Plenty of black marlin - hard to catch!

The Malindi Billfish Competition produced lots of black marlin strikes but hardly any sailfish, as these seem to have vanished from inshore now, though some good catches are still being made on the North Kenya Banks.

On the first day, only Alleycat tagged a sailfish out of the eight boats entered, and while other sail were seen, they were not hooked up. Some boats went for marlin, Eclare and Tarka both hooked up black marlin but popped the line, so it was into the second day, and skippers found the marlin really turning on. Thirteen marlin were hooked up though some of these were on boats not in the competition, but only one came to boat to be tagged and released on Neptune, which gave this boat the top prize with AlleyCat second with her sail.

So what happened to all the other fish? - well, black marlin fishing on the Watamu Banks has for many years has been a game that really separates the men from the boys, and so there were lots of fishing stories!

Ironically, Tom Cunningham in AlleyCat boated a 167.5 kg marlin two days before the competition, and had two blacks of 85 and 115 kgs the day after the tournament, but in the competition their luck ran out! With the two marlin caught on the two days before the tournament, Tom has had a great fishing holiday!

Tarka tagged a black the day after the competition, and also on competition days White Bear had a black of 293 kgs, while Choka-Naye had another of 130 kgs, but neither were entered, isn’t this so often the way it goes?

But this is an exceptional run of these marlin, and the numbers that fail to be brought to the boat show how difficult this fishing can be!

The light line Morson Cup was won by Wave Hoppa, with a sailfish caught by Martin Edgar, the only billfish caught by the five entered boats in the two-day tournament. But further out, on the North Kenya Banks, Eclare had a great overnight trip with a black marlin, four broadbill and five sailfish. That same night, Tarka had three broadbill, boating one of 82 kgs on 24 kg line, a probable Kenya record, while White Bear lost one after an hour’s fight, then another after two and a half hours! Are these the strongest fish in the sea?

At Shimoni, striped marlin are hard to find now, Kamara II tagged a couple on 15kg line late in the evening on a night trip, but five strikes from broadbill in the dark did not result in a hookup, and Walter Brun in Nala had the same story.

Ted Holmes, original owner of Broadbill, back from Oz on a visit, led his nephew Edwin to tag a stripey on his old boat, and Jasiri also found a marlin, but with strange weather and thunderstorms fishing has slowed down in this area.

In the last couple of days the weather seems to have returned to normal with good NE winds, so portents for the Kilifi Classic this weekend are good - will someone find that big marlin on the Banks?

Next week, mid-week there will be the “Friends of Kenya” tournament fished out of Hemingways, with sponsorship from Simba Sportfishing and Kulala Camp and Advanta Tackle. Running for two days and a night, this gives boats a chance to roam far and wide, and the North Kenya Banks will be targeted, especially with some big broadbill having been found there recently.

Then on the weekend the Watamu SFC tournament will be fished for two days, and once again black marlin will be the target, as they score points heavily, and - dare I say it? someone MUST catch one over the two days!

The KASA Annual Dinner will be held at Kingfisher Lodge on Wednesday 7th April. The raffle will be held to raise funds for the tagging programme, with the usual range of great prizes. This is just before Easter, so should suit everyone - put the date in your diary and more details later.