For five days heavy rain has fallen along the Coast, with about 200mms recorded here at Watamu by Thursday morning, and strong winds blew over the weekend before the rain actually started to fall. Storm warnings caused some boats to be put onto sheltered anchorages, but the sea itself was not too rough, and once the rain started the sea was comparatively calm with only light winds, as is often the case when the rain is really heavy.
In previous years with rainy days in October yellowfin tunny turned on and could be seen feeding on the surface splashing in big shoals with many sharks amongst them, but this does not seem to be the case this year, although anglers who chose to brave the rain were rewarded with catches of sailfish, wahoo and dorado.
Skipper Pete Darnborough in Alleycat, who has been fishing these waters for thirty years, was undeterred by the weather, and had a good day releasing a marlin and a sail on a windy day before the rain started, while Castle Lager had a good run over a week with twelve sail , including six on their best day, while sister twinhull Contagious, also found four sail one day – all these fish along Sailfish Alley in front of the hotels and along the reef running out to the Banks. Simba is now back in action, and tagged a sail, after a couple of earlier days with tunny, wahoo and dorado, but there were not many other trips out during the week.
The previous week at Malindi saw some good fishing, Gerard Zwaan and Jan Kwakernaak on Neptune releasing a black marlin estimated at 65kgs and four sailfish, as well as boating a big 27kg wahoo and a kingfish. The same boat next day with a client from South Africa and his young sons, released a good sailfish over 30kgs, and landed a barracuda and a dorado, as well as a fine giant trevally which they tried to release, but it came up dead so was boated and weighed at 43kgs.
Eclare and Snowgoose went out with a party of fly fishermen lead by Kiki Fernandes and Johnny Onslow, however the weather closed in and made fly fishing difficult, but Mark Brooks and Craig Dickwerts both managed to catch a sail on the long rods when a pack of eight sail came up behind Eclare – good fishing! Tina also did well releasing a couple of sail, and getting a 21kg yellowfin, as well as a 16kg dorado, some wahoo and kingfish and a bluefin trevally for a splendid mixed bag. Not many other trips have been made recently.
With the Malindi Festival being fished next weekend over the holiday, and the Captain Morgan Rum tournament with several teams from South Africa at Hemingways about the same time, there should be plenty of boats in action and more news from the fishing world over the next few weeks.
