Last minute marlin wins Kilifi Classic

It proved to be an exciting finish to the annual Kilifi Classic Tournament fished last weekend with an excellent entry of 27 boats coming from ports ranging from Malindi to Mombasa. A black marlin and 26 sailfish were caught, and amateur and professional boats shared the first ten places.

Seahorse from Malindi, fished by Kilifi team Anne Taylor, son Nick and James Cullen and skippered by Peter Ready, were in the lead having caught a triple-header of sailfish off Horne’s Pool on the Sunday morning to add to the single they found seven miles off Mida creek the first day, when over the radio crackled the news that Mtwapa charter boat Delta, with Rosl Richard and Ken Rodwell on the rods, had tagged a black marlin in the last hour of fishing.

This put them well ahead with 2495 pts and gave them the major prize of air tickets to Europe, donated by East African Safari Air, to win the overall competition, and Rosl also won the prize for tagging the most billfish.

This tournament then splits into two streams, amateur and professional boats, and the team on Seahorse won the professional stream with a total of 1684 pts, also winning air tickets to Europe.

Second in this group came Tarka, with a Watamu team of Phil Revett, Rob Hellier and Callum Looman the skipper, with 1370 pts, and Kipapa from Mtwapa came third, fished by Mr and Mrs Stuart Allison and Deborah Colvile.

Tasha won the top award in the private boat stream, with Mssrs Cornelius, Ackworth and Huddleton fishing for a score of 1274 pts, while Mshindi with a Kilifi team of Mr and Mrs Bob Hammond and Ken Oulton came second to win air tickets, the Manji Plate and 10,000/- for being the highest placed team starting out of Kilifi both days, as well as the David Partridge Memorial Trophy as the best resident amateur team. Tega, with Messrs Jury, Suddaby and Cremin were third.

Peter Vaz won the best sailfish weighed, and Carel van Weert the best other fish, a wahoo of 28 kgs, both getting vouchers presented by Capt Andy’s Fishing Supply.

Highest placed private boat under 30 ft prize went to <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Cold Shoulder, and it was interesting to hear that Benjie Bowles in this boat, taking some friends from UK out fishing on the Wednesday after the competition, found a black marlin on a Rappala on his downrigger right in the mlango, which Preston Rabl tagged in 15 minutes!

Thanks are due to Alistair Russell of DHL as well as Adam Ogden of EA Safari Air for their sponsorship, and other prizes included tyres from Goodyear and hotel accommodation, which all helped to make this tournament a great success.

Up at Malindi, the Kingfisher boats have been doing well. <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Neptune was towing four baits when one was struck by a marlin, then the second bait, followed by the third and fourth, all went off one after another in rapid succession! Four marlin at once!! till it was realized that one fish had taken all four baits, as the lines started coming back in with the hooks pulled or line broken. However, one hook held, and despite a length of broken line tangled round the leader, a good black marlin around 500 lbs was tagged and released!

This same boat had an overnight trip getting a striped marlin, two broadbill and five sail on the North Kenya Banks, and followed this with another trip yielding eight broadbill, two striped marlin and three sail - good fishing!

The run of black marlin continues on the banks at Watamu, Ol Jogi had a couple in the week, White Bear tagged another about 350 lbs, Neptune, Snark, Snowgoose, Seahorse and Choka Naye all found singles, and there were lots of stories, broken hooks (yes, stainless steel again!), and boats caught sharks as well - sort of thing that happens when one has live baits in the water around Watamu!

Last Monday at Watamu, B’s Nest from Hemingways tagged a black marlin of 120 kgs and a sail in the Rips - interesting as there have not been any fish further out here this season. Have they suddenly arrived late, in time for the Friends of Kenya and Watamu SFC competitions this week?

Late news - the “Friends of Kenya” competition, two days and a night out of Hemingways, resulted in a win for Ol Jogi, with the team of Phil Revett, Tim Allen and skipper Rob Hellier. Fishing the North Kenya Banks, they had a remarkable score of a black marlin, three striped marlin, three sail, three small sharks and some yellowfin.

Simba, with Patti Allen, Alan Sibley and Mark Allen came second, with a black marlin, four sail, and two sharks, while Eclare, fished by Bill Allen, Rick Lemmonier and skipper Batian Craig were third with a striped marlin, three sail, a shark and eight wahoo ( the latter really good for expensive marlin lures!).

No broadbill were caught, but with a full moon up all night these are not the best conditions.

More details next week, after two days and a night on sandwich boxes it was difficult to hear much over the crunching sounds of teeth on spare ribs and