The wind is often a crucial factor in fishing, and with hard blows from the north-east consistent now, the area we call the Rips is becoming more productive. Starting about sixteen nautical miles from the shore, these are a series of underwater mountain ridges, rising to under 170 metres from depths of 400 metres or more. The resultant upwellings from the currents, especially when strong north winds are blowing against the current, create lines of turbulent waves with breaking crests, often when the surrounding sea is flat calm, an astounding sight!
This last Wednesday proved a good day, with both Alleycat and Seahorse tagging two striped marlin and two sailfish, fished by a group from Zambia who visit regularly, thrilled to have chosen the right time! Skipper Adam Ogden, taking his family out for a run in Black Widow, found a striped marlin and a sail for Anastasia and a sail for Jack, a good day for the young, while Clueless had a blue marlin and a couple of sail – all these fish in the Rips.
Martin Thompson was a well known angler when he headed Jambo Hotels in Malindi many years ago, but on returning from UK on holiday he was excited to catch his first sailfish on fly tackle in Neptune. The fight was made more chaotic when the reel came loose from the rod and fell into the sea, but it was safely retrieved, re-fastened and the catch duly completed. Fishing on fly is a deliberately difficult method of angling, so such a variation makes an interesting extra complication!
Dropping a rod/reel combination overboard is not uncommon, but as long as one has the end of the line, hook etc, it can be recovered but the problem is when the reel is in free spool. Five hundred metres of line may have to be pulled in first in a tangled heap, before the knot holds and the reel and rod come up!
The boats from Malindi are concentrating now fishing the Rips, but earlier Snowgoose had a run north with Marc and Bernd Neufeldt and had a black marlin and three sail – the pair had fished thirteen days for six marlin, six sail and two black-tip sharks, a good score as they struck a difficult period for fishermen. Tina caught a nice stripey in the Rips, while Neptune, now moved down to base at Watamu, had an empty day in the Rips, but ran back to Malindi via the Boiling Pot, and picked up three sail, two wahoo and two kingfish there to rescue what could have been a blank day. This illustrates two important fishing maxims, never stop working at it, and if luck doesn’t favour one in one area, move around and try elsewhere!
It was much quieter earlier and Watamu boats were pushed to find fish the previous week, but Seastorm had a good day with five sail, while Ivan Tyler and Gavin Loveday both tagged a sail on fly in White Bear on two consecutive days and then found one each on fly on a later trip as well as a stripey on conventional tackle. Justin Lines and Taylor Davidson had some successful trips on
Ol Jogi, with a black and a striped marlin plus two sail one trip, a stripey and a sail another and a couple of sail with fifty bottom fish on a third day, plenty of variety there. Blue Eyes also had fun with a stripey and a dozen yellowfin for Cor Roest, and Mis’Behave tagged a stripey, so it’s looking good for the Xmas competitions.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and ‘Tight Lines’!
