Fishing seems quiet along most of the coast, but the sail are beginning to build up off Malindi, and when the winds veer into the north as is due later this month or early December, then we can expect good action on these traditional grounds.
Early in the week, Neptune had a busy day raising fourteen sailfish, with six of these being caught and released, while Ol Jogi tagged two sail. A few days later, Soolyman tagged four sail and a spearfish, the latter a rare catch in our waters up north, although more are seen down south and in Tanzania. The same boat ran to the North Kenya banks and caught two broadbill swordfish in the night, and one during the day, and they also tagged a marlin for a good trip.
At Mtwapa, the ‘Eye Go Fishing’ tournament from the La Marina was a great success, with over half a million shillings being raised for the Kwale Eye Centre. 21 boats entered, and the crew on Delta, Justin Walters, who caught the only sailfish, Max Donner and Sean McGovern won the overall trophy – they also had a giant trevally, and a big barracuda as well as some small fish. Nala came second, with Utawali third in the professional stream, while De Grand Cat won the amateur stream, with Dragonfly second and No Idea third.
Skipper Pete Darnborough in Alleycat has had a team from the Zoological society fixing a satellite tag into a tiger shark, estimated over 300kgs – it will be interesting to see how this works out. These tags record data like water depth, and position of the fish, then jettison after three months to send all the info to the scientists via satellite. They also caught and released a blacktip shark of about 120kgs and a spinner shark estimated at 140kgs.
Simba, Jasiri and White Bear have been on a trip to Lamu and Kiwayu. Anglers were fishing on fly tackle, and the boats were able to fly the appropriate flag for a tagged sailfish on fly most days, so a happy end for a party to celebrate skipper Mark Allen’s 60th birthday with his friends.
Malindi have introduced a new tournament on Dec 20th. Anglers will fish for billfish only, on lines of 10kgs breaking strain or less, and lose points for time taken to get the fish to the stationary boat. Only ten minutes is allowed after which the fish does not score!
