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.