The weather, with some strong winds, and then over the weekend, a very

heavy deluge of rain, with five inches or more in a day recorded in many

areas, has affected the fishing, especially closer inshore as the water

has been dirty and fish hard to find.

Unreel, out with Phil Revett fishing, caught an amazing giant trevally of

62kgs in the Boiling Pot on 36kg line. This is about six kgs more than

the Kenya record, held since 1969 by Ken Randall. I recall only one

bigger by a kilo or two, caught on Snowgoose some years ago, but this was

ineligible for the record, so it is a very notable fish.

Also at Watamu, White Bear, with Russell Hastings fishing, tagged a

striped marlin, while Jasiri released a sailfish as well as catching a

wahoo, a kingfish and a cobia for Roger Gauntlet from Nairobi, and Castle

Lager released a sailfish, so there are still a few billfish around the

Watamu area.

From Malindi, there has been excellent fishing on the North Kenya Banks,

well outside the dirty water that has been spoiling the fishing closer

in. Neptune found eighteen large yellowfin one day, all in the 25-30kg

range, while the next day, fishing with Justin Aniere and friends, the

same boat scored two striped marlin and fifteen large yellowfin, a busy

day by any standard.

The Zimbabwean anglers earlier had found three sail on Eclare and a

single sail with Snowgoose, then the teams tied next day with a sail each

on Eclare and |Snowgoose. While the sail are around off Malindi and in

the Mambrui area they are not easy to catch but a change in the weather

could soon alter things, and better weather is forecast for this weekend

when the tournament is to be fished.

At least fourteen boats have entered the Malindi festival so far, with

Kamara II and skipper Simon Hemphill coming up from Shimoni and the

Matiba family fishing, while Gitau Matiba has brought his boat Furaha up

from Diani – nice to see entries from so far afield. Boats are usually

restricted to fishing up to 25 miles from the harbour, as in the time

available in normal fishing hours of a tournament, there are very few

boats that could make it to the North Kenya Banks which would give them a

huge advantage.

So the boats will be looking for sailfish mainly, let’s hope the weather

obliges!