Good run of Marlin, but have they gone?

It often happens, the fish vanish when a competition is being fished and then reappear a few days later, and so it was for the Delamere Trophy fished out from Kilifi on 28th/29th January.

The previous week had seen some good fishing, despite strong winds and rough water in the Rips; skipper Ali al Hirazi had a memorable day on B's Nest with three blue and one striped marlin, plus a sailfish, all caught by Paul Belcher, who won't forget that sort of fishing!

A couple of days later Neptune tagged a black and a blue marlin, White Bear released a blue and a stripey, and Simba had to bring in a blue which died, weighing in at 275 lbs. Clueless ran an overnight trip which resulted in three black marlin, a blue a stripey, two sail and a broadbill, all released - another fantasy slam and a great start to their first season.

B's Nest played a much bigger blue marlin, which looked to be the right side of 500 lbs, but after being almost spooled on the first run, the fish jumped back on the line and popped it!

But for the Delamere, the inshore current seemed to have reversed, and in the Rips was indiscernible, both conditions which upset the fish. But two marlin were caught and tagged, with the winning boat scoring a few more points on small fish.

Results:- The winner, with a tagged blue marlin on the second day and a sail on the first, was the team on Tarka, K. Hirscher, D. Smeaker and O. Zeigler, with the latter winning the prize for the best fish with the blue marlin, estimated at 90 kgs.

Second came Shantori, a 17ft open dory fished by owner Roger Sylvester and Robin Nixon, also with a tagged striped marlin and a sail. This gave both boats 800 points, and it was only decided by the winner having 6.8 kgs of other fish, while Shantori only had 5.2 kgs, so they were beaten by the narrow margin of 1.6 points, an exciting finish for the prospective giant-killer.

Kipapa was third, with M. Dunford, J. Knight and Z. Manji on the rods, their sail and other fish totalling 239 pts.

Shantori won the small boat class, with Usubi second, fished by JJ Nicholas and Tina Harris, also with a sailfish. A total of two marlin and nine sailfish, but the tournament was greatly enjoyed by all.

Tarka also had a good catch another day, when they hooked into a big black marlin. They were towing several live baits, when the fish took a small frigate mackerel rigged dead to attract any passing sailfish! The fish died deep, and was pumped slowly up to the boat by Don Metcalf, and weighed in at 542 lbs. Last year Don released a black marlin of a similar size, and the year before he released a tiger shark estimated at over the thousand pound mark - a lucky fisherman!

Luck plays a huge part in fishing, as was shown by two top boats here when one day Neptune had eleven strikes resulting in a two blues and a stripey being tagged, while sister boat Eclare nearby had only one, unsuccessful, strike! The latter boats luck changed when another day, they tagged a blue marlin around 100 kgs in the evening and then three broadbill in the night on an overnight trip.

Sunday 5th February saw the Yamaha Marine Tournament, sponsored by Capt Andy's Fishing Supply, fished out of Mtwapa. This is a popular venue for the many small private boats in the Mtwapa/ Mombasa area, but it was two big boats which were in the frame, Dave Williamsons' Kamara just pipping Bob Brenneisen in Bado. The formers blue marlin and the latter's stripey were both tagged for the same points, but a yellowfin and a dorado tilted the scales for Kamara, Bado only adding a small bonito!

The fishing then improved again on the Rips, White Bear tagging two blue marlin and a sail, with a bigger blue around 250 lbs the next day as well as a couple of sail, and skipper Nick Conway reported packs of blue marlin coming up behind the baits like sailfish shoals!

Alleycat and Seyyida both were both doing well, the former with a couple of blue marlin and the latter with a pair of stripies, finishing up with half a dozen marlin for the week.

Veteran skipper Salim, who started his career in Lallie Lee over forty years ago, is now with Zambarani, as the former JimGin has been renamed, and made a good start with a stripey and a blue one day. He also could not remember ever seeing so many blue marlin around in all those years.

However in the last few days, the wind has been very quiet and the sun hot and the fishing in the Rips again slowed. Good action appeared inshore, however, with black marlin hunting around the bait shoals off Mambrui and Ngomeni and falling to live bait; Snark caught two one day in this manner, and one the next day, while on the third they eventually popped the line on a big fish estimated about 350 pounds, which took a 15 kg line and the fisherman was unable to pump it up to the surface. Tina had two blacks that day, one about 330 lbs being tagged, while Neptune had four fish on the line, but they all went adrift - Eclare got theirs, tho', releasing a black around 270 lbs, so quite a lot of marlin in the area.

Ol Jogi took Peter Fox to the North Kenya Banks where they released a nice black of 350 lbs, and a very small broadbill in the night. The same fisherman tagged a blue and a stripey on B's Nest, while on White Bear he landed a huge tiger shark of 1630 lbs, which must be the biggest fish caught along the coast

Showing that it pays to travel, Rob Duff took his family in Clueless down to Tanga for a trip, and they tagged a couple of blue marlin in the Pemba Channel on the way back north. The trip also yielded another blue, a stripey and four sail, all caught by Pamela Duff.

The Malindi International Billfish is being fishing this morning as I write, so let's hope the marlin wake up, as there is a nice breeze and conditions look good in here, but twenty miles offshore who knows?

The Kilifi Classic follows next weekend, February 25th/26th, and three days later the two day and a night fishathon, the 'Friends of Kenya' from Hemingways follows - readers may remember last year this was won by Simba with the first ever fantasy slam of all five major billfish species!

Then at the weekend there is the Watamu SFC Festival, 4th/5th March, so a real feast of competitions for the keen angler.