“Friends of Kenya” Tournament finds lots of marlin

It’s a great feeling to catch a marlin, especially in a major tournament, but even better to catch two. So, what about four?

Four marlin it was for the crew on Ol Jogi in the “Friends of Kenya” Tournament run out of Hemingways last week, one black and three striped, plus three sailfish and three sharks as well!

Phil Revett, Tim Allen and skipper Rob Hellier scored this fantastic catch in the two day-one night competition fishing on the North Kenya Banks and ran in easy winners over second placed Simba, on which Patti Allen, Alan Sibley and Mark Allen tagged a black marlin, four sailfish, and two sharks.

Big grins - great catch!

Third placed boat was Eclare, with Bill Allen, Rick Lemonnier and skipper Batian Craig fishing for a total of one striped marlin, three sail, a shark and eight wahoo. It was Rob’s birthday, a nice present for a hard working skipper!

Thanks are due to East African Safari Air for air ticket prizes, and the other sponsors, Hemingways, Advanta Tackle, Simba Sportfishing and Kulala Camp, which made the competition a great success.

The Watamu S.F.C. International Festival followed two days later over the weekend, and once again marlin were on the menu.

On Saturday, Phil Revett on Tarka tagged a black marlin they guessed at 110 kgs, which scores 600 pts for the basic 100 kg weight for a tagged marlin.

Ol Jogi was running second, with two sailfish tagged, but on the Sunday three marlin were caught, and it was a 113.7 kg blue marlin weighed by Greg Badcock on Pussycat which pushed this team into top spot with 781 pts when adding in the shark they had tagged the first day.

This edged them ahead of Tarka with 734 pts, who only found a couple of wahoo on the second day. A sporting effort to release their marlin first day, as the extra points could have made the difference!

White Bear, with the Michaels on board, tagged a black marlin and a sail on Sunday to finish third, a nice result as they had zero the first day! AlleyCat also tagged a marlin, a stripey, to claim fourth place and fifth went to the Moosa family from Mombasa in Instedda, with a sailfish both days.

Thanks are due to Capt Andy’s Fishing Supply and Watamu Property Services for sponsorship, and good to see Andy Thomas on JimGin winning best sail prize, while John Krajicek caught the biggest dorado of 9 kgs to win the Arwa Trophy and Lady Nana found the best wahoo of 21.6 kgs.

Phil Revett, who comes frequently fishing here from UK (who wouldn’t with that weather!) has had a good run, second in the pro stream on Tarka in the Kilifi Classic, winning the Friends of Kenya in Ol Jogi, and second, again in Tarka, in the Watamu Festival, all in nine days, as well as having had several nice black marlin on other trips, including one of 370 lbs.