EVERY DAY IS A GREAT DAY FISHING!

The main fishing season came to close in April this year, and Howard and I decided to leave the surf and hit the turf taking ourselves inland to visit some of Kenya’s famous game parks.  As I begin to write our over view of the past  fishing season, I am looking out at one of the world’s most majestic mountains, Kilimanjaro which lies just inside the Tanzania border.

Satao Elerai Camp is on a high plateau with a vista view on one side overlooking Amboseli National Park (it’s half an hour’s drive from the camp to the park entrance) and Mt. Kilimanjaro right in front of our tent.  In fact all tents  face the mountain each with a stunning view.  The camp’s main lounge, bar, dinning area and terrace are tastefully furnished with very attractive rustic decor.  The tents are large and equally attractive with a large bathroom and bedroom area and a little verandah with camp chairs to watch the early sunrise (an early morning tea/coffee tray can be brought to your tent); the birds with the mountain in full view when the clouds have blown themselves past.  The meals are decorative, delicious and of very high quality.  The staff are all very friendly and helpful making our departure hard to do with me saying……’Can’t we stay another night?’  The answer was, “Isn’t 2 nights enough?”

I guess it will have to be for we have family and friends waiting for us in Nairobi and once we have caught up with everyone, we will hit the trail again in search for another piece paradise in the wild.

While at Elerai we took one morning to go into Amboseli Park and saw many elephant; buffalo; zebra; antelope; hippo; a hyena and so many different water birds in the swamp and wetland areas.  Such a real pleasure and a change from the coastal environment where we live.

So as I look back through our records and files for this past season, I am reminded of the many people we met from all over the world and how much fun we had sharing fishing experiences and introducing new anglers to new waters and welcoming back repeat anglers to new challenges.

Our first official fishing day happened in August with a young couple from England staying in a nearby Mombasa beach hotel. The weather in August can be “iffy” but we managed one day when the weather and the sea looked like it would a good fishing day for Emma and Gary Knowles joining Howard on Kipapa to try their luck. What would we do with out those jumping Dorado?  Emma was rewarded with a good sized one and of course bigger than Gary’s.  It was a good day out for first time anglers.

Surf and Turf

Our long time clients and good friends Les and Hazel Sampson from England arrived October in Nairobi to attend a family wedding and a safari with us. Our first stop on the way to the coast was Satao Elerai Camp adjacent to Amboseli Park National Park.  It was our first visit to Elerai and one we promised ourselves we  would do again.  Elerai has 9,000 hectres of land of which half is a wildlife conservancy which acts as a natural corridor for the animals coming and going from Amboseli National Park.  The other half has been devoted to Masai and community projects.  Further down the road  we did another night in the bush, staying at Lions Bluff Camp not far from the coast.  After the safari we relocated with Les and Hazel to Watamu, which is where we based our boat, Kipapa for the coming fishing months.  Les’s nephew joined Les and together they had a number of yellow fin tuna; barracuda and kawakawa. This is really a “live baiting” time of the year on the Watamu Banks and you never know what you will catch on a “livey”.

Steve Wright and his son, Dylan, from England arrived in Watamu in October and had a 3 day programme fishing, a first time trip for both. They had some tussles with yellow fin and Dylan a junior angler out fished all the seniors and bagged the biggest tuna and lost a huge kingfish at the gaff adding a wahoo their list. Steve and friends are booked to come out again in March 2011.

November saw the arrival of 8 very keen South African fishermen headed by team leaders Altus Strydom and Marius Pieters – four of the party joined us on Kipapa and the other four anglers fished on Alley Cat , both boats operating out of Watamu.

This group had a mixed bag of fish; yellow fin tuna; kingfish and a few sailfish tagged and released.  A great group with a bit of a competition going on, and plenty of ragging at the end of each day as the catch was weighed  in or tagged. They rented a large beach house in Watamu with swimming pool  complete with house staff and a very good cook, Solomon, who made sure they never left the table hungry. They of course never went thirsty!

Testing Tackle on Toothy Critters

Bob Thurgood and his wife, Mary Ann, back with us in Kenya October/November after a break of many years.
Bob has fished for different species all over the world, deciding that he would like to come back and fish with us again. Bob is a very single minded angler and we agreed we would only pursue Tiger Sharks.

This meant first looking for fresh bait, preferably nice fat tunny each day, then soaking the baits at various depths. For 6 days we invested all our baits, both live baiting and dead baiting, covering miles with no strikes until the last day when with a good sized yellow fin bait we hooked and fought two Tigers, getting one quite close to the boat when it turned for another run, cutting us off with its tail min 16 to 18 feet long. An hour later we hooked a second which spooled us on 120 lb gear on 50% drag then cutting us off on the reef. “Who says Tigers can’t pull.” Bob has caught and released great Whites.
On day 5 we did get a really good oceanic white tip of about 350 lb interestingly on a circle hook perfectly lodged in the corner of the mouth.

A bit of bottom fishing on one day produced some good sized snapper. We averaged 6 decent  yellow fin tuna a day; several rainbow runner; wahoo and kawakawa and bonito in our search for these great fish all helping to  fill the day .Bob’s quote “Any day is a good day to be on the water”. Bob has already booked to come back for November this season.

Later in November Petri Vehkakoski decided that he needed a break from his work in Nairobi and spent a weekend fishing with us out of Mombasa.  He was well rewarded with his first marlin, a good size stripey of approximately 60 kg which was tagged.  In the two days he fished, he managed a mixed variety of fish – yellow fin tuna; kingfish; karambezi and a dorado.

Jan Mansson an old friend and returning fisherman from Sweden joined us in December and fished on Kipapa from our base at Mtwapa Creek.  Jan is a great fisherman and loves his fishing when the weather permits in Sweden and often comes to Kenya to fish Lake Victoria for the Nile Perch followed by a few days of deep sea fishing.  Jan not only brings his own fishing luck, but comes with a supply of Aquavit and chocolates!  Jan’s few days fishing luck brought him 3 sailfish, tagged and released and a mixed bag of smaller game fish such as yellow fin tuna; barracuda and dorado.  His final day fishing was a real quiet one with only bait fish to show for the day’s effort.

Various members of our family joined us for the Christmas holidays and fished a day out of Mtwapa Creek ending up with son in law Rob Kay from South Africa,  son David Lawrence-Brown, and son in law Kevin Carr-Hartley (both from Nairobi) all tagging sail on 20 lb line. Rob had a day on his own fishing and managed another sail tagged.

The annual Kilifi Christmas Hamper, a one day competition, was held out of Kilifi Creek north of Mombasa.  Many family and friends were spending the Christmas holidays by the sea and joined up for the competition with quite a few boats entered.  Kipapa was chartered by Stuart Allison and Leigh Allison with Leigh winning the biggest fish for the day with one sail tagged.  The next day Stuart’s family & friends took the boat out and fished the waters back to Mtwapa with Nick Stubbs tagging a sail; Dr. Tony Allison a tagged sail and bagged a dorado and a kingfish.

Back at our base in Mtwapa Creek, Steve and Vicky Rose  joined us at the coast over the New Year  holiday and together with members of our family went out for the day and had a mixed bag of fish, mostly dorado. Our grand daughter, Tea Carr-Hartley age 11 together with the help of her Dad, Kevin, managed a good sized dorado as her first deep sea fishing experience.  Vicky landed a good size dorado also and felt that she was really hooked on deep sea fishing. Steve caught the one and only yellow fin tuna with our daughter, Jeni Carr-Hartley and Kevin catching a dorado each.

A sail did come up behind the baits, did some jumping,  but just did  “window shopping” and never took the bait.

Shortly after New Year, Ed New and friend Paul Warner from England set out for a day’s fishing but sadly had a long day with little return bringing back a trevally; a rainbow runner and a small bait fish for the freezer.

Tony and Tracy Elliot did another one of their surprise last minute trips from England, a week in January fishing out of Watamu on Kipapa.  We usually get a text message or an email asking us what’s happening with the fishing and if the fishing is good, they book their flight and out they come.  Great!
Always good to see them and Tony fished several days with some great quality billfish – 3 striped, marlin hook ups  plus a blue marlin with a mix bag of smaller game fish.  Tony, Howard and our crew member, Erick Mwachai entered the Malindi Casino International fishing competition. The first day was really frustrating with all three members losing marlin and only leadering one.  The second day was electric with the most marlin caught, dragging us up from nowhere position on the score board to  4th overall with two blues one to Tony and one to Howard, two stripey’s – one to Tony and one to Erick.

Things Can Change in a Heartbeat

Thomas Savins and wife, Patricia, together with friends Peter and Dixie Matthews  fished a day on Kipapa out of Watamu and had a really long and hard day with no signs of any fish.
10 minutes before the end of the fishing day, a line  finally got a hard hit and Peter took the rod.  He was rewarded with a good sized black marlin of about 55 kg which was duly tagged  and released in good condition.  I think Peter was breathless after his fight but it was definitely his fish to fish as it was his birthday on 21st January and his first bill fish.  An extremely good effort for a gentleman well into his 70s..

The Delamere Competition was held this year on 30th and 31st January at the Kilifi Boatyard and well organized by the Mnarani Club committee.  This 2 day event is always such a pleasure to fish with a good team of organizers and the social evenings at the Kilifi Boatyard well supported by anglers, their family and friends. Robin Byers; Rowland Minns and Colin Church chartered  our boat and set out to beat the odds.  The end of the first day saw Robin with a sailfish tagged; Rowland Minns “The Marlin Man” had a striped marlin and a sail, both released with Colin finishing with a sail tagged.  The second day of the event had all 3 chaps with sails tagged adding a dorado and a rainbow runner to the final results. The team finished 6th out of 16 boats entered.  We look forward to a repeat performance this next year.
Charles and son, Richard, Oliver Bellasis from England returned again to Watamu in February to fish with us the rips and mountain “drop offs” off Watamu. The billfish were really running in the Malindi and Watamu fishing grounds in large numbers and consequently all boats were out each day in February.  The Watamu Bay was a colourful sight at the end of each fishing day with so many of the boats flying flags.  Charles’s and Richard’s 6 days of fishing totaled 9 sailfish; 2 blue marlin; 1 black marlin and 1 striped marlin. The number of billfish exceeded their  totals the previous season. Interestingly enough, the yellow fin tuna were predominate, running with the marlin together with some of the smaller game fish species.

Hot on the heels of Charles’s and Richard’s week, saw the arrival of Carl “Flip” Potgieter  from Botswana and his fishing friend, Jacques Malan from South Africa.  Flip’s uncle, Marius Potgieter and friend, Piet Lombard teamed up at the same time and fished off Seahorse as Flip and Jacques fished off Kipapa.  Flip and Jacques scored at total of 11 sail; 4 striped marlin and a black marlin hooked by Flip.  All billfish were tagged and released.  The yellow fin tuna and dorado were still around plus a few wahoo adding a mix to the days fishing. Marius and Piet also had  very successful billfish fishing with Marius hooking up with a stripey on his last day.

Slow Fishing Days

The first two weeks of February proved to be great fishing days and then about the middle of the month the fast action slowed down for a couple of days due to water temperature change; change in the current and generally putting the fish off until the cycle clears itself.  Anne Williamson, together with Rick Locmery; her sons, Ethan age 12 and Jonathan age 8 all set out for a day’s fishing out of Watamu but were unlucky with no hook ups up all day.  Such a shame as it would have been great for the young lads to have had their first experience of sports fishing.

Alan Elenson from Miami, Florida and  IGFA record holder of blue fin tuna on light line joined us for a few days fishing together with fishing partners Lloyd van Name; “TJ “Beinert and  lady friend “Angel” fished a few days.  Their first day out on the water was on Albatros with J.J. Nicolas as skipper.  The following days fishing on our boat were not brilliant days fishing providing only a few hook ups with some sailfish and a few small bonitos, bait fish.

Michel and Gerri Schoenmakers from Holland fished off Kipapa on 21st February, running to the favourite marlin grounds off Watamu with Michel hooking up with a good size striped marlin of about 60 kg and a yellow fin.

Our fishing friends from Scotland returned with Jonothan Bone and John Barbour  chartering our boat the following day with only 1 sailfish hooked by Johnny and not much else for the pot.  The day after Scotsmen Bill Black and John Allen scored with one sailfish to Bill.  Another slow day.

2010 Kilifi Classic Competition

This event  was held the last weekend of February at the Kilifi Boatyard and again another annual great all round fishing competition with some great prizes to win; a good social event and a popular competition for anglers.  This year’s event was chartered by Deborah “Snoo” Colvile; Stuart Allison and Johnny Havelock our team from the previous year.  The first day of the competition was a real hit and miss day with some boats coming in with billfish and others not.  Our team came in with a wahoo of 12 kg and no billfish….. such is fishing.

Their second day out saw an improvement in the fishing with Snoo hooked up to a striped marlin which took a multicoloured lure and weighed about 60 kg which she duly fished to the boat for a tag to be placed on the fish before releasing. (Most competitions award higher marks for tagging billfish encouraging conservation of billfish and threatened species.)  Snoo is the first lady angler to have tagged a marlin on our boat.  Well done Snoo!  This team placed 4th overall.

Following the Kilifi Classic, Michel and Gerrie Schoenmakers fished another day out of Watamu with us beginning of March and Michel was lucky enough to score another striped marlin of about 55 kg.

Bill Black returned to Watamu early March for 3 more days fishing and had better luck with a total of 7 sailfish; 1 blue marlin of approximate weight of 65/70 kg; 5 wahoo ranging between 5 – 10 kg; a barracuda and a dorado.  I think Bill’s comment went something like “cracking fishing!”  Certainly his best bill fishing so far.

Bob Lackenby, Kristian Gibbs and Michael Wambua flew down to Watamu from Nairobi fishing 2 days early March. Bob decided that as he would be leaving Kenya soon, he really wanted to do some deep sea fishing before he left and Kristian was equally keen to join him along with Michael who had not been deep sea fishing ever!  Their two days fishing rewarded them with a sailfish  each along with 7 wahoo and a few dorado.

Tony and Tracy Elliott returned to Watamu along with Tracy’s Mom and Dad, Pat & Pete for one week’s holiday which included a few days of fishing.  The fishing turned off that week which was a real shame and as a result Tony and  Pete hooked some yellow fin tuna and dorado while the billfish remaind ellusive.

Fishermen from Holland fished off Kipapa for a few days in March with 11 sailfish tagged and released  by K.J. Hoogduin; Bass Kanters; Edwin Kanters; Leo Haak; Ton Bog with a black marlin and a striped marlin hooked by Paul Mulder.

Mombasa Fishing

We moved ourselves and the boat back to Mtwapa Creek for the forthcoming Michael Dunford Memorial competition on 20th March held at the Tamarind Restaurant jetty Tudor Creek, Mombasa.
This year Kipapa was fished by  co sponsor, Lode van Houtte and Rob Jessop and swept the board as winners of the competition with 2 striped marlin; 6 wahoo and 13 dorado.

A few days later, Bob and Veronica Hammond and Bob’s son, David, went out for a day’s fishing on our boat from Mtwapa Creek and although the day was extremely uneventful a striped marlin decided to have a go at the baits and David was lucky enough to get a successful hook up…. his first marlin as well and a good specimen of about 50 kg duly fished to the back of the boat, a tag inserted and released.  No other fish were caught during the day, but the marlin made David’s day.

In April Reg Randall and son Reece, joined us in Mtwapa for 5 days fishing.  By this time the south east monsoon had pretty much settled in with the build up of rain clouds gathering each day. Despite the change in weather Reg and Reece managed some good dorado fishing; along with a barracuda and smaller bait fish.  They fished lighter tackle of mostly 20lb and 30lb lines which is good fun with the dorado. The dorado were immediately filleted and skipper and chef Howard, cooked some delicious dorado coujons.  Reg and Reece took a break from the fishing and went off to Watamu to have a beach holiday before Reg and Reece flew back to Khartoum and later Reece returned to his school in South Africa.

This past season was one of the best seasons for billfish for us with 44 marlin and 106 Sail tagged many of these were “firsts” for our anglers. It was a great season with elusive fish on windy and rainy days, weather often affecting sea temperatures, currents were inconsistent pushing the warm water further and further out with  fish often as far away as 30 miles offshore .
By and large a season where we have learned so much more and we look forward to another challenging season in 2010/11.
Tight lines to all anglers eveywhere and watch out for some exciting fishing packages coming up on our web site.

Howard, Sue and crew.

Wet windy and end of season

With Easter over and most of the holiday makers gone home, there will be fewer boats going out now, as business slows in inclement weather, with southerly winds, heavy rainstorms and rough seas.

White Mischief was out on Monday after Easter, and young Danny Thomas caught a 222kg blue marlin, on 36kg stand-up tackle, a magnificent achievement for the young man. Also on board was visiting Shimoni skipper Simon Hemphill, who himself tagged a striped marlin, no doubt impressed with the waters off Watamu! The same day the anglers on Alleycat had a black marlin about 270 kgs, and another estimated at over 110 kgs, so there was still plenty of marlin action then.

The Banks was yielding good scores of wahoo as well as some sailfish , and the Ocean Sports Family competition was fished Easter Saturday with the boats crowded with young anglers trying their luck. Albatross, with the Taylor and Nicholas families aboard took the first place, with Joey Taylor winning the girl’s prize with her sailfish and the skipper’s prize going to JJ Nicholas, whose daughter Kiella won the lady’s prize with her wahoo. Runner up was Blue Eyes crewed by the Parkinson family, with the biggest of their half a dozen wahoo giving Fritz Strahamner the men’s prize, while another big wahoo on Happy Striker won the boy’s prize for 10 year old Alex. A fun day for all involved and much enjoyed by all the anglers, young and old.

Before Easter White Bear released a blue and a striped marlin for Donovan and David Starr, followed next day by a sail and four wahoo for Peter and Paul Cooper, who scored next day with another sail and seven wahoo for three good days. On the Sunday, Gary Vincent Lemke had ten wahoo on B’s Nest, while Naz Khan and sons had four wahoo on White Bear. Blue Eyes then released three sail, missing out on the wahoo – these often are found on opposite ends of the Banks!

Malindi boats have been busy before Easter but the news was delayed last week by the attachment of a 4Mb picture of a marlin which baffled the email system! As reported, skipper Angus Paul on Neptune hit his 100th marlin of the season, when Perez Vanneste from Belgium and Hardus from South Africa released a blue marlin of 140 kgs and a stripey, as well as two sailfish.

Philip and Nick Matthias are regulars at Malindi who usually come early in the season when the waters are much rougher, but they were still rewarded with a black marlin of 87 kgs, six wahoo, 6 yellowfin and other small fish for a good day on Tina. Next day they repeated the feat, but the stripey was one of three on the strike, but the other two fell off! Snark had a blue and a stripey, while Eclare released a 120kg black and two striped marlin and Snowgoose had two blue marlin, one of 138 kgs which came in injured and a small one released – a good day for the fleet.

The Dunford Memorial tournament at the Tamarind was won by Lode van Houtte and Robert Jessop on Kipapa with two striped marlin, six wahoo and thirteen dorado. The same boat later caught a striped marlin for David Hammond, his first which was tagged and released.

From Manda Bay, Ed Ghaui caught his first stripey on a flyrod fishing in Shakina while Kerry Roberts also caught her first stripey, on conventional tackle on a trip to Kiunga.

So ends another season, probably the best for marlin ever, so let’s hope next season is at least as good.

Heavy rain started at the coast on Sunday night and didn’t seem to ease up much, with it still coming down on Thursday morning! Good for crops and the parched acres, but not much fun for anglers – a fishing boat is a cold wet place in this sort of weather, and even where the fishermen can huddle in a cabin, the scream of a reel going off with a fish on the end brings groans rather than rejoicing as one has to go out to grab the rod in the wind and the rain!
Nevertheless, boats have been out and the rain does seem to bring the fish up, perhaps to enjoy the extra oxygen in that cold top layer, but fishing has been erratic, particularly with the sailfish at Malindi, where one day all the boats raise fish, while the next proves disappointing.
Last Thursday was one of the active days, with six sailfish, eleven kingfish and a couple of tuna on Neptune, while Eclare had five sail – they were attacked by a large pack of these fish in the afternoon with sail after every bait on half a dozen rods, but only secured two from this pack! Tina finished with three sail, having lost a lot more.
But the next day the fish would not cooperate, with Snowgoose catching the only sail from three boats – while the fish can be seen finning, they refuse to come to the baits. Why? If one had the answer to that one you could make good money!
Earlier in the week, long time regular Gawie Brewer and a group of doctors from South Africa started a four day stint on two boats, with Neptune getting two sail and Eclare one, together with some giant trevally, kingfish and other
At Watamu it has been a quiet week with few trips, Black Widow tagging a couple of sail for Will Hamilton, his first ever, but on a later trip only finding kingfish and wahoo.
Skipper Howard Lawrence-Brown has brought his boat Kipapa up from his Mtwapa base, fishing with Steve and Dylan Wright, and catching yellowfin and wahoo, though the sailfish have eluded them so far. There certainly are yellowfin around, but often hard to catch – boats fishing a short day from Watamu find the sailfish areas beyond Malindi too far for a five hour trip, and opt to fish the Banks which can be great fun, and hard work, when the tuna turn on.
Where there are tuna there are always sharks, and while these are often hooked most of them are released these days. It is always sad to see a dead shark hauled up the beach and dangled on the gantry, though this does bring the tourists in with their cameras. But skippers and anglers should be educated to release – after all, sharks are among the world’s most endangered species.