David Slater's Fishing News Letter 2008/09

Strong winds blow after Easter.

The south wind has started to blow really hard after the weekend, but luckily the Saturday held fine for the Watamu Easter competition, although it started to get rough in the afternoon, and the boats came in for a 2pm finish as many of the family competitors were young.
Geoff Bell skippering his own boat Tamu led the field with a sailfish, caught by 13 year old Cameron who also won the Boys prize, seven dorado a wahoo and a skipjack. Alleycat made second place fishing Brad Fuller and friends, fourteen yellowfin tuna, four dorado and three bonito keeping the anglers busy, while third place went to the team on White Dove, the Taylor family with Severine Devally and 8 year old Leon Crose, who won the prize for the largest fish, a sailfish, caught by a boy under 12. Clare Taylor's sail won the largest fish by a lady, and Joey Taylor the under 12 girl's prize, while Jodie Thomas caught a giant trevally for the over 12 girl's prize.
Great prizes were sponsored by Ocean Sports Resort, Capt Andy's and Geoff Bell, and with ten boats competing it was a most enjoyable family day.
The Sunday was calm again in the morning, and Hugo Simmonetti with a sailfish on Matamu was the winner in the Kilifi Easter Frolic competition, although the wind was blowing hard by afternoon. Otherwise only dorado were caught, but fun fishing for all.
The fishing season is coming to a close now, with most boats coming out of the water for servicing, and we cannot expect a lot of action now till July – let's hope that the coming season is as good as the one now closing. Last week I mentioned skipper Callum Looman's score for marlin this season as 106, mostly black marlin and striped with some blues, the best ever for the north coast, while one has to look back to the 1998/99 season at Shimoni where the striped marlin run was incredible, and skippers Khadi on White Otter and Simon Hemphill on Kamara both beat the hundred mark with Pat Hemphill on Broadbill almost there on 96. Perhaps next season both the south and north coast will click together for this coming year – Kenya has some of the best sport fishing in the world and the figures to prove it. Let's hope the tourists keep coming as we recover from a slow season.
This will be the last article for this season – interesting to note that this completes ten years in this series, thanks to the encouragement and sponsorship of Capt Andy's. Interesting to note, my first caption in Sept 1999 was 'Fantastic fishing' while the editor preferred 'Overnight trip yields good catch' – three boats ran to the North Kenya Banks for 23 broadbill swordfish, a blue marlin and 64 yellowfin tuna over 20kgs! Still 'fantastic fishing' ten years on!

Still a few billfish around to lure anglers

Not a lot of boats out recently, although with the Easter holiday starting and a couple of club tournaments there should be more action this coming week. But the weather continues good, calm with gentle breezes and little sign of rain at Watamu yet. Despite the wind changing into the south-east, there are still marlin in the Rips, with Contagious, a big catamaran fishing from Watamu, finding a blue marlin one day and a stripey the next for the South African anglers. Alleycat, having heard that Adnan, with Marco Brighetti from Lamu had caught a marlin near the mlango, tried a right turn fishing south from Watamu with lures and was rewarded with a black marlin on a lure, whereas their live baiting efforts on previous days on the Banks, the customary marlin area, had been unsuccessful. White Dove had a nice yellowfin of 25kgs, and a giant trevally the same size the next day, while there are plenty of small tuna and dorado to be found. White Bear, with Alex and Robin James, had a good day early in the week, tagging a striped marlin and two sail, and Ol Jogi with a sail and three yellowfin of 22, 38 and 41kgs kept Peter and Paul Cooper and Michael Jones busy. Up at Malindi earlier, Neptune enjoyed a good day, Mike Reid and Melvin releasing a 110kg black marlin, with ten yellowfin, three wahoo, three kingfish and five dorado. Billy Lynch from Nairobi, a keen fly fisherman, tagged a sailfish on fly with Snowgoose, while Eclare also had a big sail, 42kgs, for Leonardo Krucker, and another sail two days later with plenty of yellowfin. Neptune this Tuesday found masses of yellowfin, catching 26 off Malindi, most of these trips just half day now. The Watamu /Malindi area and north has had probably the best year for billfish ever. Skipper Angus Paul with Neptune's sailfish tally is nearly up to 800 with 67 marlin, while equally amazing skipper Callum Looman has had over a hundred marlin and over 600 sail. Capts Pete Darnborough (Alleycat) and Rob Hellier (Unreel) are not far behind, and as thirty marlin has been a good score in recent years, it is fantastic to see these figures. Back at the end of 2008 boats in some closed tournaments with overseas teams averaged twelve to fifteen sail per day at Malindi and Watamu, while further north at Kiwayu similar incredible scores underlined how good the fishing was – with this sort of fishing, Kenya ranks with anywhere in the world. Tourism numbers were disappointing however, as it takes a long while to recover after disasters like the last election, but a number of clubs and associations who cancelled their scheduled angling visits to Kenya this last season must be regretting missing such outstanding sport. A Watamu club competition will be held on Easter Saturday, while Kilifi have their annual Easter Frolic on the Sunday – emphasis in both is on families and kids, who should have fun with plenty of small fish around – report next week.

Billfish move on as season slows

With April upon us the main fishing season will draw to a close soon, as, despite the wind not being able to make up it's mind what it is going to do, the billfish, the marlin and the sail, seem to have gone on their way in their annual migration. The wind appeared to have changed into the south, and there was a shower of rain last weekend, but then it settled back east and yesterday was blowing firmly from the north-east again. But the signals are there,and at Watamu only one sail and no marlin have been caught in the last week, with a similar situation at Malindi. Neptune, however, fishing up to the North Kenya Banks had more action, finding a black marlin and a sail at the beginning of the week on their way to Lamu. Returning, they had a successful night with two broadbill released, one a fine fish around 100 kgs, then live baiting the next morning they released three black marlin and a sail before returning to base, a very successful trip for Peter Holdsworth. Shows that there are usually some fish somewhere – the problem is locating them! But there are still plenty of small fish to keep anglers busy, and a day with tuna, dorado and wahoo is fine for the passing tourist, but clients are hard to find now although there should be more locals down for the Easter holiday. Adam Ogden has been keeping his family busy in his boat Tengesi, with five dorado, two wahoo and three yellowfin as a typical day, while the Cooper family from UK out in Ol Jogi, had a very big yellowfin at 60 kgs, plus a pile of smaller ones with dorado as well. Hands-on fishing in his Sesse canoe Samvuke is what James Adcock specialises in, very successfully as a day for Peter Cooper showed with a dozen yellowfin and the same number of dorado, or felusi as they are called locally. Fine fighting fish on light tackle, and good eating too. Night trips still yield broadbill, and Castle Lager weighed a very big one at 126kg, bigger than the Kenya record. These are generally judged to be the strongest and hardest fighting fish in the ocean, with many stories of hook-ups at night where the reel ran out of line and the huge fish disappeared over the horizon. With the world record standing over 500kgs, imagine how that would fight! An incredible story from the Friends of Kenya tournament three weeks ago when the anglers on Lascar, which eventually finished second, saw a strike from a striped marlin race line off the reel only for the line to break. Twenty minutes later, a second strike resulted in a hook-up which was more successful, and a striped marlin was fought to the boat, where it was seen the fish had a broken line wrapped round the body and a lure in it's mouth. Yes, it was the fish they had broken off earlier, and after the fish was released the lure was recovered and put up again on the outrigger. A couple of hours later, another strike on that same lure resulted in a blue marlin fought to the boat and released – the fish that won them the prize! At Watamu, there will be an Easter Saturday competition at Ocean Sports, with the emphasis on ladies and youngsters fishing. At Kilifi, the annual Easter Frolic is a fun day with most of the local boats fishing families on Easter Sunday – with the present calm weather likely to hold, and plenty of yellowfin, dorado and wahoo around, these should provide an opportunity for holidaymakers to have fun and fill the freezers for the off season!

Hot and little wind but fish keep on

With very little wind from the east, and rising temperatures, conditions are not ideal for fishing but the fish are there and still coming up, as was evidenced this Wednesday when Seyyida came back to Watamu from the Rips with a black and a striped marlin, some tuna and several big dorado, while Ol Jogi had released a blue marlin estimated at 130kg and a shark and weighed a dozen yellowfin running up to 20kg. A few days ago skipper Ali al Harazi caught a 62.5kg amberjack on Ol Jogi fishing on the bottom, a huge size for this species – interesting as they come up fighting from the depths, unlike the giant grouper which are blown up by their air bladders and just float up to the surface. This fish was not far short of the world record, and four times the All Africa record! While trolling lures from a moving boat is the usual form of sports angling here in Kenya, in many parts of the world such as Britain and Europe bottom fishing is the main form of the sport, but here it is usually done to liven things up when surface fishing is slow, like on hot sultry and windless days, when the fish go deep. There are still some sailfish at Malindi, with the Kingfisher boats finding one or two most days, but there are yellowfin tuna, wahoo and dorado to be caught as well, but the marlin run is definitely slowing from the amazing fishing of recent months. However Neptune on a four day run up to Lamu found good sport on the way home , releasing a blue marlin and a sail in the afternoon, then getting four broadbill swordfish in the night, with the two best estimated at 60 and 50 kg. Adding a black marlin the next morning on the run into Ngomeni, this gave them a super grand slam, which they have already achieved a few times this season. In the Rips, with the marlin and sail harder to find, big tuna can make for a busy day , with White Dove coming home with five yellowfin averaging 24kg – much the same size as the average sailfish but they make for a much harder, if less spectacular, fight. Simba on a night trip with Chris Williams, released three broadbill, so more of these fish coming up now that there is no moon. Seastorm tagged a good black marlin, estimated at 180kgs, as well as a sail for Luca Montanelli fishing here with well known fishing writer Alex Giangio, while Alleycat and Mlango Wasi have also had black marlin this week. Ocean Sports are hosting an Easter Saturday Family fishing competition, with emphasis on kids and ladies. With additional sponsorship from Capt Andy's and Geoff Bell this should be a good days fun to get the whole family involved, and if the yellowfin and the dorado are plentiful as well as some billfish, time to get those youngsters involved!

Great catches and big fish continue

With the wind still blowing firmly from the north-east, the great fishing seen in recent weeks continues, and as happens often in March, some big fish are being caught. The annual 'Friends of Kenya' two days and a night tournament fished from Hemingways at Watamu, was again sponsored by Aggreko, the company whose huge generators help supply the shortfall in power in Kenya. Thirteen boats set out Wednesday morning, many to fish the North Kenya Banks south of Lamu while the remainder chose to stick to the Rips twenty miles offshore from Watamu. Some early reports came in of marlin caught, but many boats were out of radio range and only by Thursday afternoon was it clear that the team on Alleycat, Joss Taylor, Tony Stenning and skipper Pete Darnborough were clear winners with a super grand slam of a huge 350kg black marlin, a 300 kg blue marlin and a striped marlin, all three caught by Joss on the first day, and three sailfish, with all the fish released. They had tried hard for the broadbill at night for the fantasy slam but luck was not with them there, as the one strike failed to stick. Runners-up were Chris and son Simon Venn and Dudley Wintle all from South Africa, fishing on their private boat Lascar, with a blue and two striped marlin and a sailfish – they had decided not to try the night shift but had enough points to push the White Mischief team of Andy Thomas, Nick Michaelides and Richie Moller into third place with their two black marlin and three sail by a narrow margin. Unreel scored a blue, a black and two sail for fourth, closely followed by White Bear with a black and four sail – while the team on Simba of Gai Cullen and Jeremy Block, who were fishing only fly tackle had three sail which scored treble points by this method of fishing, did well for eighth place. Aggreko boss Robin James in a short speech congratulated the organisers and emphasized how much all the competitors had enjoyed the event, as well as how lucky we were in Kenya to have such fantastic sport fishing. A fantasy slam was achieved on Tega this Tuesday, with angler Barry Milburn from England and skipper Steve George, the second in a month following that on Unreel. Originally scheduled as a day trip to the North Kenya Bank, they tagged a striped, a blue and a black marlin and two sail, and then decided to extend to try the night fishing and duly released two broadbill swordfish to record this amazing feat of all five major billfish in the 24 hour trip – truly something to brag about in the bar, and they had the photos to prove it with all the fish released. Well done them! Two big fish landed recently – Neptune was live baiting at Watamu Canyon area, having lost a very big fish there two days earlier, and successfully released a black marlin estimated at 150 kgs early. Continuing with some fresh yellowfin baits, they then hooked into a huge fish, another black, which after a two hour struggle had obviously died and sunk to the bottom. Eventually pumped up to the boat, luckily on heavy 60 kg line, it was seen to have been foul-hooked near the tail and then wrapped in the leader. This pulled the scales down to 350kgs, a magnificent catch for angler Ronny Neven. A few days later John Sutton fishing on White Bear with skipper Ali al Harazi caught a very big blue marlin, weighed in at 299 kgs, another great catch. Perhaps a grander, over a thousand pounds, is out there waiting?

Marlin still around for the Watamu tournament

Good weather held steady for the Watamu Festival tournament last weekend, sponsored by Fly540, with a steady north-east wind and plenty of marlin were seen, though not all hooked, naturally! After the first day on Saturday, Spoit, a small 20ft outboard craft was in the lead, with two striped marlin tagged, as well as a couple of wahoo and two dorado, for the team of Richie Moller, the owner, Nick Conway and Royjan Taylor. Several boats had a single marlin, so the field was wide open for the second day. The Spoit team were unable to improve however, leaving it for the Tarka team of Phil Revett, Batian Craig, Reggie Avery and skipper Callum Looman to add two more stripeys to the single they had on the first day for an overall total of three marlin to clinch the winning spot. Second was White Mischief, crewed by Andy Thomas, Nick Michaelides and Dany Haller, who added a stripey to the one they had the first day, as well as a sailfish and a dorado – and it was that one dorado which placed them ahead of third boat Unreel, also with two stripeys and a sail, fished by Geoff Bell, Wayne and Ross Kaiswetter, Brendon Barnes and Vernon van Wick. Spoit won the prize for the best small boat as well as fourth overall, while Don Smith, who released a black marlin from Ol Jogi estimated more than 200 kgs on the second day, took the award for the best fish. Twelve marlin were caught in total, and Don Smith, CEO of Fly 540 who generously sponsored the tournament with a splendid array of prizes, fishing tackle and air tickets, spoke of how lucky Kenya was to have such amazingly good fishing. This Wednesday a dozen boats headed out from Hemingways for the 'Friends of Kenya' tournament, a two day and a night event, unique in our calendar as the night fishing enables the anglers to target broadbill swordfish. There are also double points for fish caught on fly tackle, another unique feature. Several marlin were reported the first day, but many boats were out of range on the North Kenya Banks, so results next week. Seyyida came in recording three black marlin and a stripey, on the Sunday of the Watamu tournament, but they were not entered – a magnificent catch, never-the-less. Other notable days recently saw Alleycat on an overnight with a striped and a black marlin, three broadbill and three sail, a super grand slam. Tega tagged a blue marlin for Gerry Bruninx estimated at 160 kgs, a good fish, while Seahorse reported an interesting story when two live baits with circle hooks were taken one after the other, but when the hook-ups tightened it was seen there was only one fish on the two lines! The black marlin had one of these circle hooks firmly caught in the bend of each side of it's jaw, so easy to release without damage, which is why circle hooks are used. Many skippers find these circle hooks reduce the number of successful hook-ups, so skipper Peter Ready could give a few lessons here, both on technique and sportsmanship!

Variable winds cause variable fishing!

The last two or three weeks has seen the wind varying from the north-east, which is the norm for this time of year, to east and south-east, a direction which affects the billfish, especially in the Pemba Channel. So marlin and sailfish catches have been erratic, but seem to be improving the last few days when the kaskazi, the north-east wind, has resumed blowing strongly.
Despite this there were good catches in the Kilifi Classic, fished last weekend. This annual two day event was kindly sponsored by Weetabix, the Breakfast Cereal Co. who nobly stepped into the breach when the regular sponsors were forced to pull out at the eleventh hour by the international economic crisis.
Twenty boats were entered and the total tally of 11 striped, two blacks and a blue marlin, 35 sailfish (all except two damaged sail released) and a plethora of smaller fish kept the anglers busy, with Tengesi, a small private boat, leading the field on the first day with three striped marlin and a sailfish. Tarka followed with one stripey and three sail, and Simba with a marlin and a sail was close behind. Boats had been allowed to start from any port, and many had fished from Watamu and Mtwapa.
On the second day, everyone had to start from Kilifi, and all the boats steamed out to the Rips hoping for those marlin. Delta, a Mtwapa boat, was first to report a marlin released, and followed this with two more and six sailfish, so added to the two sail they had the first day this brought them from behind and proved to be the winning score for the team of Gina Verey, her brother Malise Graham and son-in-law Rob Fayre, out from England – great for them as they were the winners of this event last year.
Tengesi came second with three marlin and two sail, and Tarka third with a striped and a black marlin and six sail. Simba was fourth, Unreel fifth and Inca sixth, while Tengesi took the award for the best small boat with Shantori, a 17ft dory second in this class. The Weetabix plate was suitably won by Salim Manji, the sponsor, with the best individual effort of one striped marlin and two sailfish. An excellent competition much enjoyed by all.
At Shimoni the southerly wind has slowed down billfish catches during the days, although the night fishing for broadbill swordfish seems unaffected, and Kamara II has had three swordfish in a couple of nights out, but with the wind blowing correctly the last few days an improvement can be expected.
Watamu boats have concentrated on the Rips, and Tarka coming home last Tuesday with flags for five striped and one blue marlin, plus two sail in the day shows why! Seyyida had a good black marlin of 185kgs the same day and a stripey released, Chinook released a blue and Seahorse a stripey, Tega tagged three stripeys, White Bear one stripey and a two sail and B's Nest a stripey and a sail. Not bad for one day's fishing!
Overnight trips have also been productive, with Alleycat and Seyyida tagging seven and six broadbill respectively and Castle Lager and White Mischief five each, the latter releasing a black marlin and three stripeys also.
From Malindi, Tina released three stripeys in the Rips, and Snowgoose had a good run to Lamu, one day getting one striped and one blue marlin and a four sailfish, while adding four broadbill in the night for a super Grand Slam – they had a black marlin on but it fell off!
Let's hope it lasts for the Watamu Festival this weekend.

Albatross wins Malindi Billfish tournament

Fishing had slowed a bit over the weekend when the Malindi SFC. held their annual International Billfish tournament, a two day event preceded on Friday by the Morson Cup light line competition.
This latter is a formula event, using lines only of 10kg strain or less, with the weight of the catch divided by the class of line. Eclare, with Egon Jenke and skipper Musa fishing came first with three sailfish, all caught on 6kg line, followed by the Snowgoose team, also with three sail but caught on heavier lines. A notable catch was a black marlin of an estimated 120kgs from Dave Darnborough's Chinook, caught on 10kg line, a very good effort on this category line.
The two day event was won by the team on Albatross, owner Jody Baker and JJ Nicholas with skipper Mohamed Fadhili, who after a blank first day released three striped marlin the second day to take the top prize. Mlango Wasi, a small private boat fished by owner Jonathon Savage, came in second, with two sail the first day and a striped marlin and another sail on day two, while Zambarani was third with a stripey and a sail.
Tarka spent over two hours playing a huge 92kg yellowfin tuna, but this fish was not eligible to score as the competition is for billfish only! There have been a lot of good sized tuna in the Rips, in the 20-40 kg range, but nothing anywhere near this size recently.
Striped marlin have been the main catch last week, with five in a day on B's Nest fished by Farzeen Jamar the most notable catch, with a couple of sail as well. One or two stripies in the day has been the pattern for those boats which scored, though both White Dove and Tarka have had triples in the week, and there have been some nice fish released, a black marlin on Ol Jogi estimated at 180 kgs and a blue about the same size.
There have been some great days on overnight trips as well. After the fantasy slam recorded last week on Unreel, Egon Jenke in Eclare came very close with two striped marlin, a black marlin, two sailfish and then three broadbill swordfish in the night, with the blue marlin actually on the line and fought for a while till it fell off, a near miss. All this action on the Saturday, while next day returning home they saw nothing!
Castle Lager had five broadbill on an overnight, with a black marlin and two sail, plus four yellowfin totalling 99 kgs, and Alleycat recorded five broadbill, a stripey and a sail – overnight trips are hard work for anglers and crew, but they certainly yield fish!
Neptune went out to try the North Kenya Banks, and on the first day regular angler John Cook released two black marlin, one a huge fish estimated nearly 300 kgs, a striped marlin, three sail, a shark and a couple of big yellowfin. Coming in at night to shelter behind Ziwayu island, the second day was quiet with just three sail and a marlin missed.
The Kilifi Classic is being fished this weekend, while the following weekend sees the Watamu tournament, sponsored by Fly540, always one of the most popular along the coast. The airline is laying on a special flight, so even if you don't fish come for a fun weekend.
By Honeylulu. honeylulu@iwayafrica.com

More amazing marlin feats

More amazing feats this week, a fantasy slam with all five species of billfish in a 24hour trip at Watamu, and a black marlin estimated at 400 kgs at Lamu.
Skipper Rob Hellier in his boat Unreel took three anglers from England out on an overnight trip from Watamu on the evening of 11th Feb. James Francis, Simon Rowe and Dave Clarke wanted to catch a broadbill swordfish, which only feed near the surface at night, so they set off in the afternoon and on the way out to the broadbill grounds about thirty miles offshore, they hooked into a black marlin which was fought and released, estimated at 90 kgs.
During the night they had a number of strikes, with two broadbill caught and released, the larger around 30 kgs, and just before dawn a bull shark of 100 kgs was hooked and released. As day dawned, live frigate mackerel were caught and rigged up as baits swimming behind the boat, and one was taken to reveal a sailfish jumping on the line, while the second bait then also went away to show a blue marlin leaping – a double header! Both these fish were duly fought and released, and everyone was hoping - could the fantasy slam be there?
As the hours passed with no further strike, hopes dimmed but just as the skipper called for the baits to be brought in for the run home at 1pm, a striped marlin lit up with glowing blue fins and tail appeared and took the lure, to be fought and released – the fifth billfish to complete the coveted fantasy slam, achieved only once before, also in Kenya by a team on Simba a few years back. What an exciting trip!
Clueless, skippered by owner Rob Duff, was fishing a party of anglers from England out from Lamu when a live baited frigate mackerel was taken by a huge fish. With Tim Lonsdale on the rod for two and a half hours, the catch proved to be a very big black marlin which they decided to take in and have weighed.
Initial measurements estimated the fish to be about 400 kgs, as the electronic scales were still en route from Malindi where they were being tested by Weights and Measures.
When the scales arrived the huge fish was hoisted, but before it left the ground the weight caused the scales to slip and they crashed to the ground and refused to function! Wait for the story next week!
At Hemingways, youngster Jack Brasher from UK, a keener than mustard seven year old angler went out in Sea Storm with skipper Jack Jackson, determined to catch a sailfish. This he did, unaided, but the story doesn't end there, for he then found himself on the rod attached to a leaping blue marlin! This fish, estimated at 120 kgs, proved much harder work, so with a bit of help from Dad, it was eventually fought to the boat. Both the fish were held and photographed before being released, a memorable day for the young man.
A mum and daughter team, Poppett Hosp and Mel wanted to catch a marlin on fly tackle, a difficult task at best. On B's Nest with skipper Ali al Harazi, they hooked into two stripeys and a black marlin, all jumping but luck was not with them that day. One threw the hook after a while, the next broke the thin nylon tippet while the black, leaping wildly eventually landed on the taut line and broke it! Keep trying!
Most boats are still doing well with marlin and sailfish. Egon Jenke, a regular fisher from Germany out in Eclare, had four sail, then a black marlin and eight sail, a striped marlin and a final day with a black and three striped marlin plus two sail, while another regular on Neptune, Shaun Wembridge, started his trip with two striped marlin and five sail – no wonder these anglers return year after year!

Marlin keep on coming

The fishing just seems to get better as the weeks go by, with February, and it's reputation as the best single month for all billfish, living up to this. At Watamu, Tarka must take pride of place with five striped marlin last Monday, one double header and three singles, and adding in a couple of sailfish this must be a day to keep tongues wagging round the bar and arms extended to their limit!While striped marlin are not as big as their cousins the black and the blue, they probably fight harder for their weight and are totally spectacular with their aerial performances and their vivid colouration in the water. Simba, fished by Mark Smith a regular angler from the UK, has had a amazing run this last week with thirteen marlin and twelve sail, plus three yellowfin tuna over 25kgs in seven days consecutive fishing. Two of the marlin were blacks, with cameraman Ross Samuels getting spectacular footage of one of these jumping close to the boat before eventually being tagged and released. A blue and ten striped marlin completed the tally – it can hardly get better than this! Alleycat released four stripies and five sail, also on Monday, while a couple of days earlier B's Nest found three stripies and a sail for Ken Halberry and J. Hunt to rival two stripies, a blue and two sail for Ian and Cindy Duncan on Ol Jogi. Perhaps the best day was Friday, when sixteen marlin flags were flying on eight boats, while White Bear took Peter Fox to Malindi waters where he caught eight sailfish, three of these on fly tackle. So probably about a hundred marlin caught from Malindi and Watamu in the first eleven days of February, almost all of these released – the sort of figures one might expect with sailfish! Plenty of sail also, with the boats chasing marlin in the Rips catching some most days, and those boats fishing Malindi waters also doing well, Snark took a party of young Austrians out for their final day and recorded eighteen sailfish, with both Snowgoose and Snark getting eight each the previous day. Good to hear favourable reports of Kenya fishing, when regular visitors Kevin Nally and Steve Broddel wrote from Nottingham England to say they with their party of friends had had the best fishing ever out in the Rodwell's Delta and Centa from Mtwapa, with half a dozen marlin and a dozen sailfish caught, and many more lost, while plenty of dorado over 10 kgs were also brought in. We expect they'll be back next year! At Shimoni, there have been some bigger marlin caught and others fought, so as March approaches we might see some records tumbling as this is when the monster blues and blacks traditionally arrive. Broadbill hooked into a blue marlin estimated over 200 kgs on 24 kg line, but when the big fish got wrapped up in the line it was too heavy to pump up from the depths and the line broke. The same day, however, John Carr-Hartley on Kamara II hooked and fought another blue of 165 kgs, also on 24 kg line, sadly the fished died and had to be boated. A couple of days earlier, Broadbill recorded a grand slam with John, releasing a blue estimated at 160kgs on 24kg line, a stripey of 75kgs on 15kg line and a sail – this followed a catch by Jan Baand of a black marlin of 120 kgs on 15kg line the previous day, so several 5:1 catches here, good fishing. With Malindi fishing their International on 21st-22nd Feb, Kilifi their Classic on 28th Feb-1st March, and Watamu their Festival on 7th-8th March, followed by Hemingways 'Friends of Kenya' overnight tournament three days later, a wealth of tournaments for keen anglers, and hopefully a wealth of fish too!

 Tarka team wins Delamere Trophy at Kilifi

The team on Tarka, Deborah Colvile, Ian Long and Barry Hannigan, were in the lead after the first days fishing of the 44th Delamere Trophy out of Kilifi last weekend, with two striped marlin and two sailfish, on a day when the fishing had gone quiet with overcast weather and little wind in the morning. Fourteen boats entered, and most of the fishing was concentrated on the Rips area, about twenty miles offshore.
On the Sunday the Tarka team increased their lead, adding another striped marlin and a couple of sailfish to come home easy winners with 3849 points, well ahead of the second team, Peter Hofmann fishing with the crew of Seyyida, Emmanuel Nasibu and Mjali, who recorded one striped marlin and eight sailfish for 2618 pts. Peter, a regular angler here from Europe, also won the prize for the most billfish released, while the Clueless team of Phil Revett, Robin Sharmel and Rob Duff, placed third with a stripey and two sail.
Andrew Buckoke and Anne Taylor fishing on their private boat Minerva won the award for the best small boat with a stripey, a sail and two good dorado of 14 and 12 kgs, and they were fourth overall. The big dorado gave Anne the hardest fight of the day, taking half an hour on 24 kg line, outdoing both the marlin and the sail!
It was very satisfying for Deborah Colvile, who has generously sponsored this tournament for many years, to win at last, as in recent years she has come close, with second, third and fourth places, and the weekend was much enjoyed by all.
Down south at Shimoni the boats have been having mixed fishing, as when the wind swung back into the south for a couple of days the fish became very shy, but with the north wind blowing securely again, Broadbill had a good day with two stripeys and a blue marlin for the Ages brothers. It was Kamara II's turn a couple of days later to catch a stripey, as did White Otter while Jasiri found a blue marlin.
Jasiri and Shuwari ran out to the offshore seamount outside Pemba for a night trip, and while they found no marlin they both caught broadbill, with the latter boat fighting an estimated 100 kg fish for two hours before tagging it – broadbill swordfish have a well deserved reputation as the hardest fighters for their weight in the ocean.
Last Monday, the weather seemed inauspicious with thunderstorms around, but Broadbill ended the day with a stripey and a sail, while Kamara II excelled with three stripeys, but the next day the marlin had vanished although the boats found sailfish.
The good fishing in the Rips off Watamu continues though the strange weather makes for variable sport, while the plentiful sailfish off Malindi provide an alternative target. Wednesday saw fourteen marlin caught in the Rips, one of the best days, with Albatross flying three marlin flags, and the previous day Seahorse was top scorer with three stripeys, although some boats failed to score. On Monday Seyyida found a black marlin, two stripeys and a sail, while Tega released a big blue marlin of 175 kgs. A few days before, Axel Sorensen, a regular visitor who now is trying fly fishing, caught a striped marlin and four sail on fly tackle on B's Nest for a memorable experience.
Neptune, with regular Guy Raeymaecker, caught seven giant trevally and two grouper jigging near the bottom, then ran to the Rips for a blue marlin and a sail, while Eclare with Gordon Elder released a good black marlin of 150kgs and three sail, so some exceptional catches continuing.

Broadbill bounty for night-time anglers

Billfish continue to be plentiful in all areas, but with February nearing, when many international anglers converge on Kenya, there has been renewed interest in fishing for broadbill swordfish. This is done at night, preferably in dark moonless conditions, either by trolling lures enhanced by light-sticks, which glow in the dark waters, or by drifting squid at various depths, also with light-sticks near the bait.
Neptune returned on Monday with five broadbill and two striped marlin after an overnight trip, with one of the swordfish weighed at 88.6 kgs, a big fish for which a record is being claimed for the European club member. They were fishing outside the Centre Mlima, one of the nearest spots where these fish are found.
Unreel followed this Thursday coming in with six broadbill as well as a black marlin, so with this sort of fishing one can expect more anglers to concentrate on the night fishing, and even some attempts on the world records on fly tackle, all of which are held in Kenya at present.
The exceptional run of sailfish off Malindi continues, six boats from Malindi hosting teams of Belgian anglers, and with thirty five sailfish and a striped marlin recorded on the first day prospects are good. Nick Conway took some clients from Holland out in Eclare to catch fifteen sail and two wahoo in the day, while Castle Lager from Watamu found eight sail on a Malindi trip, after scoring a black and a striped marlin in the Rips the previous day, great variety for the South Africans. Peter Betz from Germany caught a black marlin and three sail on Snark, then next day releasing another black of 100 kgs on 15kg line, this being the third marlin for the boat in three consecutive days.
Most boats are fishing the Rips, with Clueless having one of the best days, a blue and three striped marlin released, as well as both Tarka and Instedda finding three stripies in the day. B's Nest tagged a blue marlin estimated at 110kgs plus two stripies with Julian Mills, J. Lowe and R. Minter-Kemp, while Alleycat released a very nice blue marlin, estimated at over 200 kgs, a good fish on 24kg line in a fight lasting under the hour.
Seahorse made a change releasing a mako shark followed by a stripey and seven sail, while some boats vary the scene by bottom fishing in the Rips, for snapper, grouper and amberjack. Interestingly, there are no records for the latter in the Kenya records, while recent fish caught could easily set a new All Africa All Tackle record, although there do not appear to be line class Africa records for this species.
The tagging programme is urgently looking for sponsorship, to buy the special tags which come from USA, printing the catch certificates and providing cash for returned tags, without which many recovered tags can be thrown away. The African Billfish Foundation, which organises the tagging, is a voluntarily run charity doing a very necessary job, providing scientific information needed in research on fish stocks and conservation in our oceans – this must surely be a most deserving cause.

Good variety of fishing with all three marlin around.

The two cyclones round Madagascar seem to be affecting the weather at the coast, with overcast days and varying winds, but the fishing continues good with all three species of marlin being caught as well as plenty of sailfish, both in the Pemba Channel and the Malindi/Watamu areas.
Last weekend saw a tournament sponsored by the Casino Malindi, a new fixture in our fishing calendar, and the first day ended with the experienced team of Phil Revett, Batian Craig and skipper Callum Looman on Tarka in the lead with a black and a striped marlin, two sail and some dorado ahead of the Simba team, with anglers Adam Ogden, Rob Hellier, Mtawali Zia and skipper Mark Allen, with a blue and a striped marlin. Boats were permitted to fish from either Watamu or Malindi, and with the points system heavily favouring marlin, the boats mainly fished the Rips.
Seahorse, fished by Allan Hightower and Ray Ransom who each caught a striped marlin, were lying third, with Clueless fourth scoring eight sailfish.
Fishing slowed however on the Sunday, with the Centre Mlima area, where the marlin had been previously, showing no signs of life, but both Tarka and Simba searched further afield and added a marlin, the former a black and the latter a blue, while Seahorse added a sailfish from skipper Peter Ready. Clueless failed to score, and the other boats also found little the second day.
The final order was therefore the same as that on the first day, with the Tarka team claiming the first prize of three top of the range rods and reels, valued at over $3000, while Adam Ogden took the Top Angler prize for his two marlin and a sailfish, with Ian Cripwol on Clueless getting the biggest billfish award, in this case as all the fish were tagged and released, for the first sailfish reported.
Prizes were awarded in the evening at the Casino Malindi with a good dinner and a very enjoyable party was had by all.
Fishing in the Pemba Channel mirrors that at Malindi, with plenty of sailfish close to shore but anglers choosing to run further out where the marlin are, and finding sail out there as well. Jasiri had a good run with a striped marlin daily for four days, while experienced German angler Helmut Harms tagged a stripey on Kamara II, estimated at 55kgs on 10kg line, a good piece of fishing, then next day, Christoph, Helmut's young son, had a blue of 80 kgs as well as a sail, and with a striped marlin as well the next day a good start to his angling career! A week ago it was very rough in the Channel, but has improved, and on those days boats which miss a marlin seem to have good catches of sailfish.
At Malindi, the Grubbler group from Austria went out in Eclare and Snark, coming back with a striped marlin and sixteen sailfish total for the two boats. The Riaan Groeblar group from South Africa split between three boats for three days, with Neptune in the Rips releasing a black and a blue marlin and three sail first day, while Tina and Snark totalled fifteen sail off Malindi. Next day Eclare found twenty-two sail and Tina ten, so happy anglers there.
Neptune then had another good day, with regulars Herbert and Monica Lewald from Austria, with a blue, a stripey and a sail – only the black marlin eluding them for a super grand slam!
Next weekend the Delamere Trophy will be fished from Kilifi, a good entry is expected and with plenty of action in the Rips we should see some good scores.

Fishing good, but strong winds blowing.

There are still plenty of marlin and sail around, but the strange, overcast weather and strong winds can affect the water causing discolouration and are even beginning to slow the current and push it into reverse, which brings dirty water down from the rivers up north.
But the fish are still being caught in the Rips while plenty of sailfish can be caught off Malindi. From Watamu, Seahorse had one of each of the three marlin species and a sailfish, a super grand slam and a rare achievement – Simba did the same a couple of weeks back so two in a month makes one feel the skippers should call for emergency sandwiches and more beer and fish on through the night for a broadbill swordfish! All five species, the legendary fantasy grand slam, is, of course, no longer fantasy, as Simba achieved the worlds first a few years back, so it would be incredible if this could be repeated, and twice is better than once!
Ol Jogi found two stripies and four sail last Friday, then a stripey next day, and ten sail off Malindi with anglers Simon and Caroline Rickarby a couple of days after that, while B's Nest had a good run with a blue, two stripeys and four sail, following this three days later with two black marlin, estimated at 100kgs and 60 kgs. Unreel had a stripey and a sail on Saturday, interesting as the marlin was eaten on the line by a mako shark estimated at over 200 kgs, which then cruised round the boat but refused all types of bait offered, obviously only enjoying it's meal really fresh! The same boat found a black, a stripey and a sail a couple of days later.
Skipper Jack Jackson in White Bear did the Malindi run one day with twenty two sailfish for angler Yurin Shulyak, then next day found a blue marlin and a sail in the Rips followed by some bottom fishing for snapper and a big grouper of 42 kgs, so plenty of variety in the fishing. Tarka has had four stripeys in the week and White Dove a stripey on Wednesday, so most of the boats are scoring well on a daily basis.
Neptune, after their good run last week, had a few days rest, but returned to the fray Thursday with both a black and a blue marlin by midday, while at Malindi the boats continue to find plenty of sail, but clients are in short supply with tourism have gone quiet after the Xmas rush – this should pick up again at the end of the month.
Down in the Pemba Channel the Shimoni boats are also finding marlin, but not as many as they would like, and the sea remains rough. Kamara II kicked off last week with two blues, one a good fish estimated at 125 kgs, and two sail, while Pandora had four sail. Broadbill tagged a blue two days later, and a stripey and two sail a few days later, while Shuwari tagged a nice black estimated at 140kgs, having found a sail and a spearfish the day before. The latter species is rare in our waters, and was released estimated at 30 kgs. Jasiri had five sail, Clueless, down from Malindi, had a stripey, while Broadbill also had a stripey and Kamara II released a good stripey estimated at 75kgs for Nigel Mackenzie on 15 kg line, a good catch.

New Year starts well with marlin and sailfish

The fishing continues well all along the Coast, with the Rips off Watamu now producing all three species of marlin, as well as sailfish, and Malindi waters still plenty of sailfish with some black marlin as well.
The Mnarani Fishing Club Xmas competition at Kilifi on 27th Dec was preceded by their traditional Boxing Day auction and 'Bloody Mary' party, where hot dogs and beefburgers, generously donated by Farmer's Choice, were sold to raise money for Kesho, a local educational charity.
Seahorse, crewed by Chris and Steve Outram, with Gordie, Suzie and Cheza Millar, caught five sailfish, to win overall– they started from Watamu and found the first sail at 7.30 am, and caught more all the way down.
Cold Shoulder, with Benjie and Brendan Bowles, joined by Struan and Julia Kiwi, the latter catching two sail for the Ladies Prize, came first in the large boat stream, followed by White Dove, fished by J Durrand and Juma – both boats catching five sail. Sijui, with Bob and Veronica Hammond, had a sail and two yellowfin to win the small boat stream, followed by Tanga Tanga with a sail caught by Rupert Stevens.
Kipapa released a black marlin estimated at 140 kgs, caught on 15kg line by Roland Minns, for which he was awarded the Claudio Borsata trophy for the most meritorious catch – had the fish been killed and weighed in, it would have won the tournament!
Good fishing and great fun for all, with all thanks to sponsors the Cavanagh and Silvester families. Next at Kilifi will be the Delamere Trophy in a fortnight's time, one of the oldest and most prestigious tournaments along the coast.
A new tournament, sponsored by the Malindi Casino, will be fished next weekend, Jan17th -18th, with boats weighing in at Malindi or Watamu. With $10,000 of fishing tackle prizes, this will be one worth going for!
Boats from Watamu are now fishing the Rips daily, and some impressive catches, indicated by the black, blue and green flags for the different marlin, with red for sail, have been made. Seahorse had three blacks one day, and two another, while Neptune found a blue and a stripey and four sail on Wednesday, with a black and a stripey the previous day, and two stripies and five sail then a blue and two sail the two days before – impressive fishing.
Tarka, having tagged a black marlin, had an interesting catch of three amberjack while fishing on the bottom. The two biggest weighed 39 kgs each, strong fish which have to be battled to the surface from nearly 200 metres down. Alleycat came in with a 110 kg black marlin, caught by skipper Pete Darnborough when his client failed to show,which was boated as it damaged itself against the side of the boat, while brother David Darnborough in his Chinook found a shoal of striped marlin and tagged three of them. A few days before, Alleycat had a black and two striped marlin, plus a sail, with private boat Tamu finding a blue marlin, and Castle Lager tagging four sail.
From Hemingways, Gunther and Kay Weipert tagged a blue marlin of about 100 kgs, as well as a stripey half that size, on Ol Jogi, and on the same boat Omar and Kareem Derbas had fourteen sailfish followed by a 48.5 kg broadbill on an overnight trip, a nice fish the anglers want to mount for their wall.
At Malindi Tina had five sail plus a black marlin from among the sailfish shoals, while Eclare had a black plus three sail and Snowgoose a stripey and two sail – still sailfish around there but not as many as before. The strong north winds are starting to push down dirty water towards the Watamu Banks, let's hope this improves.

Marlin appear for the Watamu Xmas Comp

It was an interesting tactical situation for the Watamu SFC Xmas tournament, sponsored by Yamaha Marine and Capt Andy's and fished out from Ocean Sports, as skippers had to decide whether to chance their arm in the Rips, where marlin had been seen in the few days before the competition, or to go for the plentiful sailfish in Malindi waters where consistent catches of ten to twenty a day have been the norm for the past six weeks. With a tagged and released marlin scoring the same as ten sail the question in the Rips was 'would it be our lucky day?' But many boats decided to take the gamble, and Ryan Williamson in White Mischief hooked into a very big black marlin on 24kg line, after it had first had a go on two big lures on the heavy rigs on the tag lines. After three and a half hours he did not seem to have made much impression on the fish, estimated over 300 kgs, which kept down deep consistently behind the boat after some long initial runs, one of which had the spool showing through the few remaining strands of line! But suddenly the fish came up and charged the boat like an express train, and the startled angler, reeling furiously, wound the swivel to the rod tip, thus defining a 'catch'. Then it continued thrashing against the side of the boat and released itself to score the 8000 points for a released marlin. The team continued to work the water between the Centre and South Mlima, and 13-year-old Danny Thomas hooked and played another black marlin estimated at 75kgs to double the days score. This gave them a good lead over the team on Neptune which had steadily caught sailfish all day off Malindi to end up with fifteen sail released, while Unreel was lying third with a striped marlin and three sail. Alleycat and Seyyida had a marlin each, and Tarka with nine sail was not far behind. The second day again saw Neptune piling up the points with sailfish, while none of the first day leaders in the Rips managed to find another marlin. Then suddenly at 3.25pm just as lines would have been pulled in for the 4.30pm finish, a big striped marlin appeared behind White Mischief and grabbed a lure, and young Danny beat his elders to the heavy rod, tightened the drag and muscled the fish to the boat in ten minutes. Engines flat out, and the boat roared home with only a few minutes to spare – but this third marlin clinched first place for the team, winning the Graham Warren Memorial Trophy, while his two marlin gave Danny the Young Angler prize. As the winner of the 55hp Yamaha engine was the sponsor's team, the engine was auctioned for the benefit of ACTS, Assisting Children to School. a Mombasa charity often supported by Capt Andy's. Angus and Adrian Paul, Brendan Hill,Justin Larby and Jeremy Hill on Neptune took second place, with an overall total of twenty-eight sailfish, while the Parkinson family on Blue Eyes, with a stripey and five sail after little on the first day, came from behind to make third place, ahead of Unreel and White Dove. Chloe, on Tamu with four sail won the Ladies Prize, and Adam Ogden's team on Tengesi won for the best effort on a small boat. With nine marlin and 107 sail, a most successful competition for the twenty-one boats. Ironically, Simba, always a top performing boat, found little in two days of the competition, but the day after came in with flags for a black, a blue and a striped marlin, and a sailfish, a super grand slam – but a day too late!

Watamu Xmas Tournament at Ocean Sports

It's the Christmas season again, and the annual Watamu SFC tournament, sponsored by Capt Andy's and Yamaha Marine, will be fished on the 28th/29th Dec out from Ocean Sports – and with the plethora of sailfish which we have had for several weeks now continuing, anglers can expect two days of non -stop activity on the rods!
With the abundance of sailfish the rules have been adapted to score highly in favour of marlin, and as these fish are mainly spasmodic in with the sailfish shoals, the lucky angler who hooks one will accumulate points equivalent to ten sail. This should leave the competition wide open till the end, so fun for all, and with a handicap in favour of smaller boats, there will be plenty of excitement at the weigh-ins, daily at Ocean Sports from 4pm on.
At Kilifi, the Mnarani Fishing Club host their Xmas tournament on Sat 27th Dec from the Kilifi Boatyard, and with all the sail about this should be well supported as usual.
Alleycat, in Malindi waters, had twenty two sail on Monday and twenty on Tuesday, and the next day they explored further afield but still got some some sail and experienced a good fight with a black marlin, which won the battle and got away. Private boats have been doing well, Adam Ogden in Tengesi notched up fourteen sail, Tamu found eight one day and four a couple of days later, and Tasha scored seven with Castle Lager tagging nine, so shows that it is not only the big professional boats that do well.
Fly fishing has become popular, and with so many fish to practice on the anglers with the long wands are increasingly hooking up and tagging their fish. Richard Baudry has twice caught eight and the Cullens seven and six, while Simon Kaye on B's Nest tagged four. On traditional tackle, the Edwards family on White Bear with skipper Jack Jackson weighed a black marlin of 62.5 kgs and released fifteen sailfish, quite a day! Ol Jogi also had an amazing day with Nick Cox, tagging a black marlin, five sail and five Giant trevallies to show it is not all sailfish!
As nearly all the sportboat caught fish are released, it was interesting to hear that one skipper reported seeing a large pod of sailfish swimming on the surface with at least six of them sprouting tags to show they had been released.
Some Malindi boats have moved to Watamu, with the strong north winds making for a rough anchorage up there, and Neptune and Seahorse have come back with outriggers full of flags. But sad news from Malindi, where commercial boats setting nets capture up to fifty sailfish in a night per boat, and with more than a dozen boats working it hardly needs Einstein to work out the maths. Sources also report that the ring netting boats are at work bringing in two tons of reef fish each in a days work – one must wonder if this sort of massacre of fish is sustainable and what will be left for next year?

Fishing remains good everywhere

It is turning out to be one of the best fishing seasons ever, with the sailfish remaining plentiful everywhere, striped marlin starting to be found daily in the Pemba Channel, and now a couple of blue marlin caught in the Rips off Watamu, with some black marlin missed, so there is something for all tastes and with the holiday rush starting in earnest, boats should keep busy for the next few weeks.
Watamu boats are still filling both outriggers with red flags, Tarka catching twenty seven in the day with Don Metcalfe on the rods - Don is a regular visitor, who I recall releasing a huge shark one year and tagging a marlin over 250kgs another. He is also a fishing writer, so his west country readers in the UK will have a amazing story to banish the freezing weather blues there! And next day the same boat tallied twenty-eight sail for some tourist visitors.
Last Sunday Chris Deane in Unreel found an 80kg blue marlin in the Rips as well as a sail, so next day Nick Cox on Ol Jogi opted to try the Rips as a change from all the sail off Malindi, and was rewarded with a big blue marlin estimated at 140 kgs and a couple of sail as well. The former boat had a huge tally of 23 sail for Andrew Nightingale on Jamhuri Day, which was obviously an exceptional fishing day as White Dove tagged eleven sail with David and Valerie Hall while White Bear improved Richard Baudry's fly fishing sailfish score by eight, and crewman Anderson caught another. Simba tagged six sail on fly with Christa and Gray Cullen and McCallan Grove sharing the honours, and B's Nest, not to be outdone, flew nine 'sail-on-fly' flags for Garry and Gai Cullen to complete an astonishing day for the Hemingways fleet.
Much the same story at Malindi – sailfish, and more sailfish! The Pope's Trophy, fished for the Alister Educational trust, had nine teams fishing in as many boats, with the team on Eclare, Justin Larby, Anthony Cheffings, Rob Ward and Richard Edwards winning with nineteen sailfish, followed by the Ladies team on Tina scoring 17 and the Alleycat team third with 14. The lowest placed team had seven sailfish, a winning score in previous years, so fun for all.
Neptune and Eclare have both had successful runs overnight, the former with two broadbill on the North Kenya Banks and the latter five going south to the Vipingo ledge. Neptune tallied 288 sailfish in November in 27 days out, it can't get much better than that!
At Shimoni about eight striped marlin were tagged last week, and plenty of fish were lost so good action. Stuart and his son Zack Bowen-Davies fished an overnight on Kamara II, losing one stripey and missing two others, as well as a black marlin and four sail, but getting a 58kg yellowfin, then having four strikes from broadbill in the night! They eventually caught a stripey on Broadbill a couple of days after. Ken Dogson and John Levick tagged two stripeys, also on Broadbill, and another stripey next day, followed by two stripeys and four sail on Kamara II. White Otter also had a stripey, Jasiri two sail then Kamara II notched up another stripey for Rene Farber – so it looks as if the stripeys are running well there now and with the kaskazi blowing well the scores can only improve.
At Lamu, Cheza from the Manda Bay Club, fought a huge blue marlin to the boat after three hours on 50 lb line, and released it. Measured in the water, the indication was the fish would have been around 1100 lbs, a magnificent fish, and nice to think it lives on to breed more little marlin!

Striped marlin start in the Pemba Channel

The sailfish are still prolific everywhere, while down at Shimoni some striped marlin have started to show, so with the kaskazi having been blowing for a month now, we can expect a good main fishing season to continue.
Finn and Keld Martensen from Denmark tagged three stripeys with the Sea Adventures fleet of Broadbill and Kamara II, as well as catching sailfish, and Peter Kern also had a striped marlin on Broadbill, having tagged four sail with friend Yves Schumacher from Switzerland the previous day.
White Otter had their best day for some PCFC guests releasing a blue and a striped marlin, as well as a sail, while earlier Jasiri completed a third seamount overnight trip, with two sail, a stripey and a broadbill for Mario, with a small black marlin also jumping on the line but falling off!
At Lamu, they held their Master's Tag and Release Tournament, which is fished under rigid rules – ten kg line, a stationary boat after the hook-up, and points awarded for the time taken to play each fish to the boat. Cheza was the leading boat with 36 strikes, 18 hook-ups, 10 tagged and released and two broken lines, for which points are deducted! Martin was top angler, with 9 releases, and he also hooked a black marlin which became tail wrapped and drowned, losing all points. With playing times of two minutes twelve seconds upwards, this is an excitingly different competition.
Sailfish continue to predominate in the Malindi/Watamu area, with Seahorse ringing the changes with another overnight trip on which Claud Riesch and Christian Zimmer tagged four broadbill, the two biggest both estimated at 40 kgs. It is calm now at night for these trips, but with a full moon approaching one is less likely to raise fish.
Fly fishing has been popular, with two teams of anglers and cameramen from the South African 'WildFly' television series. Brad Cartwright and Gareth George recorded four sail on White Bear and three on B's Nest, while Craig Middleton, Craig Thomason and Colin Taylor were filming three sail on Ol Jogi, all these fish on fly tackle. Watch for it on M-NET in a few month's time!
Marcel and Annick Prot tried two days on B's Nest, achieving four sail on the fly tackle each day, and on Sunday three boats held an informal fly fishing competition, where Garry Cullen released three sail, Jeremy Block two and Richard Baudry one, the latter having just caught his first on fly the previous day! When there are so many sailfish around, a lot of anglers are becoming hooked on this much more difficult, but much more satisfying, style of angling.
The Parkinson family took out their newly arrived 46ft Bertram, Blue Eyes, and returned having caught nine sail on their maiden fishing trip, a good start. Tarka has been busy with recent catches of up to a dozen sail, and White Dove from the same stable had a good day with ten sail and a black marlin. Castle Lager also recorded half a dozen sail one day, and seven more over the next four days, with Alleycat also releasing the half dozen.
From Malindi, Neptune had thirteen sail in the day with Mark Muller from Botswana, and there are good wahoo around too, with a 31.5 kg fish brought in. Snowgoose had two black marlin over two days, a good sign and more marlin would probably be caught if the boats fished specifically for them, but with all the sailfish showing they obviously target these.
The holidays are almost upon us now, and the fleet of small private boats will soon be arriving, some trailered down from Nairobi, so these should have fun if the fishing can continue like is. There are many local competitions, with the Watamu Xmas comp over 28th/29th the major fixture, to keep anglers busy.

Capt Morgan Rum tournament sets new records.

With a total of 488 sailfish, averaging over 12 sail per day per boat, the annual Capt Morgan Rum tournament at Hemingways broke all previous records for this event, where the winners catching the largest fish of many different species in South African waters, both sea and fresh, are treated to a weeks festival in Kenya as their prize. This total is almost five times as great as last years figure, which in turn was nearly double that of the year before, putting these astonishing results in perspective! For the whole week the fish came up fast and furious and hungry, as the teams switched boats daily fishing two days with a day off, then the same again. But it was the team of Kirk Webber, who scored 22 sail, Peter de Stader, with 21 and Graham Ellis who won with a total of 64 fish, just edging out Piet Barnard, top scoring angler with 25 sail and his team mates Lyn Adams, Jaco Visser and Johan Garber with their 62 sailfish total. Heather and John Harvey, previous winners and last year's runners up, with Alan Heydorn finished third in the line-up with 55 sailfish, and while this is not a competition for the boats, who field different teams daily, Tarka was outstanding with 96 sail over the six days, Unreel following with 89 and B's Nest with 76. The event was fortunate in it's timing, hitting the peak period in an amazing run of sailfish, which we all hope can continue over the holidays. The kaskazi however, which has been blowing firmly from the north-east for three weeks, has been switching around for the last couple of days into the south-east, which could presage a change as fish don't like indecisive weather, but this is probably temporary. At Malindi, four teams from Holland fished for four days to aggregate 191 sail, averaging almost a dozen a day per team, the winners being Arie Terlouw and Alex Hogenbirle with 53 sail, while regular Con Jooste fly fishing in Eclare, totalled 28 sail on fly and caught a black marlin as well, on conventional tackle, a pretty satisfying result for a keen regular angler here. Billy Lynch with two friends from Nairobi flew down, staying at the Driftwood on the special weekend package rate, and finished with four sail on Saturday and three on Sunday all on fly tackle, and were back in Nairobi that evening – a fun way to spend the weekend! Seahorse tried a second overnight trip to the Vipingo mountain, and released a nice broadbill of 60kg, while also tagging a black marlin of 50 kgs on the way home. There are marlin around, with Samvuke, the Sesse canoe, releasing a black marlin of 75kgs on the Banks with Nick Hooper from London – and, sadly, several marlin were reported caught in nets from waters outside Mida creek. Some anglers tire of catching sailfish, and good hauls of yellowfin have also been caught – Simba managed over thirty in the Canyon area, small fish around three to four kilos, but the next day the same boat released nine sail all on fly falling to the rods of Garry and Gai Cullen. So plenty of fish up and down the coast.

It's still sailfish everywhere – in spades!

The message is clear – if you are a keen fisherman, get down to the coast quickly! Sailfish are biting everywhere, from Kui to Shimoni – off Malindi especially, where anglers in the South African club Capt Morgan Rum competition out from Hemingways Resort are experiencing some of the best fishing ever on record! So far, 361 sailfish have been caught in four days, for 27 boat days, an average of over thirteen sail per day per boat, with the best day on Sunday averaging over sixteen – all the fish are tagged or released. Two anglers, John Harvey and Peter de Stadler, have tallied ten fish to their own rod in one day, and as there are still two days of fishing left, more records must be broken – full report next week. Last Sunday, the 'Eye Go Fishing' tournament was fished out from Mtwapa, helping raise funds for the Kwale Eye Centre where so much good work is done for those with visual problems. Generously sponsored by Liaison Insurance Brokers, the record sum of almost 431,000/- was raised, and twenty one boats caught a black marlin, forty-six sail (all but two released!) and a host of smaller fish, to make it a record occasion all round. The team on Nala, V.Shah who tagged a black marlin, the heaviest fish, fishing with Peter Mtemi and H.Rowal had eleven sailfish as well, romped home easy winners, ahead of the Delta team, Barry and Catharine Hilton and Francis, with nine sail, of which Barry caught six. The Kipapa team of Howard Lawrence-Brown fishing with N.McKenzie and E.Mwachi tagged five sail for third place, while Dave Williamson on Kamara won the light line prize for his sail on 6kg line. Swee, on Flycatcher won the Ladies prize with her sailfish, while it was encouraging to see so many young anglers, with Kyle Spencer and Oliver Boulton on Inca winner and runner-up for the Junior Angler prize, both with sailfish. A most successful day, many thanks to all the helpers and contributors to this very worthy cause. Further south at Shimoni, Broadbill found four sail and raised a stripey, while White Otter had five sail on Monday and six the next day. Jasiri and Shuwari did the long trip to the off shore seamount where both found a broadbill swordfish as well as a sailfish, and with the strong kaskazi north wind blowing it should not be long before the striped marlin arrive in good numbers there. James Adcock, formerly based at Mtwapa, now specialises in hands on fishing from his Sesse canoe Samvuke at Watamu. Fishing with two anglers from the Capt Morgan group on an off day, Nick Mound caught a 30kg sail on a Rappala lure, then Nick Turpin caught a sailfish on an 8-weight fly rod, released after a 1 ½ hour fight right in front of the Watamu hotels! A first for the angler and for the boat! From Malindi Seahorse spent a night in the South Mlima/ Vipingo area, and had eight broadbill strikes, mostly small fish but the one they did hook up with was released estimated at 32 kg. From the same boat, Thomas Knill caught a 15kg pickhandle barracuda which is being claimed as a world record. Christoph Hubner, fishing in Malachite, got a black marlin of 69 kgs as well as a sail, and the previous day he raised two stripies on the Casuarina ledge, indicating there could be good marlin fishing as well as all the sailfish around, as quite a few marlin have been seen in the sail shoals. Other days, Kamara II, visiting from Shimoni, had fourteen sail and Tina thirteen, while Eclare has been successful with fly enthusiasts, catching four to six sail on this difficult tackle daily. Unbelievable fishing everywhere!

Sailfish biting everywhere

The north-east wind, the 'kaskazi', mentioned last week as just starting, seems to have set in solidly and is blowing firmly every day, which is unusual as it changed very early and suddenly, and normally swings around quite a bit after the initial change. The effect on the sailfish has been dramatic, with these rapier-billed beauties coming up to baits voraciously from Kiwayu in the far north to Malindi especially, and it was at this latter venue that the German Big Game Fishing Club, BGFC-D, held a three day tournament, with seven teams fishing three days hosted by the Malindi SFC. The seven boats caught an amazing total of 149 ½ sailfish, nearly all these fish released with the obvious exception of the 'half', which was shared with a rapacious shark as it neared the boat! One outstanding catch, for which Mr.R.Pils won top angler, was a sail of 48kgs caught on 10 kg line; this is the biggest I have heard of for a long while, and if measured as 105.8 pounds on twenty pound line, this would merit a 5:1 certificate! The winning team was Sailfisher with R.Pils, Ingenfeld and Albrecht, while runners up were the Doc Holiday team, with The Powerschwaben team third. Teams change boats daily, Neptune being the leading boat with 36 sail, the boats averaging seven sail per day! Organised by Martin Joswig of Fishing Adventure and Dietmar Smekar, vice-Chairman BGFC-D, this was easily the best tournament ever arranged by this association from those held all over the world! Germans are very keen fishermen, and were these figures headlined, my guess is they would fill a charter plane overnight hot-footing it to Kenya! Simba went up to Lamu for a trip, taking out a number of different anglers for several days. Monica Nias, a regular lady angler, tallied fifteen sail, while Phil Revett had thirteen and crewman Mtawali six. Other days Gai Cullen, another ultra-keen lady angler, caught three sail on fly tackle, with husband Garry finding five on fly, but just after they left, White Mischief struck amazing fishing at Kiwaiyu. Last Monday, with the Andy Thomas family and friends, the boat went up to Kui to sample the snorkelling off this remote coast, and caught sixteen sailfish on the way there and back on a day mainly spent swimming! Next day they concentrated on the sail, and released thirty-one – quite fantastic fishing, with young Danny Thomas reported as catching almost half of these – his elders and betters no doubt worn out! Tarka top-scored on Wednesday with twenty three sail off Malindi, sailing into Watamu with red flags flapping off every extension – Clueless with fifteen, Ol Jogi with ten and Alleycat with nine were all in the action, while the previous day White Bear scored nine for Pim and Ron Preesman, and Chris Rogers on Unreel had thirteen. Three boats had a round dozen just before this, and private boats doing well also, Lascar with tallies of seven and four and Chui Too with three also finding these fish. Earlier in the week, Castle Lager tagged a black marlin as well as a sail, so these scores speak for themselves, sailfishing as good as anywhere in the world.

Captain Andy's grand opening at new premises

After some heavy falls of rain, last Saturday remained fine for the official opening of the impressive new Capt Andy's Fishing Supply premises in Mombasa, with a spectacular showing of the full range of Yamaha outboard engines, every variety of fishing tackle and boat equipment and a wide rang of fibreglass boats, particularly three models between 19 and 23 feet now locally made in Kenya at the Watamu Mida Creek facility, under licence from Yamaha Japan.
The Creek Marina, which overlooks Tudor Creek and the Old Harbour, between the Tamarind and the old Bahari Club, was the venue for a large gathering of fishing captains, boat owners, anglers and local businessmen, who were addressed by Mr Hirata, Yamaha overseas marketing manager. Mr John Pledger, from the committee of the South African Deep Sea Angling Association, also spoke in praise of the facility which he said rivals anything he had seen in his world wide fishing travels. The hospitality stretched into the evening for a most successful day.
Sports fishing is one of the world's major businesses, worth in the USA alone over $117 billion a year! Kenya has top quality game fishing along our shores to rival any in the world, so this is an important aspect of the tourist industry which we should be emphasizing on the international market. Where else can one catch all five major species of billfish (and all of them in one 24 hour trip, the fabled 'fantasy slam', has been recorded here, a worldwide first!) and watch elephant, rhino, the big cats and fantastic plains game amid spectacular scenery?
Wednesday at Watamu saw the first day of the 'kaskazi', the north-east wind which heralds the change in the seasons from the south monsoon, although so early this might just be temporary due to the rain around in the area, but at Malindi the sailfish responded accordingly. B's Nest, with the Smit and de Haan party, and Ol Jogi from Hemingways came home with tag flags for six and four sail respectively, while Neptune from Malindi scored five after getting eight each day of the previous two. The previous day Unreel found a black marlin of 65kgs with Jonathan and Jeffrey Nagel which was duly tagged, and interestingly David Appleton, out in Ol Jogi a day earlier, found an old net floating in the ocean which had accumulated it's own environment of sea life in it's shade. Twenty dorado and a couple of small sharks made a change in the menu from sailfish!
Striped marlin have just started to appear in the Pemba Channel, and on Sunday Barrie Thomas from Nairobi tagged one from Broadbill , while next day Jasiri had a double header strike although neither stuck, then Broadbill missed two singles, but good news as it shows that they are now there and hopefully we can look forward to a good season!
Significantly, since the trawlers were banned in Malindi Bay area, the local artisanal fishermen are starting to catch some fish again, including reasonable catches of the Malindi herring, tofari,which have not been seen for many years. These were formerly much used to make sailfish baits, and produce good income for local small boat fisherman catching them on the bottom, but which had appeared extinct since the trawling started.
An interesting example of how the reaping of nature's resources must be made sustainable.

Rainstorms at Coast can bring the fish up!

While fishing in the rain is not much fun, the rain itself can turn the fish on and bring them to the surface in feeding mode. Last weekend there was plenty of rain over the weekend in the Malindi/Watamu area, and this Wednesday we heard of a terrific storm at Shimoni, so this must be the short rains – but how short? Some years the short rains in November can be just a couple of storms!
Boats chasing the sailfish in the Malindi waters have had a good few days, with catches running into double figures. David Appleton, fishing in Ol Jogi and B's Nest from Hemingways has scored nineteen sail in four days out, including a fine 30kg sail on fly tackle, his first with the long wand, which has made him very keen! His last day on B's Nest with skipper Stuart Simpson netted him eight sail released, but none of these on the fly rod, which shows how difficult this method can be!
Phil Revett in Tarka came home with six sail tagged, while Instedda, which fishes at weekends with the Moosa family and friends from Mombasa, had six sail on one Sunday, and eight the next, the latter all caught by Michael Foley, and nice to see these boats sailing home with red flags all down the outrigger.
Lascar, a big catamaran with owner Chris Venn from South Africa started his holiday well with a pair of black marlin on their first trip, and has been catching sailfish regularly since – with several weeks to go he should have a busy time with his friends.
Malindi boats are also doing well, Angus Paul on Neptune reporting he had eleven sail last time out, but the tourist hotels are not yet very busy and all the boats could do with more clients.
Shimoni skipper Simon Hemphill took Kamara II on a nine day safari up to Lamu and Kiwaiyu, and started well with four broadbill from eight strikes on a night trip, followed by six sail the next day outside Lamu, but the fishing went off after that, with very dirty green water stretching all the way up to Kiwaiyu and beyond. Fishing then started to improve, with Nils Korschen on Little Toot finding thirteen sail from twenty-five strikes, good fishing and showing that the normal amazing run of sail in November up there might be starting.
Down at Shimoni itself, sailfish are showing off the Funzi area, but hard to hook, with no sign yet of the striped marlin, which should start to show when the wind swings north, perhaps end November.
Bad news is that ring netting is back, with a big net being used on the Watamu Banks, reputed to haul in more than two tons of fish at a throw. In a short time, these nets can empty whole areas of all fish. Some time ago these nets were banned by government edict, with all stakeholders, artisanal fishermen, fishing authorities, sports fishing organisations and conservation movements all agreeing their use was totally destructive and not sustainable.
Now they are back - amazing how the greed of a few rich entrepreneurs can despoil the environment and prevail over the wishes of all other stakeholders!

Will sailfish focus move north to Lamu area?

Fishing went quiet in the Malindi -Mambrui area after the successful days of the Festival, with the fish being harder to find, though both B's Nest with angler Andrew Nightingale on the Monday and Ol Jogi with Mike and Ali Cuthbert on Wednesday found three sailfish, the former boat catching half a dozen yellowfin as well, up to 20 kgs – good fishing by most standards. Mike then asked to have a go on fly tackle a few days later, and caught his first sail on fly, very thrilling!
This week saw B's Nest again having a good day with five sail for David Jones, with Mark and Keaton Taylor – skipper Jack Jackson telling of two multiple strikes with two fish hooked during one and three during another. Other boats weren't so lucky, just raising the odd fish.
November is generally is peak period for the sail run up in the Lamu/Manda Bay/Kiwayu area, where there are not many sports fishing boats operating, but several boats with regular teams of anglers now come into the area every year to sample the amazing run of sailfish, with twenty or more fish in a day being caught and released last year.
Tarka did a six day trip to Lamu, which takes a day each way from Watamu, and ended up with 63 sail released for British angler Paul Worthington – with all that practice no wonder he was able to win the light line tournament at Malindi. Other boats are up there now, but initial reports are of dirty green water and reduced billfish activity, perhaps due to upcountry rains bringing mud down the Tana river, but this can change quickly.
When traditional trolling is unproductive, bottom fishing is an alternative that keeps everyone busy – it can be hard work hauling up amberjack, snappers and grouper from depths of five hundred feet, but Bamara has had some good days. Even better exercise is deep jigging, where special lures are worked up and down near the bottom to produce strikes, particularly effective for amberjack, a species which was only found here recently.
In recent years sponsorship was found to fund the supply of tags for the African Billfish Foundation, but the money has now run out for this. Tagging produces most interesting information on the movements of game fish, and can be invaluable to help scientists control and conserve various species.
It is sad to see some boats just releasing fish without the tags due to the cost of the tags, just over a $1 a tag, and with fuel prices now dropping again, one hopes that all skippers will invest in these tags to help the efforts of the ABF. Better still, perhaps some of the millions of shillings given to sports authorities to hit and kick balls around and run around arenas could find their way into helping the conservation of our natural resources in time to stop foreign commercial interests wiping them out!

Sailfish turned on for Malindi Tournaments 

For a change, the sailfish really turned on for the two tournaments held out of Malindi Sea Fishing Club last weekend. So often fishing is really good just before and just after competitions, while the days of the actual competition are disappointing, so it is good to report that things peaked at exactly the right time this year. On Friday the Churchill Trophy, sponsored by VFS Financial Services of Nairobi and the Driftwood Club, started well in calm seas and gentle breezes, with sail coming up all day and a final total of 25 sail being caught by the seven boats. This was fished to a light line formula, with the weight of each catch divided by the breaking strain of the line on which it was caught. A released sailfish scores 40 kgs, so when divided by 4kg line and using a multiplier of 100, it scores 1000 points. The same fish on 8kg line scores only half this, naturally. Winners were the team on Tarka, Paul Worthington, Callum Looman and Mangi, with seven sail, one on 4kg, one on 6kg and five on 8kg to give them a commanding lead. Three boats then tied on points for the next place, an interesting situation that has never occurred before, but the team which reports the first sailfish caught wins, in this case it was skipper Peter Ready on Seahorse, with Glen and Anne Scanlon and Eddie Ryan all from Ireland, who was able to claim second place for his team. Peter had been out with Bruce Buckland the day before to practice, with Bruce catching three sail on 3kg and 4kg line while Peter had a couple himself on 4kg, so with all these fish in the 25-30kg range, five 5:1 catches in a day! The Neptune team, Russ and son Peter Brumby and Richie Moller were third with two sail on 4kg and one on 6kg - both the former fish were caught by 13 year-old Peter, out from UK on his half term holiday, and this gave him the Champion Angler award – well done young Peter! Bruce Buckland and Andy de Mare on Eclare came fourth with one fish on 3kg and two on 6kg line, although as stated all these three boats shared the same points score. The main tournament was fished on Saturday and Sunday, the wind had got up and by Sunday it was quite lumpy, affecting the fishing as a total of 72 sail the first day as opposed to 26 fish the second day showed. Russ Brumby, Richard Moller and Angus Paul on Neptune, scoring eleven sail the first day and six the second, won overall with these seventeen sail released, just nosing out the team on Unreel of Frank and Flash Tundo and Alistair Cavanagh which was in the lead with twelve sail the first day, but the rally drivers then failed to mesh top gear only finding four the second day and getting pipped at the post! Third was Simba, fished by Nick Conway, Mark Allen and Mtawali, with nine sail and a black marlin of about 90 kgs, released by Nick – this was the only marlin caught. Top Angler was Russ Brumby with eight sail, and his winning team qualify for the IGFA World Championships to be held in Mexico in 2009, a very prestigious event held annually. The tournament was sponsored by Robert J Goodson Ltd, of UK, and with an average catch of over eight sail per boat for the two days, it shows how very successful it was!

50th Malindi Festival next weekend

First held in 1959, next weekend, the 18th/19th October, sees the fiftieth Malindi Fishing Festival, the oldest sea angling tournament in Kenya. The Malindi Sea Fishing Club had been formed by a few enthusiasts a little earlier, and used to meet in a room at Lawford's hotel, while one of the earliest charter boat operations advertised fishing at 35/- per hour. The client was able to sell the fish, at about a shilling a pound for good eating fish, and on a lucky day, he could even make a profit!
When a hundred shilling note put enough fuel in a large station wagon to get from Nakuru to Malindi this soon became a very popular event, and has remained so ever since, though air travel is now more convenient, and the hundred shillings might just buy one a beer!
On Friday 17th the Churchill Cup, for light lines of 10kg breaking strain or less, will be fished, and this is sponsored by VFS Financial Services of Nairobi. This is a formula event, where the weight of each fish caught is divided by the breaking strain of the line used, and sailfish will be the main target, as the experts will be fishing for these with lines testing as low as 4kgs!
The main two day event is sponsored by Robert J Goodson Ltd from UK, and while the points system favours billfish, the present run of yellowfin tuna at Watamu might induce many skippers to have a go at these fish – for sure, boating a couple of hundred kgs of tuna beats not catching a sailfish for many!
Tuna have definitely been flavour of the week in Watamu waters, as there are plentiful shoals of small 'school' yellowfin, interspersed with big fish up to 30 kgs, these however being hard to hook, with live baits being the most effective method. Unreel has been out with Phil Revett and David Bird from UK fishing several trips, 26 yellowfin for 200 kgs one day, 32 fish a couple of days later, and then another successful morning, after which they went out to try the Rips, twenty miles out. Plenty of small tuna there, but no big ones caught, while an hours bottom fishing yielded grouper and snappers for the table. White Mischief also tried the Rips, sixty-five yellowfin must be a great day – a few big fish were seen rolling out there.
Castle Lager, fishing with John and Andy Lisher from Grahamstown, South Africa, found a big black marlin on a live rainbow runner bait last weekend, tagging it after a two hour fight – a nice fish estimated at 230 kgs. On other trips they had caught sail, tuna, giant trevally and wahoo – their first visit to Kenya, but probably not their last!
Tarka seems the only other boat to have caught a marlin, while the same day landing a 72 kg shark.
The boats at Shimoni have not been out, but this weekend many of them were off to the Latham Island tournament off Dar-es-Salaam. Latham Island has always been a legendary fishing hot spot, especially for big tuna at this time of year, but last year's results were disappointing. Indeed. if the reckless licensing of foreign commercial fishing vessels continues, tuna could virtually disappear off our coasts.
In South Africa last March, the annual Tuna Derby yielded no fish at all, while in four main events, only 34 tuna were caught in 1160 boat days! Of course, the commercial boats will eventually move away – when there are no fish left!

Watamu Banks still producing good fishing. 

Marlin, sail, giant trevally, wahoo, kingfish, yellowfin – name them, and they are there! Yesterday, Wednesday, two boats came in to the Hemingways weigh platform sharing all of these, tho' naturally the billfish were tagged and released, as were the giant trevally.
Alexander Tseitlin, visiting Kenya from Russia, hooked into a black marlin on B's Nest estimated at 230 kgs which took a Rappala lure, and when it was battled to the boat after a long fight, he elected to release it with the tag duly affixed in the shoulder. Release is a new ethic for most Russian fishermen – natural perhaps, for who would want to release salmon and caviare? A very good fish, well done Alexander!
Ol Jogi then arrived in, with regular angler Phil Revett and Gordon Abrams, having tagged a sail and two giant trevally, plus two wahoo, two kingfish, four yellowfin tuna and bags of baitfish. They had seen three marlin coming up to the live baits, reported skipper Rob Hellier, but not one of them hungry – with all these other fish around there, probably all the marlin were replete!
Capt Jack Jackson on B's Nest had a good run last week, with a marlin for Rodolfo Zedelon on Sunday and another with Alex Duffar on the rod on Tuesday, followed by the big fish in the story above, so the marlin still seem plentiful but perhaps harder to catch, while October is usually the best month for wahoo, especially in muggy or sultry weather. Yellowfin too should be plentiful, with their accompanying sharks, although not all anglers are too keen to tackle these aggressive creatures, most of which fortunately are released these days.
Up at Malindi sailfish are being raised near Ngomeni, and there are plenty of yellowfin up there too. Neptune found four sail yesterday, with plenty of tuna, while Clueless also had four sail. With the Malindi International Festival only two weeks ahead, this is good news for most anglers who come to try their skills against the sailfish's wiles, although some skippers will be out to land that huge marlin at Watamu which can turn the competition on it's head.
The recent course for boat captains at Hemingways was conducted by Dick Pratt, Senior Competitions officer for SADSAA, the South African Deep Sea Angling Association, and was organised by a number of charter boat owners to improve standards of safety and seamanship amongst fishing boat captains here. Fifteen attended, of which thirteen passed the certificate, and it is intended that these courses should be run annually with efforts made to ensure that eventually all those who take boats offshore should attain certification.
A recent study by a university professor and his team of statisticians in South Africa showed that the recreational angling business there contributed more to the economy than rugby and cricket combined!
It also showed that a gamefish caught by recreational anglers generated up to seventy times more in income than the same fish caught commercially. This finding is similar to that of studies in the Caribbean and South America, where some countries have now banned large scale commercial operations to preserve the recreational industry.
Interestingly, the report suggests that this aspect has either been completely ignored or was never understood or researched by the government. A pointer for Kenya perhaps?

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