Billfish south and north It has been a quiet week with not many trips, but interesting to hear that marlin are being seen and caught in the Pemba Channel this early in the season. Out in Jasiri John Clark hooked a nice striped marlin on a small lure off the outrigger which was was fought to the boat and duly tagged and released. Shortly after, another billfish attacked the spread of lures, and was eventually hooked on the same lure by John Buckle – this time it turned out to be a black marlin, estimated at 80kgs, which was also tagged and swam on it's way.
The anglers immediately hoped for a blue marlin or a sailfish to appear, to give them the coveted grand slam, but it was not to be, but a really fun trip for them all.
At the other extreme of our waters, at Kiwaiyu, Simba continued to look for sailfish on fly, and over the weekend Richard Baudry caught four to bring his personal tally on fly tackle to fifty – quite an achievement, as it was not long ago that he caught his first!
Next weekend, Sat Oct 17th- Sun 18th, sees the fiftieth anniversary of the Malindi Festival, Kenya's longest running tournament first fished in 1959. Now known as the Herbie Paul International Fishing Festival, this is a two day competition, with a new sponsor from the UK, and good prizes of fishing tackle, bronzes and glassware. The sponsorship also covers the Churchill Trophy Light Line tournament on Friday 16th, a formula competition where the weight of each fish caught is divided by the breaking strain of the line used, and the experts will be looking for sailfish on lines of 4kg and 6kg strain – up to 10kg line is permitted.
Last year almost 130 sailfish were caught in this event, so if it is half as active this year good fun should be had by all, and it is always a very social occasion, so put it in your diary not to miss!
Billy Lynch got another sail on fly at Malindi, success both days there and one at Watamu, so he'll be back,while Ralf Fernhead from UK had his first experience ever gamefishing with two wahoo and two dorado on Malachite – with several days to go he'll be looking to improve on that.
Down at Watamu Martin Davidson released a striped marlin on Ol Jogi, not in the Rips, their natural habitat, but along Sail Alley right close to shore! B's Nest has had good action with wahoo and yellowfin, and quite a few dorado are being caught, tho' this is not the normal time of year for these.
Last week it was mentioned that Unreel caught a broadbill motoring back at night from Tanzania, but the other four boats all caught a broadbill en route, while Tarka had a stripey as well – interesting as one does not usually catch much while travelling from one place to another.
So lets hope for more fishermen and we'll see a big increase in sport as the fish are there! Hundreds of yellowfin at Latham Island Watamu boats scooped the top three places in the Latham Island tournament at the Dar es Salaam fishing club last weekend. Having spent three days fishing down to Dar from Watamu, the two day tournament was won by the crew on Tarka, with a hundred yellowfin tuna the first day and sixty more on the second. Black Widow came second, with about 120 fish over the two days and Unreel third close behind.
It was tuna, tuna, all the way, school size fish with only a few bigger ones, running up to 35kgs, and no billfish caught by the twenty-seven competing boats – hard work for the fishermen, on the go for the whole two days but when tuna are running, skippers concentrate on them - chasing the schools of fish, rather than the often different ways of trying for marlin, sail and other species.
Unreel on the way home picked up angler Phil Revett for the night trip north and arrived at Watamu having tagged a nice 50 kg broadbill swordfish en route.
Back north at Malindi and Watamu, the boats have been busier as tourist and fishermen numbers rise. The Heymann's group continued their busy days on Neptune with plenty of tuna and a sailfish on their last day,along with kingfish, wahoo and dorado, while Billy Lynch tagged another sail on fly, with Snowgoose this time. Billy, from Nairobi, is a fanatical fly fisherman, winning the annual KASA trophy for best fish on fly with a striped marlin of 65kgs he caught on Eclare in March, bettering another he caught the previous month by five kgs.
There are not a lot of sail around yet, although this should change as October progresses – a group of three anglers from South Africa tried for sail for three days on Snowgoose and were eventually rewarded with a sail they tagged on their last day, but they scored plenty of tuna and other small fish.
Those boats left at Watamu after the exodus to Tanzania continued to find fish, Gordon Abrams on Ol Jogi having a great day – a black marlin was hooked and fell off after a few jumps but later another around 120 kgs was hooked and stayed hooked to be duly tagged and released. Together with three kingfish, three dorado and a yellowfin an exciting day. Gary Lemke, who had caught a marlin earlier in the week, took his two daughters out on Vuma, and with 14 year old Emily catching a 15kg wahoo and ten year old Lauren a 12kg wahoo the photo shows fish almost as big as themselves!
Earlier in the week Nicholas van Horn on Ol Jogi tagged a striped marlin and a sail with fellow angler John Nock releasing a sail - a couple of giant trevally, two kingfish, two wahoo and four dorado made up a fantastic day. Alleycat tagged a spinner shark, catching yellowfin and wahoo as well, while Castle Lager released three sailfish to show there is a good variety of fish still around the area.
October and November have in recent years been proving that the northern areas have fantastic sailfish potential at this time of year, and Simba has gone up there to Kiwaiyu to start early. In the first three days, Gai and Garry Cullen with Richard Baudry have tagged eight sailfish all on fly tackle and when all the other regular fly enthusiasts gather here numbers will escalate. Sail are plentiful in this area before they move down the coast towards Malindi, so perhaps this is a pointer towards plenty of billfish activity in the Malindi tournament in two weeks time. | |
The Pemba Channel is the best marlin fishing destination in Kenya. The Pemba Channel Fishing Club has been fishing the channel for 45 years. We hold many All Africa and Kenya Records. The club runs professional boats and our crews are among the best in the world. All inclusive day trips from Diani can easily be arranged. Read our 2007 newsletter. Click here.
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Fisherman's Paradise. Experience big-game fishing at the most beautiful place of the world. Our crew has more than 20 years of experience in big-game fishing in this part of the Indian Ocean. Pemba channel is 2 hours with the fishingboat from Diani Beach. This part of the Pemba channel is world famous for its big black marlin and sailfish. We are located just 100 meters from the Neptune Hotels.
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