Still a few billfish around to lure anglers

April Newsletter No.5: 13/4/2009 courtesy of Captain Andy's

Not a lot of boats out recently, although with the Easter holiday starting and a couple of club tournaments there should be more action this coming week. But the weather continues good, calm with gentle breezes and little sign of rain at Watamu yet.

Despite the wind changing into the south-east, there are still marlin in the Rips, with Contagious, a big catamaran fishing from Watamu, finding a blue marlin one day and a stripey the next for the South African anglers. Alleycat, having heard that Adnan, with Marco Brighetti from Lamu had caught a marlin near the mlango, tried a right turn fishing south from Watamu with lures and was rewarded with a black marlin on a lure, whereas their live baiting efforts on previous days on the Banks, the customary marlin area, had been unsuccessful. White Dove had a nice yellowfin of 25kgs, and a giant trevally the same size the next day, while there are plenty of small tuna and dorado to be found.White Bear, with Alex and Robin James, had a good day early in the week, tagging a striped marlin and two sail, and Ol Jogi with a sail and three yellowfin of 22, 38 and 41kgs kept Peter and Paul Cooper and Michael Jones busy.

Up at Malindi earlier, Neptune enjoyed a good day, Mike Reid and Melvin releasing a 110kg black marlin, with ten yellowfin, three wahoo, three kingfish and five dorado. Billy Lynch from Nairobi, a keen fly fisherman, tagged a sailfish on fly with Snowgoose, while Eclare also had a big sail, 42kgs, for Leonardo Krucker, and another sail two days later with plenty of yellowfin. Neptune this Tuesday found masses of yellowfin, catching 26 off Malindi, most of these trips just half day now.

The Watamu /Malindi area and north has had probably the best year for billfish ever. Skipper Angus Paul with Neptune's sailfish tally is nearly up to 800 with 67 marlin, while equally amazing skipper Callum Looman has had over a hundred marlin and over 600 sail. Capts Pete Darnborough (Alleycat) and Rob Hellier (Unreel) are not far behind, and as thirty marlin has been a good score in recent years, it is fantastic to see these figures. Back at the end of 2008 boats in some closed tournaments with overseas teams averaged twelve to fifteen sail per day at Malindi and Watamu, while further north at Kiwayu similar incredible scores underlined how good the fishing was – with this sort of fishing, Kenya ranks with anywhere in the world.

Tourism numbers were disappointing however, as it takes a long while to recover after disasters like the last election, but a number of clubs and associations who cancelled their scheduled angling visits to Kenya this last season must be regretting missing such outstanding sport.
A Watamu club competition will be held on Easter Saturday, while Kilifi have their annual Easter Frolic on the Sunday – emphasis in both is on families and kids, who should have fun with plenty of small fish around – report next week.

Billfish move on as season slows

April Newsletter No.4: 6/4/2009 courtesy of Captain Andy's

With April upon us the main fishing season will draw to a close soon, as, despite the wind not being able to make up it's mind what it is going to do, the billfish, the marlin and the sail, seem to have gone on their way in their annual migration. The wind appeared to have changed into the south, and there was a shower of rain last weekend, but then it settled back east and yesterday was blowing firmly from the north-east again.

But the signals are there,and at Watamu only one sail and no marlin have been caught in the last week, with a similar situation at Malindi. Neptune, however, fishing up to the North Kenya Banks had more action, finding a black marlin and a sail at the beginning of the week on their way to Lamu. Returning, they had a successful night with two broadbill released, one a fine fish around 100 kgs, then live baiting the next morning they released three black marlin and a sail before returning to base, a very successful trip for Peter Holdsworth. Shows that there are usually some fish somewhere – the problem is locating them!

But there are still plenty of small fish to keep anglers busy, and a day with tuna, dorado and wahoo is fine for the passing tourist, but clients are hard to find now although there should be more locals down for the Easter holiday. Adam Ogden has been keeping his family busy in his boat Tengesi, with five dorado, two wahoo and three yellowfin as a typical day, while the Cooper family from UK out in Ol Jogi, had a very big yellowfin at 60 kgs, plus a pile of smaller ones with dorado as well.

Hands-on fishing in his Sesse canoe Samvuke is what James Adcock specialises in, very successfully as a day for Peter Cooper showed with a dozen yellowfin and the same number of dorado, or felusi as they are called locally. Fine fighting fish on light tackle, and good eating too.Night trips still yield broadbill, and Castle Lager weighed a very big one at 126kg, bigger than the Kenya record. These are generally judged to be the strongest and hardest fighting fish in the ocean, with many stories of hook-ups at night where the reel ran out of line and the huge fish disappeared over the horizon. With the world record standing over 500kgs, imagine how that would fight!

An incredible story from the Friends of Kenya tournament three weeks ago when the anglers on Lascar, which eventually finished second, saw a strike from a striped marlin race line off the reel only for the line to break. Twenty minutes later, a second strike resulted in a hook-up which was more successful, and a striped marlin was fought to the boat, where it was seen the fish had a broken line wrapped round the body and a lure in it's mouth. Yes, it was the fish they had broken off earlier, and after the fish was released the lure was recovered and put up again on the outrigger. A couple of hours later, another strike on that same lure resulted in a blue marlin fought to the boat and released – the fish that won them the prize!

At Watamu, there will be an Easter Saturday competition at Ocean Sports, with the emphasis on ladies and youngsters fishing. At Kilifi, the annual Easter Frolic is a fun day with most of the local boats fishing families on Easter Sunday – with the present calm weather likely to hold, and plenty of yellowfin, dorado and wahoo around, these should provide an opportunity for holidaymakers to have fun and fill the freezers for the off season!

Newsletter No 1 January/February 2009

We all hoped the amazing fishing experienced in 2008 would continue in 2009 and it did, exceeding our best expectations, rewarding us with some really good all round fishing and then some.
The bill fishing has been brilliant, with Blues, Blacks, Stripie’s, and even a Short Billed Spearfish. Despite some reversing currents and a shift in the monsoon with the south/east winds showing their strength on a few days, reverting back to the north/east after a day or so. We think this could be a good sign for some early rain, which the country badly needs after a long dry spell.

Early January saw Peter Botha and Mickey Smit fishing on KIPAPA from Mtwapa Creek fishing northwards with 2 Sailfish tagged and released on 50 and 80 lb line plus a Yellow Fin. The Delamere Competition organized by the Mnarani Fishing Club, took place at the Kilifi Boatyard on 31st January and 1st February.
A well run comp with plenty of socializing at the boatyard bar during the comp auction and the following 2 days fishing. This event had a good number of boat entries with a number of overseas anglers as well as our faithful “up country” anglers. KIPAPA was fished by Robin Byers, Roland Minns and Colin Church with 5 Sails to their credit and some smaller game fish. Despite the “wish” list of this keen group of fishermen, the Marlin were not theirs to be had but not to be deterred, the “wish” list is set for next year’s comp.

After the Delamere Comp, a father and son team from England joined us fishing KIPAPA from Kilifi to Watamu on their first day, 2nd February. Charles and son, Richard Oliver Bellasis spent a week fishing with us out of Watamu to the Rips each day. Accommodation was arranged with Ocean Sports Hotel, a friendly fisherman’s venue. Between them they scored 13 Sailfish and 3 Marlin plus lesser game fish. Charles had a battle with a large bull Dorado. Many anglers are really surprised by how hard big bulls can fight, they make sailfish look easy. Charles has now booked early February 2010 and we look forward to seeing them both again. All the Sailfish and Marlin were tagged and released.

January and February produced some heavy seas and the Rips at times were lumpy as can be. KIPAPA took the rough sea in her stride, being longer (now 42 feet) and heavier – a good counter balance with regard to comfort and all round performance.
It is really unfortunate that we have to fish 80 and 50 lb line, as most of the fish do not warrant this heavier gear, but you just do not know when a bigger fish will eat your lure, or live bait. Suddenly 50 is too light as with a recent 3 hour fight which destroyed the angler, tested the tackle, boat and skipper when a Black held us off, and never really looked like we would tag it.

Following Charles and Richard’s departure on 8th February saw the arrival of Marius Potgeiter from South Africa, “Flip” Potgeiter and Gerhard Koch, both from Botswana. All 3 are keen fishermen and on a return trip for a week’s fishing this February and another go at the billfish. Accommodation was at Ocean Sports, Watamu. Fishing out of Watamu on their first day out to the Rips, Marius hooked up with an unusual catch, a small Short Bill Spear Fish, which sadly did not survive releasing. This is only the 7th recorded Spearfish in Kenya angling records (that we know of) and now Howard is one of the few Skippers to catch all the Billfish species available on this coast. “Flip” hooked a nice size 25 kg Sailfish. Some smaller game fish were boated during the day – Skip Jacks; Yellow Fin Tuna; Wahoo and Kawakawa. The following day, Marius hooked a Striped Marlin of about 70 kg, the first of their trip. On their third day fishing, “Flip” hooked a Sail and a Striped Marlin of approximately 70 – 80 kg. Gerhard had a Sail of about 30 kg. Gerhard went on to hook up with a Striped Marlin of 50 kg and another Sailfish the following day. “Flip” had a Black Marlin on this day of about 120 kg. On their last day, Marius tagged a small “Sailie” of about 20 kg and “Flip” a big Sail of around 40 kg. The total billfish were 4 Marlin - 3 Stripie’s a black and 6 Sailfish.

Hans Strydom and friends took a day’s fishing with us the following week catching several Dorado. The Billfish were being elusive on this day and so the anglers struck out on their luck for the big fish.The Malindi International Billfish Competition was held on 20th February with the Light Tackle event on the first day followed by the Billfish tournament on 21st and 22nd. Leo Haak, Nico Visser and Mr. Breggan fished the comp on KIPAPA. Mr. Breggan caught a big Black Marlin of some 250 kg around 10.30 a.m on 24 kg line while trying to catch some Skip Jack Tuna for live bait, and from then until early afternoon the fish won the battle at the end of the day leaving the angler’s body parts in serious agony. No other Billfish hooked that day. The second day of the event had Leo with a good sized Striped Marlin on 80 from a live Friggie, weighing about 70 kg. Late afternoon produced a Black of around 80/90 kg’s taking 40 mins to get a release on 24 kg tackle.

William Heather-Hayes and Nadia Bassi, staying at Turtle Bay Beach Hotel, Watamu went fishing with Howard on Kipapa 25th February. “Will” had a great day out with a Black Marlin of about 90 – 100 kg plus 3 Sailfish tagged and released, 2 Wahoo and lots of Friggie bait fish. Neither Will nor Nadia had been deep sea fishing before and were thoroughly hooked by it. Nadia released a Sailfish of about 25 kg, a first for her and one she will not forget as she said that having seen these fish on film you cannot realize just how beautiful they are in real life. All Billfish were released in good condition.

The Kilifi Classic competition held at the Kilifi boatyard on 31st January and 1st February was again another successful event with 20 boats entered. A record amount was raised at the auction Friday night before the comp and generously supported by not only the coast anglers and friends, but by quite a few up country anglers, family and friends as well as some overseas anglers. KIPAPA was fished by Stuart Allison; Jonny Havelock and Deborah “Snoo” Colvile. Only one Sailfish was hooked along with some Dorado as the total catch for this team. Other boats and anglers did well with a few Marlin; Sailfish and smaller game fish.

So far fishing for Billfish the first part of March continues to produce good hook up again from the Watamu Rips area. A few more tournaments such as The Friends of Kenya comp which starts on 11th March with a full day’s fishing; the whole night and a full day the following day will likely see some Billfish action and perhaps some Broadbill during the night session of this comp. See the last fishing report from David Slater on this comp.

The next comp for the season is the newly named “The Mike Dunford Fishing Tournament” (ex Tamarind/Seaforth Shipping comp) in honour of Mike Dunford who was a director of Seaforth Shipping and a part of the Tamarind family. This comp will be held on 21st March from the Tamarind Village venue on Tudor Creek, Mombasa. Mike was a keen angler and loved his fishing. Sadly Mike passed away last year. This year’s competition is being sponsored by YARA LTD, so the Tournament will be bigger and better than before. Appreciation goes to Lode van Houtte and his YARA team for their generous sponsorship.

The Kilifi Easter Frolic fishing comp will be held on 12th April, Kilifi Creek and is the last of the KASA fishing events for this year. More details on this comp later.