Eighteen boats started the first day of the Delamere Trophy, fished by the Mnarani Fishing Club from the Kilifi Boatyard last weekend, and expectations were high as the sea had calmed down and better blue water had appeared offshore. Most of the big boats headed out to the Rips, twenty miles or more out, to look for marlin, as these fish score highly in the points system, while some of the small boats tried their luck closer in.

Clueless, fished by Phil Revett, Jim Robertson and David Ogden, all out from England, and skippered by Rob Duff, was soon to report tagging a blue marlin, caught by Phil Revett, and later in the day, a second blue was caught, also by Phil. Simba, fished by skipper Mark Allan, his son George and crewman Mtawali ended the day with a single blue marlin plus a sailfish, while Tega had an identical catch sharing second place on the first day, with Unreel also finding a blue marlin running in fourth place for that day. Usubi, a small private boat, did well to catch three sailfish, and Iron Barde also had a sail.

For the second day, Sunday, the sea had got rougher and it was windier, and the fish were hard to find. Seahorse and Minerva caught a sailfish each, but Simba was the only boat to catch a marlin, a blue which died on the line and therefore had to be boated, not released and tagged, which would have given them more points and won them the tournament! But they had to be content with second place, with Clueless the overall winner, while Tega, which caught two sail the second day, came in third place. Unreel was fourth and Usubi fifth. Six marlin and ten sailfish were caught, but difficult fishing, evidenced by five of the top boats, all well fancied, catching one small fish between them! But a popular social gathering and great prizes with sponsorship from Deborah Colvile and Capt Andy’s, and we now look forward to the Kilifi Classic on Feb 21^st-22^nd.

This week at Watamu Sand Dollar tagged a blue marlin on Tuesday, while White Bear had another the previous day. At Diani, Shuwari had a brilliant day tagging two blue and one striped marlin, plus a sailfish for a grand slam – good fishing!