CMC sponsors Malindi International Festival - sailfish galore

Sailfish galore - is this going to be the story at the CMC - sponsored Malindi International Festival this coming weekend? One always hopes so, but history tells of many years when the sail were all over the place the week before a tournament, and again after it was finished, but enjoying a rest during the competition itself! But the portents are good, and a lot of sail are being caught in different areas, so keep the fingers crossed!

Crossed fingers can be a problem when one is fishing with very light lines, and the Churchill Cup, being fished on Friday 22nd is a light line formula competition. Pundits will be using lines of ten kgs breaking strain or less, even down to 2 kg line (at which level the Kenya record sailfish, held by Andrew Wright is an amazing 74 lbs!), with the weight of the catch being divided by the breaking strain of the line, so while those less experienced can have terrific fun with the 10 kg lines, the top places are usually won by those using the lighter lines, and, of course, many of the fish hooked end up only as stories!

Fishing during the tournament is to be restricted to a radius of 25 miles from Malindi, so this should give the smaller or slower boats an equal chance, as many felt that the fast professional boats had a real advantage in being able to fish much further away with secret waypoints full of the monsters!

At Watamu, boats have been having good days with mixed bags as well as sail, Ol Jogi having had four sail one day, three another, and on a day when they could not find sail, 14 yellowfin and 11 kingfish filled the fishbag, while B's Nest bested this with 28 tuna. Seyyida, formerly owned by the late Alex Dyer-Melville, now fishes for Pete Darnborough and is skippered by Martin Wheeler, had fun releasing a tiger shark about 200 kgs and a pair of giant trevally in the 20 kg class, while Castle Lager had a sail and some yellowfin, although another day they were unlucky to have the rope securing the fishbag break, and the days catch all went overboard!

At Malindi, Eclare went on a four day trip to Lamu, which, with fifteen sail on the second day and thirteen on the third, kept the fishermen hard at work. Neptune has been staying at Ngomeni and has had good days there fishing north, five sail one day and a couple of sail plus24 kingfish and 31 tuna another day, while Tina, trying south to the Banks, released a tiger shark of 200 kgs.

Simon Hemphill reports from Shimoni that he has been hosting a party of Japanese fishermen on Kamara II, who had their own ideas on how to catch fish, borrowed from methods they use in their native waters.

Deep jigging with heavy jigs while drifting, these are lowered to the bottom, in from 120 - 600 feet of water and jigged up with rapid upward sweeps of the rod tip. Apart from the usual run of bottom fish, grouper and snappers, they were catching yellowtail, a fine fighting fish uncommon in our waters, and not found on the surface at all - presumably preferring the colder water in the depths, as they are common in South Africa, Australia/New Zealand and Japan.

They also caught yellowfin tuna by drifting into the surface feeding fish and casting small jigs into the shoals, while normal trolling through these same shoals attracted no strikes, an interesting experience for a skipper and a chance to learn new ways. And much cheaper on fuel!