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.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)