Fishing has been good recently in the Watamu area, with sailfish active most days and marlin being caught in the Rips now, so it was nice to see a great start to the Watamu SFC Xmas tournament, sponsored by Captain Andy’s Fishing Supplies.
The first day ended with the Seahorse team of anglers, Ayton, Griffiths and veteran skipper Peter Ready well in the lead with two marlin and three sail, ahead of the Tamu team with Geoff Bell, while Neptune fished by Moller, Taylor and Angus Paul with a marlin and four sail were close behind. The Parkinson family on Blue Eyes also had a marlin with three sail, so it is that extra marlin which is the decisive factor so far, and with both Black Widow with a striped marlin early on the morning of the second day to add to her five sail the first day and Unreel with another stripey so far it could go anyone’s way. These are all big boats, but we must remember that smaller boats have a bonus with their catches divided by their length, although these have been unlucky in the marlin stakes so far! Results next week.
It has been curious how the sailfish have been active for two or three days, then quiet for a couple of days. On Boxing day, the boats were scoring one or two sail while the next day boats were catching seven or eight with Tega top scoring with eleven, and they had time to catch a couple of giant trevally as well. This was the day before the competition, and while sometimes one tends to use up one’s supply of luck on the day before a competition starts it was not that way with Seahorse, which had eight sail that day so obviously they are on a hot streak!
Earlier Greg Brackenridge on Ol Jogi tagged a nice blue marlin estimated at 130kgs, one of the biggest fish recently, while Mark Bird and Nick Thomson on Seastorm did well with a striped marlin and four sail. Some days later the same anglers had three sail, this time on fly tackle and Mark Allen in his Simba took time off from driving the boat to tag two sail on fly. White Mischief, Furio II and Alleycat also all found a striped marlin, so it looks as if the fishing in the Rips is off to a good start as the main season for marlin begins.
The Casino Malindi tournament is due on the 15th and 16th January, and with a good range of top line tackle, rods and reels, as prizes this should prove popular, particularly with the billfish running well with the Rips within easy range of Malindi – a good excuse to extend one’s New Year holiday at the Coast.
