Strong winds keep the fish down

More boats have been going out this week, but with strong winds making for rough seas many do short days, mornings only, which keeps the score down, particularly for marlin which tend to come up better in the afternoon. Only two marlin were caught last week, Ol Jogi tagging a black estimated at 120kgs caught by Martin Taylor at the beginning of the week and Tarka finding one of 108kgs a few days later, but sailfish and mixed bags of wahoo, yellowfin and kingfish have been the norm.

Mid-September is the time when the winds should moderate and the seas calm down, after which the billfish tended to move away from the Banks, but this seems delayed this year, no doubt due to an El Nino, a La Nina or some other vagary in the weather! Seastorm had a couple of sail for a Russian team, and White Bear had found the wahoo the previous day catching seven as well as a couple of sail, while Ol Jogi had to be content with a pair of sharks along with eight yellowfin and a wahoo. On the Banks, the sail, the wahoo and the tuna are usually in different areas and come up at different times, so one’s bag largely depends on where one fishes at particular times – this is where the skippers skills are important! Contagious and Castle Lager are both large catamarans run by South African teams and both have been catching a single sailfish on most of their outings, while skipper Rob Hellier in his Unreel, who knows these waters better than most, also just found that one sailfish, but also a shark and a giant trevally, with all these fish being released. Earlier in the week, Neptune from Malindi was fishing the Banks in search of marlin but had no luck with these but did catch five sail and lose several more, but a few days later with the winds increasing, they found a single sail plus a couple of wahoo, two kingfish and half a dozen yellowfin.

The previous day Tina also found four sail, a giant trevally and a couple of dogtooth tuna, the latter rare in our waters although these are targeted further south in Tanzania, where some world records have been caught, recently by deep jigging. Interesting to note the Kenya record is a fish of 86.9 kgs, caught at Shimoni, while specimens over 100 kgs have been caught in Mauritius, very impressive fish! Neptune tried off Malindi and found some bigger yellowfin, two of 24kgs, but when they were due to go further north to Ziwaiyu, where fishing has been good at this time in recent years, the waters proved too rough so that trip will have to wait.

The Malindi October Festival, now named the Herbie Paul International, will be fished on Sat/Sun 23rd&24th October. Kindly sponsored by MH Joinery Products, PLC, of UK, there will be an impressive array of prizes and a good entry is expected, so this will be a good chance to meet up with old fishing friends.

The light line tournament, the Churchill Trophy will be on the Friday 22nd October, and with the sailfish expected to have turned on by then this is always a popular fixture both with overseas fishermen and upcountry anglers, so book now!

Written by David Slater “Honeylulu”

September continues to be a very quiet month in the fishing business, with fewer trips than I remember for very many years, but this is good news for the fish and on those days when a boat gets amongst them there have been good catches.

Adrian Paul got away from his desk and took Snark for a test run after her overhaul down to the Banks where they soon had a marlin jumping on a Rappala – it was only a month ago that Adrian remarked in his newsletter that in twelve years he had never had a marlin on a Rappala! It did shake the hooks free however, but an hour later another black marlin again hooked itself on a Rappala! This time, with Abubakar on the rod, the marlin was fought to the boat and duly released, a healthy fish around 100kgs. The lure was in fact a Halco lure, similar to the Rappala and regarded by some anglers as superior, but if one insists on catching marlin on these triple hook lures one should replace the hooks on the bought lure with stronger ones. A good day already but on returning to the Banks, they found the wahoo running and caught nine in an hour before going home. More test runs are planned!

Con Jooste continue his run of sailfish on fly with another two successful days, Eclare finding plenty of sail finning in the Che Shale area and raising several to the teasers. It’s good to hear these fish are there, but it is usually later in October before they start to come up in quantity to provide the sport for which Malindi is famous. This bodes well for the Herbie Paul International tournament at the end of that month over the holiday.

The Watamu boats were all away this week for the Latham island tournament, but the fishing there was quiet this year, with tuna and wahoo on the first day, but billfish action warmed up the second day, with Natasha catching two striped marlin to win top honours and Simba, from Watamu, in second place with one striped marlin, while third went to Joint Venture. Natasha, a 35ft Cabo Express was formerly based at Watamu, but was sold and now stays in Dar-es-salaam. Black Widow and Unreel found a broadbill each on the night run back from Tanzania to compensate for not being on the podium in the tournament.

Alleycat did not make this trip, so was busy here with trips catching wahoo, a spinner shark and tuna with Kevin Ibrahim and a mixed bag of two wahoo, two kingfish, two yellowfin and a barracuda with Geoff Jones, while another trip yielded nine wahoo, and Castle Lager recorded a sailfish released on a couple of trips.

Reading that a minister was releasing billions of shillings for the fishing industry, one can’t imagine much of this trickling down to the sport fishing business. but tourism does need help, increasing the numbers of visitors, and both infrastructure and security seriously need improvement. Writing in the dark again with power off, as it was last week also when I wrote, and having to shift the article from one laptop to another as the battery fades is hardly my vision for 2030 !

Bigger marlin appearing as weather holds

The good run of marlin continues as the wind stays in the east, and although rain is forecast none has appeared yet in the Malindi/Watamu area. As we near the end of March fewer boats are going out but with Easter soon tourists will increase and will want to try their luck if the fishing holds.

Catch of the week was a 354 kg blue marlin caught on Eclare, which died during the six hour fight and had to be hauled up from the depths, but what a nice fish. Neptune also had a big blue the same day which got wrapped in the line and came in dead, weighing 180 kgs, while up near Lamu Clueless released a blue estimated around 360 kgs. The second half of March has always been the time for a run of the biggest marlin, but the wind seems to have started blowing from the south today, so time may be limited.

The Penn Challenge with eleven teams from Belgium and Holland finished their four days and good catches were reported by all, with Jan Maas and Frans van Bechel having the best day on Snark, with two black marlin and sixteen sailfish which helped them to top position overall, with Snark the leading boat. Other good days included a black marlin released on Tina and estimated at 200 kgs, and three stripeys on Neptune, so a thrilled bunch of anglers that we can expect back next year.

Another group, this time from Poland, started four days in four boats very successfully with Snowgoose catching eleven sailfish and Tina eight the first day, while on the third day Neptune had three stripeys and three other boats two stripeys, so another very satisfied group of anglers.

Watamu boats have been busy, Bamara having a busy day with Dickie Evans tagging a black marlin of 100 kgs and a sail, as well as catching ten yellowfin and a selection of bottom fish, while Tega tagged another black of 90 kgs. Jasiri had a good overnight trip, with five broadbill, a mako shark and a sail being released by George Allen and his crew, and B’s Nest tagging five broadbill and a stripey on another night trip.

Chinook released both a blue and a black marlin, and Alleycat released a big blue and a stripey. Castle Lager has been active, with a broadbill on a night trip and a good day for Dave Young and friends when they were fighting both a black and a blue marlin at the same time. One came off, the other broke the line, but they still caught a striped marlin for a very exciting day leaving the team itching for the morrow!

Tarka found four broadbill and two stripeys on an overnight trip, and then had a mixed bag day, with two sail, two yellowfin over 20 kgs and a shark – skipper Callum Looman had earlier passed the hundred marlin mark for the season for the second consecutive year, while skipper Angus Paul on Neptune has just reached this mark also, congratulations to them both.

KASA, the Kenya Association of Sea Anglers, hold their annual Dinner at Ocean Sports Resort on Saturday, April 3rd. KASA represents all sea anglers, from clubs and hotels to charter companies and individual anglers, and keeps angling record details and publishes it’s own annual magazine with all the records and various angling articles. A raffle with many valuable prizes will be drawn, and all are welcome.

On the morning of Apr 3rd, an informal family fishing tournament will be held out from Ocean Sports, from where details are available. Children especially encouraged!