Jill McCann caught the biggest GT of the week with a fish estimated at 42 kgs. She just pipped another beauty of 38 kgs caught by her partner Piet Mulder. Snowgoose had a good wahoo of 18 kgs as well as a few dorado.

On the 1st December Con Jooste had an exciting day on Eclare. By 11 am he had tagged and released a sailfish on fly and thereafter had a couple of other fish up which they teased in but did not take the fly. At around lunch time they then saw a large black marlin chasing a dorado on the surface. As they approached the marlin it shot in to their spread and pounced on the flat line teaser which was a mere morsel for it as the fish was way over 500 lbs! The fish followed the teaser for half a minute or so and then proceeded to chase the poor old dorado again who this time got well and truly hammered! Its sods law that the big fish come up when one is not ready for them. On seeing the sheer size of the fish Con thought it was probably not such a good idea to throw his fly down its gullet. Snowgoose had two sailfish caught conventionally as well as a wahoo, a barracuda and a dorado.

On the 2nd Tina had a lot of small fish action with eight dorado, a nice wahoo and a barracuda while Snark had a very exciting day. Fishing with Dimitri Sosin and his father in law they tagged three sailfish and boated four yellowfin tuna and some bait fish. To top it all off they fought a black marlin on 30 lb line for half an hour or so before the line parted not too far from the boat. It was a shame that they didn’t get it but at least they had the pleasure of seeing and playing the fish.

We have still got quite a few free days in January and February, especially at the beginning of both months so if you are still thinking of coming out, there is space.

This coming week is quite busy for us so let’s hope I will have lots to write about next time.

Take care,

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 7TH NOVEMBER 2011 YET ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL DRIFTWOOD EXTRAVAGANZA COMES AND GOES!!

Dear All,

All is well here in Malindi and thankfully we have just had our busiest week of the season with our whole fleet fishing for four days in a row. All boats took part in the 17th Driftwood Gamefish Extravaganza from 31st October to 3rd November 2011. The Extravaganza is organized by Basil Hill from South Africa and as the title suggests this is the 17th year it has been held. The majority of the fishermen are from South Africa although this year we had a team from Zimbabwe which was really good to see. Before all the trouble started in Zimbabwe we used to host their CADSAS(Central African Deep Sea Anglers) tournament annually. When it was at its peak up to ten teams used to come to Malindi for a week and what a week it was. Let me just say that fishing was not always their primary objective and the fishing club bar used to do very well. We were all very sad to see the end of CADSAS coming to Malindi about ten years ago and we hope that one day it will return. Judging by the spirit in which the Zimbabwe team partook in the Extravaganza it seems not a lot has changed down there!!

All in all it was another very successful Extravaganza even though the fishing was probably not up to our usual standards. Eight teams caught 2 black marlin, 20 sailfish and a mixed bag of smaller game fish over the four days. Although not every angler caught a billfish every team caught at least one. Teams fished on a different boat each day and after four days the “Sharamoots” emerged as the top team. They had a very good start with a black marlin on the first day. Some may call it sheer luck but basically it was being in the right place at the right time. Fishing on Neptune they were totally out of the running with an hour to go until lines out. Angus was pulling his hair out as they were surrounded by dirty water as far as the eye could see and he had run out of ideas. He was just about to play his last card and take the lines out and motor towards cleaner water further south when the down rigger bait was hit. There was so much sea weed in the water that initially they thought they had hooked yet another clump. Angus could not believe his eyes when out of the “brown” water came a black marlin pouncing all over the bait. It slashed at the bait so much that by the time it was hooked there was only the head of the bait left with two protruding hooks. It just goes to show that when a fish is hungry enough it will eat anything. After a good fight they tagged and released the fish successfully and it meant a leap from last place to second! Snowgoose fishing with the Three J’s caught the only other marlin of the tournament. Unreel had a good day on the last day with four sailfish for “Shag N Release”. This was the highest amount of sailfish caught on one boat. The prize giving was held at the Malindi Sea Fishing Club on the 3rd November. Basil did a sterling job in finding some striking fish replicas as prizes. The top angler also got a free weeks accommodation at the Driftwood and the top team a free days fishing with us. Team “Shag N Release” came a very close second behind Sharamoots and team Zimbabwe were third. Neptune was the top boat of the tournament followed by Unreel in second and Snowgoose in third. I must say that the whole group could not have been a nicer bunch and we hope that they all had a good time and that they will be back next year.

Sadly it was only hectic for four days and it has now gone back to being slow on the bookings front. Snowgoose and Eclare were out on short days yesterday with the latter catching a sailfish and a dorado and the former catching two wahoo and two dorado.

The weather was mostly clear and dry this past week but the rain has returned today and looks like it has set in for a while.

On the security front all is very calm and quiet and we have not heard of any incidents up and down the coast. The Kenya Navy has been making a big presence and has really tightened up its operations. We are making use of the MRCC (Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre) which is based in Mombasa, by checking in and out daily. The MRCC co-ordinates all movement on the sea, not only in our waters but all the way up to Oman. We have found them to be very helpful and friendly.

The Kenya Army seems to have made a lot of headway since they crossed the border into Somalia and they have made it very clear that their objective is to flush out Al – Shaabab terrorists and make a buffer zone on the border. They have pushed a long way into Somalia now, and it seems they have made a big dent into the Al – Shaabab armour. So all in all it is good news this week on the Somali issue and long may it continue.

Take care,

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 25TH SEPTEMBER 2011 LOTS OF SAILFISH AND TUNA ACTION OFF MALINDI AS KINGFISHER BOATS BAG A HANDFUL OF AWARDS AT THE KASA ANNUAL PRIZE GIVING CEREMONY.

Dear All,

Unfortunately we haven’t had too many fishing days since the last update, but the good news is that we have had some good action off Malindi and further north. Since the beginning of the season in July we have been fishing the banks off Watamu and due to the rough weather we hadn’t ventured north until a week or so ago. Sometimes September can be too early for sailfish and tuna off Malindi but luckily when Tina and Neptune fished up there for the first time this season they found a lot of tuna and quite a few sailfish.

We have had a bit of rain this past week and the signs are showing it will continue. It was rough and windy for most of last week but it seems to be calming down by the day which is good.

On the 17th September, Neptune didn’t have any luck with billfish but she had some action from the “razor gang”. Matt Harris caught a very nice wahoo of 23.5 kgs as well as a smaller wahoo and a kingfish.

On the 19th Richard and Jenny Osborne from South Africa had an excellent day . Fishing on Neptune they tagged and released two sailfish and landed a 26.5 kg kingfish, an 18 kg cobia, 2 Wahoo, a smaller kingfish and a bunch of bait fish. Tina was out on a five hour trip and had 4 yellowfin tuna and a wahoo.

On the 21st Neptune fished north off Malindi with Guy Raymacker. They found an abundance of fish and it was non stop action. 5 sailfish, 28 tuna, 1 kingfish and 1 dorado was the final tally for the day. That is a mega haul for a boat load of fishermen let alone one!

Eclare and Neptune had two sailfish each on the 22nd whilst on the 23rd Eclare had 1 sailfish and 13 yellowfin tuna.

On the 24th Neptune ended up with 3 sailfish, 30 odd yellowfin and a dorado. They had a “pack attack” of sailfish and managed to get three in one go. Hooking three or four sailfish together is sheer pandemonium! Invariably there will always be one that decides to go in completely the opposite direction resulting in all sorts of swear words erupting from the fishermen and crew. After much weaving inside and out with all the rods and much reversing from the skipper the situation can be brought under control as by then the fish have spent a lot of energy. One has to experience it to believe the adrenaline rush one can get with fish leaping all over the ocean.

At the end of every season KASA (Kenya Association of Sea Anglers) hold an award ceremony dinner to honor those that excelled during the season. There is a whole list of prizes awarded from the largest fish of each species to the boat that catches the most marlin throughout the season. It is never held at the same venue for more than two years in a row. It is always a very enjoyable evening and it gives one a chance to catch up with others in the same game from up and down the coast. The 2010\11 dinner and prize giving was held last night at Ocean Sports hotel in Watamu. Over 60 people attended and it was once again very enjoyable and well organized. A three course dinner was followed by prize giving. Neptune did very well and received a total of five prizes including the most sailfish caught by a professional boat in the season, most marlin tagged and released in the season, most sailfish tagged and released in the season and most giant trevally tagged and released in the season. Reiner Wielder received the prize for the biggest black marlin caught under IGFA rules. This was a fish of 250 kgs caught on 50 lb line on Eclare in February. The fight lasted four hours so it was greatly deserved. Peter Brumby received the best fisherman under 18 year’s award for his two sailfish caught in the Herbie Paul International Tournament last October.

All in all the Kingfisher boats fared very well and lets hope it is the same this season.

Unfortunately we have had a cancellation for a few days at the beginning of January 2012. This has been a prolific time for marlin over the last few years so if you are thinking of coming bare that in mind.

Take care.

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 12TH SEPTEMBER 2011 TINA BAGS A BLACK MARLIN ON HER FIRST TRIP OF THE SEASON!

Dear All,

Another twelve days have sped by with a blink of an eye and god knows where they have gone! It has not been too busy on the fishing front which can be expected in September. However, the days that we have had boats out have seen good fishing. The weather has been getting hotter and more humid as each day goes by and it really feels like it is going to rain soon. The forecast is for good rains in the next few months so let’s hope it is right as the country needs it. Certain areas upcountry have already started to get rain which is good.

There have been quite a few black marlin caught and seen since the last update and although there are not as many sailfish being caught as we were catching last month, there is still a fair amount around. On the 1st September Neptune was out with Rick Le Monnier who was up for a few days’ r and r from Abu Dhabi. They ended up with a sailfish, a kingfish and some bait. On the 2nd Neptune and Snowgoose were out on long days. Peter Hoffman fishing off Neptune added yet another marlin to his already high tally. It was a black marlin of approximately 80 kg. He also tagged and released two sailfish and landed a 17 kg wahoo. Snowgoose, fishing with Rick didn’t manage to get any billfish but did get three wahoo and a tuna and some bait fish including 3 rainbow runner. Rainbow runner have got to be one of the best eating fish there is but unfortunately one doesn’t see so many around anymore.

The 3rd was a good day for all of our boats which were fishing. Eclare had a black marlin, 2 sailfish and a tuna. Unfortunately the black marlin was savaged by bull sharks right next to the boat and a big chunk was taken out of it. As I have said before “the banks” at this time of year is one place you do not want to fall into! Tina out on their first day of the season produced a black marlin for Rick Le Monnier which they tagged and released. Neptune didn’t have any luck on the marlin front but they did miss a couple. However they caught four sailfish and a mixed bag of smaller gamefish including a 14.7 kg greater barracuda.

Neptune had a lot of action on the 4th with a real mixed bag of fish. 3 sailfish, 2 kingfish, 1 wahoo, 1 barracuda,1 yellowfin tuna, 4 kawa-kawa and 3 frigate mackerel really is a bit of everything! Tina was out on a short day on the 5th with a nice Italian family. The father, a very keen fisherman, was introducing his two young sons to the game. The boys were very happy with a sailfish, a yellow tail trevally and a tuna. On the 8th Neptune had 6 sailfish, 2 kingfish,1 wahoo, a tuna and some baitfish.

On the 9th Neptune was out with long time stalwart Guy de Raeymacker from Belgium. He landed a very nice kingfish of 17 kgs and tagged and released two sailfish and a giant trevally. Guy fishes with us twice a season and this is his first time to come in September. On the 10th Eclare was our only boat out. Once again it was an action packed day and they ended up with 2 sailfish, 1 wahoo ,1 yellowfin tuna, 2 barracuda and 2 garfish. Neptune has been running very well touch wood, and Angus is getting used to believing in computers! Snark is still out of the water but is coming on fast and we hope that she will go in at the end of the month. Bookings are still thin on the ground for October and even November which is normally one of our top months. Having said tha,t we still have quite a few free days in February as well. So to those of you who are still thinking of coming out let me twist your arm a little more!

We have all been struck with the Rugby world cup fever here and with the games all being morning ones due to the time difference, I fear that work will be jeopardized for the next month or so!

This season we hope to update our face book page on a more regular basis so those of you who would like to know what is being caught daily check it out.

That’s it for now so until next time take care.

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 31ST AUGUST 2011 NEPTUNE IS BACK ON THE HIGH SEAS AS MARLIN MAKE A LATE APPEARANCE ON THE BANKS.

Dear All,

After a long four months Neptune is ready to ply the high seas again. We have had a few teething problems but she is now raring to go and needless to say Angus and the crew are chomping at the bit. Angus hopes to go out today for a few hours on a test run with the kids.

The fishing is still good, with more black marlin making an appearance in the last two weeks. Unfortunately they have been rising quite late in the day and most of the time our boats are on their way home by that time. The Watamu boats have had some good action however, with both Unreel and Alleycat catching two blacks each on Monday. Last week most days saw at least one a day being caught. There are still quite a few sailfish about as well, although not in the same numbers as we have been seeing them. Eclare had a good run last week with at least three, for four days in a row. A few yellowfin tuna are starting to show as well, which is good news.

The weather has generally been good with the odd shower here and there. It is definitely getting hotter by the day which is normal for this time of year.

On the 13th August David Hewitt and his two young sons did a short day on Eclare. It was an initiation into deep sea fishing for the young guys, and although one did get very sea sick they have definitely been hooked. Five sailfish was enough to win them over. On the 18th Snowgoose, out on a short day, had three sailfish and some bait fish. She had three again on the 19th while Eclare had a day of losing fish. They lost a marlin, a giant trevally and other bits and pieces. On the 20th Snowgoose had a very busy day, catching eight sailfish and a wahoo with Herbert and Monica Lewald on board. Eclar,e fishing with Greg Mutch had four sailfish and a dorado.

The 21st was the first of seven days on Eclare for Peter Wahl, Jan Lange and Albi. Peter Wahl is the editor of Global Angler, a well known German fishing magazine. He is also a very talented photographer and some of the pictures he got on this trip were first class. He got pics of fish at angles that I didn’t know existed! They had an action packed trip with twelve sailfish and an assortment of other fish including giant trevally, wahoo, kingfish, barracuda, tuna etc,etc. The only two missing from there list were marlin and shark.

Greg Mutch, fished his usual four days and although he didn’t have any luck with marlin he did get plenty of other fish. He also had the pleasure of following a humpback whale in close proximity. This time of the year is the best time to see whales but one cant always get too close to them. It is now later in the day, and Neptune did go out for a few hours and all went well. Angus is generally very happy with the performance of the engines. There was great excitement on the boat as Alister caught his first sailfish on his own. Not bad for a six year old! It was drinks all round after he rang the bell at the club. Tina is back in the water now so it just leaves Snark and Malachite on dry land.

September is generally very quiet for us but we do have the odd booking so hopefully I will have something to report back to you with in the coming weeks.

That’s all for now from us here in Malindi.

Take care,

Adrian

KINGFISHER NEWS UPDATE 3RD JULY 2011 THE 2011\12 SEASON IS LOOMING!

Dear All,

The off season is nearly over. Hotels are re-opening, Malindi is bustling once again and more fish are appearing. What rain we had has come to an end and the weather is perfect at the moment with mild clear days and slightly cooler nights. The wind is stronger than it was in May but not strong enough to make the seas unpleasant. On the fishing side we managed to pick up a few days in June which was good. Eclare went back into the water at the beginning of the month and she did her first day on the 12th. Snowgoose came out at the same time and she has joined Neptune and Tina on the slip way. Neptune’s new engines are about to be installed and we hope that by the end of July she will be ready. As well as new engines Neptune has had a complete new paint job. Snowgoose will start fishing around the 20th July and Snark will then come out for her tarting up session.

On the whole the fishing was good in June. Unfortunately no marlin were caught but most days saw boats coming back with at least one sailfish and a mixed bag of wahoo, kingfish and tuna. Bas and Edwin Kanters fished three days in the middle of the month on Eclare and every day was action packed with sailfish and smaller game fish keeping them entertained. Snark and Eclare were both out yesterday with a group from China. They were only out on five hour trips but Snark still managed to get two sailfish and Eclare one. The fishing at this time of year is all down on the banks due to the weather. A dinghy fishing down there a few days ago lost a marlin and saw another one so hopefully they are starting to come in now. The banks is so exciting at this time of year when the black marlin move in. One can often have at least three marlin up in a day. Off course a lot depends on the bait situation as the predators are there for the food. I hear that there are a lot of kawa-kawa and frigate mackerel there at the moment. We have a few bookings this month so lets hope the fishing gets better and better.

That’s all for now from Kingfisher and until next time keep well.

Adrian