Boats are not making many trips at the moment, as the August tourist season moves to slacker months, but there have been some good catches with bigger tuna now coming in.
Clueless from Malindi, skippered by Rob Duff with his friend Ian Fenton and two sons Marcus and James, found plenty of action around the North Kenya Banks and Lamu areas, when a five day trip up there gave them thirty yellowfin tuna over 20kgs, twenty-six sailfish released and a magnificent black marlin, estimated at over 300kgs which was tagged. Great fishing!
At Malindi, business has been slow, but Eclare had a busy day with twenty-seven yellowfin tuna, while Snowgoose had nineteen tuna and a sailfish in Malindi waters. Neptune, trying the Banks area found a big barracuda of 22kgs, a 21kg wahoo and a couple of giant trevally, but the marlin were not forthcoming.
Malindi will be hosting the annual Herbie Paul International Festival over the holiday weekend of Oct 21st-22nd, with very generous sponsorship this year from Imperial Bank and Capt. Andy’s and terrific prizes – this tournament has been running for over fifty years now and they are planning to make it one of the best ever.
At Watamu, Ol Jogi has had a couple of days with a black marlin released, with the fish on Wednesday estimated at 100kgs. Earlier the same boat released three sailfish with anglers David Huddy and Jack and Warren Petersen, while the previous day James Kariuki and Aggrey Ngalla from Aggreko tagged two sail and George Burton on B’s Nest released a sailfish. Unreel also had a black marlin as well as a good 23kg wahoo
Castle Lager with their South African anglers have had two sail one day and a single the day before, while Alleycat found four big yellowfin up to 27kgs, and three wahoo and a couple of tuna another day, but the wahoo action seems to have slowed now.
The humpback whales which have been around the Banks have attracted whale watchers and B’s Nest and Ol Jogi have spent some mornings engaged in this activity – there was a mother and calf seen one day, and up to three adults on other days – whale watching is a big industry in several countries such as South Africa and some South American states, and in Kenya being able to catch some fish as well is an additional bonus.
