For the week ending Thursday 21st October:
Tuna predominate as sailfish stay shy.
The weather has remained good this last week, although the breezes have strengthened on some days leading to choppy seas in the afternoons, often good for tuna fishing but less so for sailfish.
At Malindi, where the Herbie Paul International Festival will be fished this weekend, last week started well when a party of anglers from Island Safaris in South Africa had a great first day with the team on Tina releasing a fine black marlin estimated at 150 kgs as well as three sailfish, while Eclare also released a marlin and Neptune three sail. The second day the boats all had one or two sail and smaller fish as well, and while the third day was a rest day, Neptune was out with a different crew and kept the anglers busy with two sail, twelve yellowfin, a wahoo and a kingfish. Snark went to Watamu to look for shark, but in vain, despite these predators having been such a nuisance a few days before when almost every tuna on the line was taken or savaged by the sharks – but that’s the way with fishing!
The Island’s teams were back after that, with Neptune and Tina both finding four sail and all boats saw plenty of fish finning on the surface but not taking the baits so well. After four days out, the teams finished with two marlin, 27 sail and plenty of smaller fish, including some good tuna over twenty kgs. But later in the week, the sail became harder to catch as the wind stirred up the waters, although they could be seen finning.
Down at Watamu the boats are beginning to build up in the Turtle Bay anchorage as the high season approaches, making an impressive display in the light of the evening sun – already more than fifteen modern sports fishermen up to top world standards, and many smaller cruisers ready for a days angling! Simba and Jasiri have returned from their fortnight’s stay up north at Kiwaiyu, where anglers Richard Baudry, Garry and Gai Cullen, Billy Lynch with skipper George Allen and their crews have had good sport with sailfish, catching about forty with many of these on fly. After such an idyllic holiday in this lovely part of the world, one wonders why anyone wants to ever return to civilisation, if that term can be applied to our cities – presumably one has to earn money to go fishing!
Unreel went after tuna with Phil Revett and friends, returning with seven averaging 22 kgs, but the high spot was a striped marlin, hooked by Phil which after a few spectacular jumps threw the hook! Tarka had a stripey of 47 kgs earlier in the week, with a couple of tunny as well, the biggest 26kgs, so it shows there are a few marlin around further out as well as the black marlin which seem to be always present at the moment around the Banks and in the sailfish areas off Malindi.
From Hemingways White Bear, Ol Jogi and Seastorm have all had successful days chasing the bigger yellowfin around the Outer Mountains, while B’s Nest on the Banks had a couple of sail and five wahoo – but so far trips to the Rips further out have proved uneventful, although no one seems to know why the bigger tuna are not around out there yet, while the North Kenya Banks has not been tried successfully so far this season. But one day some adventurous skipper decides to have a look around the more remote areas and finds the fish, and the area becomes a mass of boats!
