The weather has turned rough and windy again, unusual as September normally brings much calmer seas, but good catches of yellowfin tuna continue and quite a number of black marlin have been caught, with many more lost as is normal!
White Mischief, now with new engines, started her new season well with a black marlin of 156kgs near the Banks and then moved to Ngomeni for an early start to a trip to the North Kenya Banks next morning. A hard days work resulted in 569kgs of yellowfin being caught, the biggest, landed by Bryan Matiba, weighing in at 60kgs. Running back to Watamu next day, they caught 270kgs of yellowfin many over 20kgs for a great three day total!
From Malindi Clueless also ran the to the NKB the same day, finishing with over 25 big yellowfin and a 500kg total so there is some very active fishing out there. Eclare also had sixteen big tunny on the NKB, while Snowgoose and Eclare both found a black marlin each around the Banks on another trip, while the former boat found a sailfish a couple of days later.
Ol Jogi, fishing at Watamu, had an exciting battle for Adam Webb and Simon Rowe when they hooked into a big black marlin estimated at over 250kgs, but the fish came off after three and a half hours – a common story with these monster marlin. Alleycat also had two marlin on the line but both came off, but they had one a couple of days previously, as well as boating two tuna of 40kgs.
At Mombasa, skipper Eligio in his Inca, took Frank and Kylie Duffau and two daughters out whale watching, and sighted three humpback whales besporting themselves – they had a double strike of wahoo as a bonus landing a nice one of 20kgs.
Mark Allen skipper of Watamu boat Simba, joined up with Peter Ruysenaars, owner of the Pemba Channel Fishing Club and regular angler Mark Smith, to form a team for the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, one of the world’s longest running and most prestigious events. The first day they tagged a blue marlin, while next day the hooks pulled from another blue only fifteen metres from the boat. On the fourth day they had two marlin and one more the last day to clinch second place overall – a terrific achievement for the’ Friends of Kenya’ team!
