Marlin fishing is very dependent on water conditions, and early last week strong winds at night had blown down dirty green water stretching far out to sea with a resultant decrease in marlin catches, but this changed with calmer warmer weather and the blue water current came back running north to create better conditions in the Rips.
This is the time of year when we often see the bigger fish, and Tom Cunningham from Nairobi had a nice blue marlin of 278kgs on Alleycat which gave him a hard struggle for two hours – he has been fishing here at Watamu for thirty years now and this is his biggest marlin yet, shows one must keep trying!
The Malindi International Billfish Tournament was fished over two days last weekend, with Simba leading on the first day with a big blue marlin of 162kgs caught by Steven Siewright and six sail – this team clinched the top spot next day when Alan Sibley added a striped marlin. Unreel were in second place, also with a blue and a striped marlin, while Clueless was third.
The Morson Cup light line tournament was fished the previous Friday, resulting in a win for Egon Jenke, Rainer Weide and Musa with two sailfish on 6kg line and one on 8kg line. Tarka, with Paul Worthington, Callum Looman and Mangi came second and Bruce Buckland, Nick Taylor and Rick Bate were third on Seahorse.
The previous weekend at Mtwapa they fished their annual Mtwapa Cup, sponsored by Kenfreight, with Fish Eagle fished by Robin McDonald running out as winner with a black marlin in the professional stream, and Baloo took second place. In the amateur stream, Taru with a black marlin was the leading boat and Phoenix with a blue marlin was close behind. Three marlin and five sail as well as smaller fish were shared by the nine boats entered.
The weekend of March 3rd-4th will see the annual Watamu SFC International Tournament hosted at Ocean Sports and sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank, Pulsator Lures and Capt. Andy’s Fishing Supply. A cocktail party and briefing will precede the auction on the Friday evening, and a big entry is expected with the good run of marlin being experienced now.
At the same time, over both days an innovative Marlin Championship will be fished out of any port, with the prize money all going to the boat catching the biggest marlin over 400 pounds (181.5 kgs). Similar to the annual IGFA championship fished world- wide every July 4th, boats anywhere along the coast can enter to try their luck – winner take all!
The following week on 6th-7th March, Hemingways will host their popular two days and a night marathon ‘Friends of Kenya’ tournament, so a feast of fishing for enthusiasts here.
With too many boats catching marlin to list them all, Black Widow has had an outstanding run with a stripey and four sail, a stripey and six sail and a blue and a striped marlin and three sail on three consecutive days, while Ol Jogi with a tagged blue marlin estimated at 250kgs was another fine catch.
