Calm weather continues at the coast, with some early morning showers and gentle breezes, although these are still more from the south than the east, and there is little sign of the switch to the north wind, the kaskazi, yet. With the arrival of sailfish off Malindi boats are concentrating in this area, alternating some active days with many fish up to the baits, with those less active days, when only one or two may be raised.
Last week saw some good days, Eclare catching five sail from about fifteen strikes on Wednesday, with Snowgoose getting a single from seven strikes, and a couple of days later it was Snowgoose running hot also with five sail, while the other boats had to be content with a couple. Ol Jogi, from Watamu, ran up to Malindi and tagged two sail with Adam Webb fishing, and he also caught a dorado.. The latter boat found one sail a couple of days before for Roberto Nicola, with a bonito and a dorado as well.
This week the fishing has been slower, with Neptune out on Wednesday raising only a single sail which they caught, but they did also find four giant trevally. Tuesday was a success for the anglers on Eclare, who were fishing with fly tackle, and managed to land two sail on this equipment out of the four they raised .It is interesting to work out the catch ratio for sailfish, a few days off Malindi saw 22 sail caught from 59 strikes, about one catch from every three strikes.
At Watamu Unreel tagged a black marlin last Saturday and missed another one, while three days earlier they released another black, but the other boats have been live baiting on the Banks but without success, but wahoo and yellowfin are generally to be found. Anglers going after marlin prefer to stick to their efforts with live bait, and are not interested in looking for the sail at Malindi! Most of the marlin caught this season have been in the 80-120kg range, but bigger fish would be expected in January-March period when the north wind is blowing.
Another reminder, the Eye Go Fishing tournament at Mtwapa this weekend, a great social occasion even if you are not fishing, and an opportunity to contribute to the Kwale Eye Centre which does so much great charitable work.