It has been a quiet week for fishing but with the Malindi International Festival starting next weekend anglers will be arriving and taking reconnoitering trips out to see where the fish are. The weather continues calm but there have been a couple of light showers of rain, a millimeter or two, with warnings of the heavy EL Nino rains to come, so what effect that will have on the fishing we shall see.
From Watamu, Unreel has had a couple of short days, back for a late lunch, finding a sailfish on Monday and next day catching a big wahoo of 23kgs and a smaller one, as well as three yellowfin tuna. This boat has had a sail every day on the last three trips, so it looks as if these fish are staying around on the banks at Watamu, though one rarely finds them there in the profusion which characterizes the waters off Malindi when the season is in full swing.
Tarka had a day out on the Rips, where school size tuna were plentiful, and they ended up with thirty-six, while Instedda has come onto her mooring and did a run to the Rips, to tag a striped marlin and miss a second strike, a good start. Interesting to find stripeys on the Rips so early, as they normally appear in December.
At Malindi, Neptune had a short day on Friday, with a sailfish, four giant trevally, two kingfish, a barracuda and two dorado to keep the anglers busy, while Soolyman ran to the North Kenya Banks but found it very quiet out there.
The south coast and Shimoni have nothing to report, with no clients – so far it has been a bad season for them, and a boost to the tourism numbers is urgently needed.
The light line tournament at Malindi will be on Friday 16th Oct, and with most of the specialist anglers seeking sailfish they will probably be looking in the waters off Malindi and Mambrui, but there have not been many sail there yet. So we may find some of them trying the banks at Watamu with the option of wahoo and tuna as well. There will be plenty of arguments at the auction the evening before I expect.
