Written By: David Slater
On Date: 5/12/2007
Sailfish are starting to bite well in the Malindi area over the past two or three weeks, as the 'kaskazi', the north-east wind which starts now and blows till late March, is getting into it's stride. There is a bit of rain about, not much falling near the sea but a bit more further inland, and this upsets the wind, and on these erratic days the fish often become difficult, although they are seen everywhere swimming around.
There has been amazing sail fishing up at Kiwaiyu with boats camping as far north as Kui, an island about twenty miles south of the border at Kiunga. Neptune and Tarka went up there for four days fishing, with Batian Craig,Peter and David Frankham, William Carr-Hartley,Neil McCray, Justin Larbey, Brendon Hill and Jeremy, four anglers to a boat. Their best day was about 30 sailfish released, with Neptune totalling 118 and Tarka 80. The skippers reported it was interesting to see the fishermen's skills improving daily with the practice; one wonders how many fish were actually raised to the baits!
Simba, with Tina Allen and Phil Revett fishing, also had terrific fishing, with over 70 sail on their Kiwaiyu trip, then the same boat, fishing the last leg home from Ngomeni back to Watamu, with regulars Monica Niaz and Richard Chambers scored 17 sailfish, exhausting their supply of flags for a triumphant entry to harbour!
White Bear also did a Kiwaiyu trip, with Gai and Garry Cullen, Jeremy Block and friends, and they scored eighteen sail all on fly tackle.
William Dyer, who lives at Manda Bay, went out with master angler Henry Henley on Cheza armed with fly rods. Henry caught a sail to show how, then fourteen year old William had his first go with the thin wand and hooked into a sail! Half an hour later, he had played it back to the boat, when it decided otherwise and went tearing away on a long run as if it had just been hooked. It was another thirty minutes before the fish, estimated at 30 kgs, lay subdued beside the boat, and was duly photographed, tagged and released – an experience never to be forgotten!
The Malindi Festival tournament is the oldest fixture in our calender – started in 1958 to get the season going in Malindi, long before mass tourism arrived, it has been fished annually ever since. Sponsored this year by Fly540, the low cost airline,the tournament was voted as good as ever.
There was an exciting finish, as Alleycat, fished by Ivor Engel, Al Petrie and David Barker, had five sail and eight good wahoo on the first day leading Neptune with three sail.
But on the second day Neptune drew ahead to add four sail for Russell Brumby, his son Peter and skipper Angus Paul, against a single sail for David, fishing solo that day, but a big yellowfin on the way home did the trick by just a few points, the Alleycat team winning by a whisker.
Eddie Ryan and Glen Scanlon from Ireland on Seahorse came third with five sail, while last years winners, Phil Revett, Batian Craig and skipper Callum Looman made fourth in Tarka with four sail. Angus Paul was Top Angler with his four sail, while Jackson Brown won the Junior Angler title on Snark, catching all the fish, two sail, a giant trevally, a kingfish, two barracuda and a yellowfin , watched by father Ernie!
A huge black marlin was reported caught in a net off Ngomeni, north of Malindi, in October. It had been chopped into pieces, and the total of these came to about 600 kgs, so add in fluids etc it must have been a truly enormous fish. Only a few fish this size have ever been landed on rod and line, but perhaps one day...!
The right boat, with the best tackle, the heaviest rod and a tough experienced fisherman, the odds are long against it – last season's story on Simba was typical, with the monster hooked on a 24kg line, not big enough to haul a dead fish from the bottom.
There are a number of closed competitions held in Kenya, fished mainly either from Hemingways at Watamu or from The Driftwood Club at Malindi. These bring teams of anglers from South Africa, England, Holland and Germany in the main. Some only score for billfish, others have weird rules, when I remember an EFSA tournament in which the best point scoring targets were the small 'pickhandle ' barracuda close in to the Ngomeni reef – much to the detriment of the boats whole stock of expensive Rapalla lures!
Teams switch boats every day, and these events are always enjoyed by all the participants, despite the fishing being variable as it is all over the world, of course.
The Driftwood Extravaganza, organised by Basil Hill from Durban, was fished for the 14th year in October, and a couple of marlin as well as plenty of sail were caught by this very keen bunch of South African enthusiasts. Winners were David Pretorius,Thomas Gillies, Trevor Sony and Bryan Harvett, who caught a striped marlin on Alleycat and a black marlin on Snowgoose, as well as several sailfish. The Gibson and the Barnes husband and wife teams came second. In four days, an angler can expect to get more shots at sailfish than in the whole season on their home waters.
This was followed at the Driftwood by the Tight Lines Cup, eleven boats out for a couple of practice days, then three days of the competition proper. 36 sail, and a dusky shark on the first practice day set the tone of the event, and with a final total of 141 sail for the five days everyone was happy. Neptune with 19 sail and a black marlin was ruled top scoring boat, but Snowgoose with 20 sail and Tina with 19 showed there was little in it, and Watamu boat Seyyida with 16 sail wasn't far behind.
The British Billfish Club come annually to Hemingways, with twelve teams, six fishing one day and six the next alternately. The fish were slow at the beginning, but hotted up the second week, with six sail on B's Nest for the Lefever/Chambers team being the best individual day. Ol Jogi released a big mako shark about 230 kgs to make a change from sailfish, and I suspect most of the anglers would have voted this the most prestigious catch – in most Kenya tournaments, mako score the same as marlin, though I only remember one ever being caught in a tournament.
About this time Neptune caught eight sail, along with a dozen yellowfin, wahoo and kingfish fishing north of Ngomeni, when they hooked into a black marlin on 15 kg line, which Guy Raemaecker duly tagged and released – now that is a pretty good day out!
Another good day on the same boat had a final tally of three sail, a tiger shark, a giant trevally, a wahoo, a kingfish, a 23kg rock cod, a cobia and a yellowfin tunny! One can't find this sort of variety in many places in the world.
Tiger shark are still on the menu at Watamu, if one knows where and how, and both Tarka and Alleycat have released fish estimated at over 500 kgs, granders, but these fish are almost all released, fortunately, as they would soon be wiped out if killed. These big fish are the breeding stock, producing twenty to thirty live babies, which can swim away as soon as born to snap away for food!
To make a change, Dr Savoi went out for a night trip on B's Nest and tagged two broadbill swordfish, to show that these fish are still around. The weather has calmed down now, with gentle breezes, as night trips are not much fun in big seas and stormy weather!
The annual Latham Island competition showed slow action on the surface, and was won with fish caught deep jigging on the bottom. If not disqualified by the tournament rules, this is a legitimate method of catching fish, but scorned by purists who feel trolling on the surface is the way. When there are no billfish to be caught perhaps it is better to score something than blank days!
The most recent tournament has been the annual Capt Morgan rum competition from Hemingways, with teams from South Africa. Many of the participants were winners of annual best of species results from both salt and fresh water, but other teams are regulars here.
There was a slow start, with seven boats getting 14 sail the first day and 11 the second. But the north wind freshened a bit and set better to activate the fish, so 24 sail the third day, 35 the fourth and 21 the last day brought the total to 106 sailfish, almost double the figure last year, with an average of just over three sail a day per boat. The team of Ivan and Garry Booysen and Barry Hemmens won, aided by scores of eleven sail on Simba and six on White Bear for their last two days and a four day total of 23 sail for four days fished – each team had one free rest day.
Top boat was Simba with 18 sail, followed by Tarka with 17 and B's Nest with 15, but not all the boats fished daily, and of course this type of tournament is not between the boats, which have different teams, with differing skills and perhaps more importantly, differing luck, every day.
Instedda is a private boat, a big Hatteras, and the Moosa family from Mombasa keep her at Watamu and come up and fish weekends. Recently, they came home with five sail flags and a black marlin flag for an estimated 150kg fish released – just the thing after a few hard days at the office.
A family of humpback whales was seen from the shore swimming along the reef at Turtle Bay, Watamu. We haven't heard of them coming in so close before, though they can often be spotted out on the fishing grounds, usually in the June to November period. It is an amazing sight to see these huge creatures breaching their whole bodies out from the water and crashing back into the sea with a splash that can be seen for miles, and they are a great tourist attraction. To read that the Japanese are to resume hunting them, after their being protected by international conventions for many,many years is distressing indeed.
From Shimoni comes the good news that the striped marlin are beginning to show, reports Pat Hemphill. Broadbill caught two stripeys in a week, and one earlier, while many more were raised, but suffering from early season lockjaw, refusing the lures. But exciting events these refusals, as the marlin lights up it's neon blue pectorals and tail, and the angler is kept busy trying to tempt it to strike.
Shuwari had a multiple strike, three fish attacking at once, and managed to keep one on the hook for a release after the initial excitements. Some good yellowfin up to 30 kgs are being caught, with a few really big ones seen jumping, so perhaps these will keep anglers busy soon.
Readers will remember in September the story of 7˝ year old Jamie Ker, whose 6 kg Queenfish was being claimed as an IGFA Junior “Small fry” (under ten) world record.
This has now been ratified, and proud grandfather Benjie Bowles is wondering what other IGFA sal****er world records are still held by a Kenyan - anyone any ideas on this? A good enough excuse to knock the cork from a bottle of bubbly, anyhow!
NB. Weekly fishing news updates can be seen on the Capt Andy website ! Click link below.
Capt Andy’s Fishing Supply (www.fishingkenya.com)FOR ALL YOUR FISHING TACKLE NEEDS,RODS,REELS,LINES,HOOKS & LURES
BOATS of ALL SIZES, and YAMAHA engines.
Watamu - Tel 254 (0)42 32131/32571 Fax 254 (0)42 32132
Email - captandy@swiftmalindi.com
Mombasa - Tel 254 (0)41 471106 Fax 254 (0)41 471117
Email - captandy@africaonline.co.ke
Nairobi - The Happy Hooker, Lenana Forest Centre, Ngong Road.
Tel 254 (0)20 577706.
Kisumu - Tel 254 (0)57 41898
Report Supplied By:
David Slater
http://www.big-gamefishing.net
slater@swiftmalindi.com
Kenya report