“A good size striped marlin of approximately 70 kg (154 lbs) hooked by Jacque Malan of Botswana on 10th February 2010″
Comment from Captain Howard Lawrence-Brown……
“A couple of recent photos of billfish taken in February to show the true quality of these fish and the condition in which they are released. Note the “lit-up” blue colours, typical of marlin. Both marlin were fished off my boat, KIPAPA, off Watamu.” – www.kenyadeepseafishing.net
“On 13th February, “Flip” Potgieter from Francistown, Botswana hooked a good size black marlin estimated 200-225 kgs (484 lbs) which after an hour’s fight was duly tagged and released. Both the angler and the fish were considered in good condition!”
News courtesy of David Slater - Fantastic fishing continues
The incredible fishing around the Rips continues, two boats achieving eight marlin in a day, a super grand slam, and grand slams, three different billfish caught on a boat in the day, too numerous to count!
The weekend saw the 45th Delamere Trophy fished from Kilifi with seventeen boats catching 32 marlin and 47 sailfish, all of which were released, over the two days. Winners were the team on Alleycat, led by skipper Peter Darnborough, with Nick Michaelides and Peter Hofmann, the latter winning Top Angler – three striped marlin, one blue marlin, two sailfish and a yellowfin tuna fell to his rod, to follow his success in the same boat in the Malindi Casino tournament two weeks before, with the team having a total four stripies and a blue, plus six sail and a couple of tuna for 6251 pts. They were leading on the first day, and kept comfortably ahead of Albatross, fished by JJ Nicholas, Jan Verweil and Tina Harris, which had a black and three striped marlin, two sail and a wahoo for 4404 pts. Tina, with two striped marlin and two sailfish, won the prize for the best lady angler.
The third boat was Black Widow, with skipper Adam Ogden, Eric van Vliet and Keiren Day, with three striped marlin and four sail, while Seyyida, Delta and Clueless followed with only a couple of hundred points separating the teams. Dingbat was best small boat, with both Oscar and Walter Biggi catching a striped marlin, while Minerva was second, Anne Taylor getting the prize for the biggest fish weighed in, a 15.6kg barracuda. Many thanks to Deborah Colvile for her sponsorship and lovely cut crystal glassware prizes, for a very successful competition.
From Malindi, Snark with Peter Boke and friends bettered the record seven marlin caught on Tina the previous week with eight stripeys! This was then equalled by Clueless at Watamu a few days later, so that’s two boats with eight marlin now holding the record north of the Pemba Channel, where ten stripies in the day was achieved some years ago.
Tina has been having a good run, with Rudy van der Stichel catching a blue and two striped marlin plus five sailfish, while the next day the score was a blue and two striped marlin and three sail for consecutive grand slams. But the other Kingfisher boats bettered this, with Snowgoose recording four stripies and Neptune catching a black and four stripies and four sail, another grand slam. Snowgoose got her grand slam next day with a black and two striped marlin and seven sail for Bart van Hoey, while a couple of days later Neptune, with Les McBride and Tony Voss fishing, bettered this with a super grand slam, a black, a blue and two striped marlin and a sailfish – this was the first day of the Kilifi tournament, which they had considered entering but decided against it! Tina, with angler Chris Barnes, found two black marlin and a stripey, so an amazing week’s fishing for all.
Watamu boats also showed incredible results, the same day that Clueless caught eight marlin, Tarka had seven stripies and Alleycat six marlin, two blacks and four stripies as well as three sail for a grand slam – twenty one marlin and nine sail for three boats on one day! Gordon Elder and Bob, in Tarka, had twenty-four stripeys and twenty sail tagged and released in six days fishing – that takes some beating. Simba, with Morten Nordskag, tagged a stripey on fly tackle, while White Bear tagged two sail on fly, as did Ol Jogi with Garry Cullen fishing.
Seahorse weighed a 109.5 kg blue marlin which was wrapped in the line and died, and they tagged three stripeys as well, and Kipapa had a blue and a black marlin and two sail for a grand slam. Let’s hope this keeps on !
The 45th Delamere Fishing Competition started the first day of this event on 30th January 2010 with a record number of 60 billfish tagged and/or released with 17 boats entered.
Outstanding fishing by any means with boats such as “Alley Cat“, “Seyidda“, “Clueless“, “Delta“, “Seahorse“, “Kipapa” to mention a few leading boats on the score board at the end of the first day. A great mixture of blue, black and stripe marlin with some sailfish making a colourful display of fishing flags at the weigh in. Very few of the smaller game fish were caught although a few dorado; wahoo and kingfish were seen at the weigh in but the day was over taken by so many billfish.
The last day is Sunday, which could well be another billfish day or not as fishing goes. More news on this competition in the next few days”.
A couple of weeks back I wrote that the fishing could hardly get better – but it has! One runs out of superlatives when things get better, and better, and better…..! The water in the Rips is now blue, the sea has calmed down and fishing conditions ideal. And reports of fantastic marlin fishing are coming in from north and south.
But watching the boats come in at Hemingways this Wednesday we counted twenty-one marlin flags from eight boats, with perhaps the best effort marked by the huge grin on the face of skipper Mohamed Fadhili who had led his anglers Julian Mills, Robin Minter-Kemp and Jonathon Lowe to a super grand slam in B’s Nest. One blue, one black and three striped marlin, together with a sailfish, all released, was the total score for the day – and for the anglers who have been coming to Kenya for many years quite their best day ever!
Simba released four striped and one blue marlin shared by anglers James Mason and Len Lippitt, while Tega, Tarka and Black Widow all flew three green flags for striped marlin, with each of them having three or four sail as well. Fishers David Bird and Terry Pendry had to be content with two stripeys and three sail on Unreel, a moderate day for skipper Rob Hellier after his catch of seven stripies a couple of days earlier, but one cannot do it every day!
Well known skipper Ali al Harazi, now in semi retirement, went out on Instedda recently, and caught his first striped marlin on fly tackle. Skippers usually don’t fish much themselves, and it was interesting to hear James Adcock, one of the longest serving skippers along the coast and who caught a striped marlin out with owner Adam Ogden on Black Widow on a fun day, remark that it was the first billfish he could remember catching himself for twenty years!
Fly fishing is all the rage these days, and one of our best lady anglers, Gai Cullen, caught her first striped marlin on fly on Simba, the first to be caught on this tackle by a lady on the East African coast. Well done, Gai. Jeremy Block caught two stripeys on fly on Ol Jogi,while Billy Lynch had a stripey on fly on Snowgoose.
Marlin are running at Shimoni in the Pemba Channel now, and Simon Hemphill reports catching 11 marlin in his Kamara II in four days, pretty good fishing in most years but just average this season! White Otter has had a day with three stripeys, and another with two, while Inca, running down from Mombasa with the crew for a charter, picked up a black and a stripey on the way, with four stripeys and a sail a couple of days after, with the clients on board! Kamara II had a multiple strike and caught four stripeys together from one pack, quite a feat.
Malindi boats are fishing the same areas for marlin as the Watamu boats, in the Rips, but also with strikes in the outer mountains and indeed, all over the place, although the sailfishing close to Malindi has gone off with dirty water obscuring the closer-in areas. Tina had a day with seven stripies, which seems to be the best score north of the Pemba Channel these days, while Snow Goose had four stripeys, also all four part of a multiple strike, with Herbert and Monica Lewald. Snark scored two blue and two striped marlin with Lindsay Casserly, who finished with 5 stripeys, 4 blue marlin, one black marlin and 27 sailfish for the nine days fishing in his trip.
Neptune has been out to the North Kenya Banks with a party interested in jigging on the bottom, and caught eight amberjack and varied bottom fish, but not much was seen in the way of billfish, while the water seemed very cold there.
Although strong winds have blown dirty water down from the river mouth, this proved to be just a surface phenomenon which did not upset the billfish, lurking hungrily below the surface, and the Tournament sponsored by the Casino Malindi had amazing fishing with sixteen boats catching a total of 44 marlin over the two days.
Boats could start and finish from either Malindi or Watamu, and it was Alleycat from Watamu, with skipper Pete Darnborough and angler Peter Hofmann, which snatched first prize with five marlin tagged, just ahead of the team of Ali al Harazi with Imran and Usham Musa on Instedda, which also had five marlin and were leading on the first day. A very close finish, and if one sailfish had not come unhooked on the latter boat it would have been a different story – but that’s the way fishing goes!
Third place went to the team on Eclare, novice fishermen Wilfried van Laarhoven and Ronald Roy from the Netherlands. Each team won three top of the line rods and reels and other prizes, with Mada Hotels giving the “Top Angler” Peter Hofmann a three day stay at Fig Tree Camp in the Mara, with game drives and a balloon safari. Sandra Young won the Top Lady Angler award, a sporty Swatch watch, with all the prizes being given out at a delicious buffet dinner at the La Griglia restaurant, to round off a very popular and successful competition.
Neptune had two striped marlin on the first day of this tournament, putting them in a strong position, but as they had different anglers booked for the second day they were not able to enter that day, but with three marlin by mid morning they could have run out as winners! This is often a problem with charter boats, so anglers had better plan a year ahead! The event will be January 15th and 16th next year, 2011.
All the boats fishing the Rips have been having fun with Blue Eyes and skipper Rob Coverdale taking anglers David Cawthorne and Julie and Brian Pollard out for three trips, for a total of five striped marlin, three sail and a short-billed spearfish. The latter is a rarity here, although the odd one is caught annually further south in the Pemba Channel, but this seems to be the first in our northern area since White Bear landed a pair in 1992 – interestingly in the same area out near the South Mlima of the Rips.
Other recent catches include a black and a striped marlin and a sail for Simon Rickaby on Seastorm, a grand slam which together with a 23.5kg wahoo and a dorado makes for a pretty good days fishing! White Bear with Marcel and Annick Prott who regularly fish with fly tackle had a striped marlin on fly, quite an achievement and definitely a couple of steps up the ladder from a sailfish! A week ago Tarka had an outstanding catch, with three stripies, two sail and two huge amberjack of 60 and 48.5 kgs, while Kipapa, up from Mtwapa, had three stripeys and two days later four stripeys.
Sand Dollar is another private boat which has had a good run, with trips of three stripies, a stripey and two sail and two stripeys and two sail – skipper Peter Mupe, who used to drive Kaskazi at Hemingways for many years, has obviously lost none of his skills with owner Chris Venn from South Africa.
The muddy water pouring down the Sabaki river from the up country rains has resulted in poorer sailfishing close to Malindi, when the sail tend to move further out to deeper water and join the marlin in the Rips. However as long as the underlying current continues to run north the fishing should remain good, and even improve as the strong winds moderate and the blue water pushes in again.
News Courtesy of Capt. Andy’s – Good fishing Continues with Marlin Arriving !
Superb fishing continues in most areas with marlin showing in the Rips regularly now, mainly stripeys with some big packs striking, while blacks are there and coming to both lures and livebait and some blues as well. Sailfish are still plentiful in the waters off Malindi, with the odd black marlin around the sail shoals, so skippers have the option of almost certain fish off Malindi, or the gamble with marlin further offshore.
A short day fishing is about five hours, so Watamu boats doing short days have more limited options, as both the Rips and Malindi can be too long a run, but marlin are also being caught in the Canyon and Mountains areas. Alleycat, with Nimit Patel from Nairobi fishing found a good black marlin live baiting in the Canyon and released at an estimated 230 kgs, as well as another small one about 60 kgs. The previous day on the same boat Jeremy Brown, a long time angler formerly in Nairobi and now working in UK, also tagged a black marlin. Tega had a good black of 160kgs tagged with Charles and Sarah Prior on a short day.
Last weekend however saw the marlin fishing peak in the Rips, with Unreel tagging a blue and four stripeys, with another blue and three stripeys two days later. White Mischief on a Sunday outing had a black marlin and two stripeys, with Tarka recording a black and three stripeys the same day. Alleycat had three stripeys the previous day, while Dave Plummer, Ian McNeil and David Isaac on Ol Jogi tagged a black marlin one day and a blue and a striped marlin the next day. Adam Ogden in his Black Widow went out with his crew and had a blue and a striped marlin, together with seven sailfish, for a grand slam. It doesn’t get much better than this!
Malindi boats have been concentrating more on the sailfish closer to home, and at the beginning of the week Snark had six sail on a short day, while Tina released eight sail on a short day, having had an 80 kg black marlin the previous day. The boats seem to take it in turns to be top scorer as Eclare had seven sail the next day, following that with ten sail for young Aidan Casserly who was being introduced to fishing by his Dad, regular angler Dad Lindsay, a veteran of fifteen years fishing. Snowgoose then caught six sail on a morning trip, while Neptune has been fishing the Rips for several striped marlin most of the week but had their best day off Malindi with a black marlin and eight sailfish.
Watamu boats have been sailfishing at Malindi as well, B’s Nest getting nine sail with a Russian crew and fourteen sail with the Goucher family, while Simba and Black Widow both scored seven sail and White Bear eight with the Russian fishers. Tarka had nine sail with Fergus Flynn and his son Douglas, and with the heavy rains upcountry there is a lot of muddy water coming down the river leading to good colour lines in the water from the currents which makes the sailfishing easier.
The Malindi Casino are sponsoring a tournament this weekend so with all these fish around there should be some good sport, and there are magnificent prizes to be won. The Mtwapa Cup follows at Mtwapa on the 17th, and the Delamere Trophy at Kilifi is over the weekend of the 30th/31st , and many of the regulars are beginning to arrive to fish these competitions.
News courtesy of David Slater – Brilliant fishing continues up and down the coast
The sailfish seem to have appeared all along the coast in big numbers, after a slow start earlier in the season, and it would seem that the season itself is a month or more behind schedule. This could be due to the weather patterns as the kaskazi wind started very late, so let’s hope it will continue this way for a few months!
In the Watamu/Malindi area, boats continue to catch plenty of sailfish, and if they are in the right spot, plenty of marlin as well. Interestingly, all three types of marlin are coming up, mainly striped, some blacks and even a few blues, so there has been plenty of variety for the anglers, and the boats have been busy due to the holidays.
B’s Nest from Hemingways had a particularly good run, with a stripey and three sail on New Years Eve, a rest on New Years Day, three marlin the next day, a black estimated at 120kgs and two stripeys for Leonid Zikeev, and then the day after two black marlin, estimated 150kg and 70kgs, and two blue marlin of about 80kgs for another Russian party, amazing fishing! White Bear had a good day with the Goucher family, with two stripeys and three sail, one of the latter being caught on fly tackle, and two other days with a striped marlin, while the other day in the week they were out they had to rest content with five sailfish with Barry and Tom Shaw!
Tega saw the MacTaggart family tag two striped marlin and three sail, with some dorado and tuna as well for a great family day, while Ol Jogi had a double of striped marlin as well as three sail for Angelo and Nicola Machesi, and Seahorse has had two doubles on black marlin.
Marlin were also caught on Seastorm, Instedda, Unreel and Black Widow, the latter tagging a black marlin for James Goucher, his first marlin! This usually costs you a round of drinks at the bar after ringing the bell!
Mombasa has had good fishing too, and Naz Khan reports that young Mansur, not yet ten years old but handling the rod himself, caught a sail and a striped marlin of 69 kgs on his boat Pika-Pika – it’s been interesting to see so many youngsters fishing and doing well over the holidays, helped by the calm seas and plentiful fish. Hooked at an early age, these will be the skippers of the future!
Malindi boats have been busy also – Thomas Fjastad went out in Neptune with his son Torsten up from South Africa with his family, and ended with nine sailfish. Snowgoose, finding it slow for sail, tried live baiting some frigate mackerel and in no time had a black marlin of 115 kgs, which unfortunately came in dead and had to be boated. This same boat then had ten sail with Rik van der Vlugt from Holland, out for his first deep sea experience with ambitions to catch a billfish – he ended up with 51 sail in six trips!
Russell Brumby has been fishing at Malindi for about thirty years, but this time he tried with fly tackle and landed his first sail on Snark. With son Peter they continued fishing with traditional light tackle, till a double header of sail resulted in the two fish going in different directions! One was on a small spinning rod with only 300 metres of line which came to an end, so the rod was tied to a buoy and thrown overboard – once the other fish was tagged, it was retrieved a mile away and the fish duly caught! A good fishing story, and especial thanks to Adrian Paul for his regular fishing news from Malindi
News courtesy of David Slater - Wind swings back south, but sailfish taking
The wind in November usually does strange things and has now swung back into the south – the days more cloudy but no significant rain here. But this south wind has been blowing a bit harder and the sailfish seem to be coming up again after the doldrums-like weather of the previous week. It was during this period that the Wildfly teams competed in their tournament from Hemingways Resort, bad luck for them but they struggled nobly and ended up with nine sail on the fly tackle, with Craig Maree and Gerrit Wyma both scoring two.
Chris Bladen from Cape Town, an internationally renowned sculptor of fish, caught the winning fish for his team, the ‘Pink Panthers’, releasing the sailfish, his only cast at one in the four days, from Simba, while the ‘Bimini Twist‘ team came second.
Fly fishing is not easy, one needs a dozen fish or more coming up daily to ensure a number of shots at them, with the fish preferably hungry, not just window shopping. One team was reputed to have had thirteen sail up one day, without a tag and release situation arising!
A couple of days later, the Capt Morgan Rum tournament got under way, the wind had freshened and much better results were reported on the conventional tackle. A couple of boats had five sail, others three or four, so lets hope it keeps on for the rest of the week, as they fish for six days.
Fly seems to be flavour of the month, as Kingfisher at Malindi also has a group from Germany using fly tackle for a six day trip. After a slow start the first day, Raimond Gutrath got his first sail on fly from Neptune on his second outing, then went on to score another while his friend Henning Heise also caught one, and they ended up with five sail on fly for the trip, pretty good for beginners!
Anthony Havelock took some friends from UK out, and ended up with four sail, while Snowgoose ran to the Rips and tagged a small blue marlin for Matthias Beyer – a couple of days before the same boat had tagged an 80kg black marlin for Holger Amelung on an overnight trip, but they failed to catch a broadbill with only one good strike coming off.
The annual ‘Eye Go Fishing’ tournament at Mtwapa went well, though fish were hard to find, except for the winners, Mssrs Rawal, Shah and Mtemi, who ended with five sailfish and a wahoo in Nala. The amateur stream was won by Matamu, fished by Chris Young, Paul Young and Rossano Ricci, who ran out to the Rips to tag a striped marlin and a sail – the former giving Paul Young the Dave Parry trophy for the biggest fish.
Mike Keates and Mike Jnr, with James Knight in Inca were second in the professional stream with a sailfish, while the Delta crew of Max Donner Jnr, Florian Schollinger and Steve Rodwell took third. In the amateurs, Samaki with Cosmo Grimwood, Ken Haji and Julian Luckhurst ran in second, Julian’s 20 kg wahoo taking the award for the biggest non-billfish. This event raises money for the Kwale Eye Centre, and a great party was had by all.
A recent directive from Fisheries is meant to have halted the use of ring nets, an unsustainable and indiscriminate method of slaughtering fish which has had great opposition from local artisanal fishermen and Beach Management Units. There are reports however that these nets continue to operate. Surely the time has come to initiate policies which conserve our fish stocks for future generations – sustainable is the word!
News courtesy of David Slater - Sailfish more active and some marlin appearing
The wind is still doing strange things, south some days and east to north-east others, but still very gentle breezes and it is much hotter and muggy. There have been a couple of early morning showers, but the two to three millimetres we are getting will not fill the reservoirs!
Sailfish are being caught however, with the fishing variable and where one boat comes in with half a dozen another fails to score!
The annual tournament out from Hemingways Resort for Capt Morgan Rum is a combination of a prize for the winners in South Africa of competitions for the biggest fish weighed during the year for many different species, both salt and freshwater, and private teams wishing to try their skills on sailfish. After last year’s amazing record catches, twelve fish per boat day, a record turnout of fifteen teams fishing four days out of the six fished in ten boats.
Expectations were high, and although last years figures were not achieved, all the contestants had fun with an average of about two sail per boat per day.
The winners, Ruan, Johan and Arulene Smal and John Zonomeis, collected 4500 points for their fifteen sail – Johan Smal with five sail to his rod sharing top angler with Eugene Volschenk and Paul van Niekerk, whose team with Willie and Shaun Volkschenk came second with thirteen sail in total. The teams fish different boats each day, with a couple of free days, so there is a big element of luck in being out on the right day in the right boat!
The third placed team was Irene and Ryda Brouwer, Henk Mathee and Cliff Magee, having tagged eleven sail. Veteran angler and organiser of the competition Erwin Bursik, was happy to catch two sail one day, but not enough to put his team on the podium!
Daily catches are interesting, the daily totals being 29,22,14,35,11 and 23, so one can see there were a couple of difficult days when the fish were not coming up well. Much of this was due to the wind, or lack of it, as it was switching from south to east to north, and sometimes none at all with mirror like seas, the skipper’s nightmare!
Unreel with seven sail one day, and Alleycat with six appear to have had the best days, with White Bear scoring a five and a four, and several boats recording four sail in the day,while the total of 132 sailfish all released compared favourably with bygone years – a very good party enjoyed by all.
Chris Venn comes from South Africa with family and friends for two to six week fishing holidays every year, and now runs the 35′ Cabo Express Sand Dollar. On his best day this time, they had seven sail – Chris had taken his chef David out to try his hand, and David caught three sail and a wahoo!
Tega with skipper Steve George, tried live baiting with Jon Battison from the UK, back after a four year break, and using circle hooks released an 80kg black marlin. Peter Constable, another regular, tagged a 60kg blue marlin on Ol Jogi, while Alan Park in White Dove released a sail and a striped marlin. Alleycat caught a grand slam with a black and a striped marlin and a sail, so quite a few marlin starting to appear in different locations.
Kingfisher boats at Malindi hosted the Joss de Kock group fishing three boats all week. Fifty one sailfish was a good total score with Tina and Eclare tagging a marlin as well – Eclare’s a black estimated at 150kgs on 15kg line, a great effort.
News courtesy of David Slater – Gentle east breezes slow down fishing
The days of good north-east winds were replaced by very gentle breezes from the east a week ago, which resulted in the sailfish turning off and not coming up much. One or two boats tried fishing late in the afternoon and raised fish about five o’clock, but this means coming in as it gets dark, hard work for crews and dinghies, who still have to be at work next morning at 5.30am!
Hemingways Resort at Watamu is this week hosting the Wildfly Fly Fishing Tournament for four days fishing in seven boats, with teams of four anglers from South Africa. Only fly tackle catches score, fishing to the strict rules for this genre – fish are lured to behind the boat with hookless teasers, which are then removed from the water, while the boat has to be placed in neutral, out of gear, and only then can the angler cast his fly to the fish. Needing a well trained team, with the teasing being an art in itself, this makes catching sailfish far more difficult than normal, and as at the moment the sail are being difficult anyway, every fish tagged becomes a triumph!
Skipper Jack Jackson in White Bear has had two days with two sail on fly, with the other boats getting singles, or less! One of our top skippers was bemoaning raising only one sail all day, and if these chaps can’t bring them up then nothing less than a depth charge will! (Navy gunboats – please, just a joke!) Results next week.
Ol Jogi, fished by Eric Cousins, tried an overnight run to the North Kenya Bank, and were successful in tagging a striped marlin and a sail by day, and a broadbill at night for a grand slam- as they had got five amberjack by deep jigging, and a dozen yellowfin as well, a good choice of destination. Tega fished the Rips, and were rewarded with a double strike of blue marlin, small but lively which were both tagged after a good fight.
Alleycat also found a marlin in the Rips, a stripey this one, duly tagged, so the change in the wind is starting to bring the marlin in early , a good sign for the season and an interesting alternative to slow days for sail off Malindi. A black marlin was tagged by Dave Young, fishing in his Yamaha 23 centre console – Dave is one of the Club 15 members up from South Africa who run the big catamaran Castle Lager, and both this boat and sister ship Contagious have been catching sailfish.
Malindi boats have much the same story – not so many sail around, and a big contrast to last year, but one cannot expect a best-ever year every year! Exceptionally, Andrew Gibbs, in Neptune, finished his safari with a six sailfish day, giving him fourteen in the four days on his first fishing trip – some anglers are definitely born under the right star! Guy Raeymacher and Andries Gustaaf, from Belgium, had four sail and a wahoo in Eclare at the beginning of the week, one of the sail not even hooked but the leader just wrapped round the bill with hooks dangling! Tina released a nice black marlin off Malindi about 85kgs as well as a sailfish later in the week, but without much wind the fishing went quieter.
Shimoni boat Kamara II on a trip to Kiwaiyu, found a pack of three striped marlin just south of Lamu, and tagged two, but once the clients were on board, they were restricted to some sailfish, and a manta ray, an unusual catch and of course released.
