There have not been a lot of trips this week, during which the wind has been very gentle and varying in direction – making conditions in which the fish often go deep as the surface temperatures rise.
At Diana, however, Shuwari has been very successful with two consecutive days finding a black marlin, releasing a good fish estimated at 130kgs one trip, then weighing another of 96.5kgs for Yasmin the next day – he also caught wahoo, dorado and yellowfin tuna for a very exciting day. An earlier trip by the same boat yielded a very big dorado, locally called felusi, of 22kgs, only half a kilo short of the Kenya all-tackle record.
Tega had another good overnight trip to the North Kenya Bank, where they found five broadbill, a black marlin and some wahoo and dorado. They had one big strike from a broadbill at 3am, a heavy fish which eventually came off as the hook pulled – these fish have very soft mouths and many are lost his way.
At Watamu, Tarka has been out a few times, with a sailfish tagged one day, and mixed bags of giant trevally, wahoo, kingfish, as well as a small shark – many of the boats have been sitting on their moorings this week, but with the Xmas holiday almost here, a lot of private boats will be going into the water and we should see more action.
Watamu glass bottom boats have been seeing an unusual sight these last few days, with a big pod of false killer whales appearing with the dolphin not far offshore. It is thought that this sighting is the first for this species in Kenya. They are dolphin family, not whales despite the name, and though other large dolphin species such as the true killer whale, or orca, and pilot whales have been spotted here over the years, this is a new arrival – let’s hope they stick around the area for a while for the tourists and local enthusiasts to watch.