News from Kenya Fishing - Mandarin Sports Fishing Club

July/August -there was no fishing in May and June 2006 and the weather in June was pretty stormy. Kamara II was out of action until late August and Broadbill was undergoing normal maintenance until mid- July. In July Pat did one day on 28^th picking up just 3 small giant trevallies but it was rather a stormy day. Fishing was also very quiet in August with just 2 days fished, one of which produced quite a good mixed bag of a 16-kg wahoo, a barracuda, a kingfish, a dorado and 6 rainbow runner. A striped marlin was tagged by one of the club boats towards the end of the month, and actually we very often do get some stripes around then.

September - the Latham Tournament organized by the Dar es Salaam Yacht Club took place over the weekend of 15^th/16^th with both boats booked by ladies teams. We took two days over the trip each way stopping off at Tumbatu Island, quite a large island to the west of Zanzibar on the way south and Maziwi Island off the Pangani River on the way back. With the competition starting from the Dar Yacht Club it meant weighing anchor at 1am to creep out to the deep water before speeding up for the run to Latham. There are always a lot of nets and traps off Dar and one has to be very careful travelling in the dark. Latham Is. may best be described as a rock and a sandbank surrounded by a shallow rugby ball shaped bank 42 nautical miles out in to the middle of the ocean. At the end of day 1 all the boats ran back the 30M to Sinda Is, a beautiful spot to the south of Dar. Day 2 meant another early start of 2am to be within 5M of Latham for lines in at 6am, and a very rough trip that was, too. Sadly the fishing was slow and the big yellowfin tuna were nowhere to be seen. Actually the main migration never seemed to happen at all but there were smaller tunas and lots of wahoo. Kamara II was placed 4^th with Yolande du Plessis picking up a sailfish on day 1 to give her the top ladies prize by some margin. Broadbill was placed 7^th but all the girls had a ball and after all that is what it is all about, having fun. The girls on Broadbill had never been fishing before and at least one lady had never been on a boat before. The Latham tournament is expected to be 3^rd week October 2007 so if anyone is interested please drop us a line.

October - 2006/7 was confirmed as an el niño year and as in 1997 the East African coast was pounded by heavy rains in October and November with severe flooding in places. The infra structure held up much better than in 1997 but still there was considerable damage to many of the major roads. Shimoni was cut off briefly in early November but at least only for a week this time around. It also meant that the rivers were pouring tons of top soil in to the Indian Ocean and particularly in the north clean water was often far off-shore.

In October we did our first North Kenya safari with the Baynton brothers, Daz and Gary who had previously done a couple of safaris to Pemba. After a night in Malindi at the Coral Key Resort we headed for the North Kenya Banks to start with an overnight before putting in to Lamu the following morning. There were a lot of yellowfin tuna on the NKB and we picked up 6 between 21-26 kg plus 9 smaller ones in the afternoon. The night was rough and we didn't manage to get any strikes at all. In the morning we pulled in to Lamu to drop anchor outside the Peponi Hotel owned and run by the Korschen family since 1967. The hospitality was fantastic and Nils was very helpful in pointing us towards the best fishing spots of the area.

From Lamu we moved north to Manda Bay where we anchored off the Manda Bay Resort for a couple of nights. The resort is stunningly beautiful with outstanding food, great hospitality and some very enjoyable evenings were had by all. The fishing was outstanding with 12 sailfish out of 42 raised our best day. We spent one night at the southern end of Kiwayu Island, a small rather remote island further north still. There were a lot of yellowfin tuna and sharks off Kiwayu one of which took a tuna Gary was playing on 20-lb line. After 1 hr 45m he brought a 75-kg black tip shark to boat side where it was released. From Kiwayu it was back to Manda and then to Peponi where we enjoyed a great dinner at the hotel. We did have one marlin strike from a small black off Lamu that took a softhead, jumped and came off. Our last night we spent at Ziwayu but it was not a comfortable night by any stretch of the imagination! On our way down to Ziwayu from Peponi we had another great day's sailfishing raising 52 fish that I counted and tagging 9. On the final leg back to Malindi we added 3 sails to give a total of 40 sailfish and 1 shark for the 10 day safari.

The fishing at anchor was also outstanding at both Manda and Ziwayu where the guys only stopped catching when they pulled their lines in and went to bed. Daz and Gary were using their own "up-tideing" rods catching quite a variety of species including cat fish, small trevallies and barracuda. We made the complete 10-day safari from Malindi and back to Shimoni without refuelling and incredibly our front tanks were still half full.

Back at Shimoni there were also a lot of sailfish in the area off Funzi and Msambweni but sadly the big tunny just never came. Virtually every day boats were returning with 1 or 2 sailfish flags and a mixed bag of school tuna, dorado, small giant trevallies, wahoo and even an amberjack. October is one of the most beautiful months here usually fairly calm, warm but not too hot and the fishing can be good too. Very often there is a run of striped marlin during the second half and when the big tuna come through the channel there can be wonderful fishing, not only for the tunas but also big marlin and mako shark.

November - Kamara II was based in Malindi for a month from the 10^th. The great sailfishing in October had gone off badly although just before we arrived boats fishing out from the Ngomeni estuary had been catching up to 25 sails in a day. The boats tried that area fairly regularly but the sails continued to be reclusive. Fishing with Leo Haak and Coën Mollenberg we decided to try the Watamu banks for GT's. But, it was very calm and the normal techniques using either baits or Halcos were not really producing much. When I suggested to Leo and Coën that we try popping they jumped at it. Coën proved to be a master at this technique and was soon hard in to a large GT on a spinning rod. The other boats were fishing round us trying to work out what we were doing; it really did cause quite a stir. These fish give one hell of a fight on a popping rod and because it is sight fishing it is really exciting. But, if you want to try it start doing your press-ups now, it is hard work and not just when you have a fish on the line but casting and working that popper takes it out of you. Both Leo and Coën were so taken with the popping that they have gone and bought their own outfits. All in all Coën had 6 GT's between 21 and 30-kg on poppers.

The annual CADSAS tournament followed on with the Zimbabweans invading Malindi for a week of fishing and partying. The day before the tournament proper Keith Sanders, Al Klei and Theresa Prinsloo fished a practise day with me with Al catching a sailfish. The CADSAS group are always great fun and never complain even when the fishing is poor so long as they get cold beers, very cold beers.

Immediately following the 4-day tournament Keith and Theresa came on an extended combo trip to the North Kenya Banks. They had won the tournament and were on a high hoping that their luck would hold out for a broadbill. It was nice having Eclare out there too since it is always good to have 2 boats as it is a very long way from anywhere. Most of us now have satellite phones to assist with communications when out of normal VHF operating range. As in October there were a lot of big tunas although not as visible and we were soon in to them. By dusk we had 5 over 20-kg and 5 smaller ones with the biggest, a beauty of about 45-kg caught by Theresa. During the night we only had 1 strike at 3.30am which never hooked up but Eclare faired better with 3 from 3 strikes. In the morning we had more tuna before having to make the long run back to Malindi.

December - We did our 2^nd North Kenya safari for 6 days from 2^nd with Jan Söderman from Sweden. The first night we spent anchored off Peponi but fished the NKB on the way. "Clueless" and "Tarka" had returned from Lamu the previous day following the coast and reported very little activity in the usual sailfish areas so we decided to go to the NKB instead. Soon after putting lines in we had a knock down on the centre rigger from what may have been a marlin but there was no hook-up. There were still a lot of yellowfin and we had 5 to 29-kg, plus a wahoo and a very big skipjack tuna of 10-kg. I hold the Kenya all tackle record for this species with one of 11-kg that I caught on the sea mountain off Shimoni so this was a very big one for Kenya.

Fishing north to Manda the following day the water was very dirty with lots of weed and very few fish showing anywhere. From Manda we fished further north to the northern end of Kiwayu but although there were a lot of small yellowfin these went down fairly early and the ocean seemed rather quiet. On the way back south we rose 2 black marlin together, one of which Jan caught and tagged estimated at 110-kg on 30. For the next 2 days we fished the deep water on the outside of the NKB to the 1000m contour but apart from tunas found no marlin. "Little Toot" fishing closer in along the 130m line where there was a nice rip had a brilliant half day with an estimated 300-lb black marlin on 30-lb line, a striped marlin, a sail and a 67-kg yellowfin tuna.

On our final night we decided to anchor in the lee of Tenewe Island, which is not much more than a series of large rocks. A private developer has bought the island under some controversy and tries to prevent anyone from coming near but under Kenyan law nobody owns land below high water spring mark. They sent a bunch of goons out to tell us to move on but were persuaded to leave us alone. It was a very pleasant anchorage much more comfortable than Ziwayu.

Back in Shimoni the striped marlin had started with the onset of the NE wind that started in late November but unfortunately charters were a bit quiet. This is normal, as soon as the wind starts blowing from the NE the marlin are there. There were altogether 16 marlin taken in Shimoni, the highlights being: On 13^th the Allen family from South Africa, none of whom had done any deep sea fishing before had chartered both boats. On Broadbill 14-yr old Robbie Hogan tagged a striped marlin to go with 16 yellowfin tuna, 2 dorado and a skipjack. On Kamara II Tony Nocton-Smith was fishing with his 12-yr old son Murray who caught a 65-kg black marlin on 30-lb line and then on the way home they had a double header of sails. Tony caught his estimated at 30-kg but sadly Murray's came off very near the boat. In addition they also had 26 yellowfin and a 12-kg wahoo. On 27^th Broadbill fished by Edward & Steve Wilson and party tagged two striped marlin, and at one stage had a pack of 7 or 8 marlin up together, The day before Shuwari had released what they said was a 350-400 lb black marlin on 50. On 31^st I took 3 youngsters out on Kamara II for a half day including Sean Flatt, whose Christmas present this trip was from his parents, Kivara Luke and my son, Chris. We had a triple strike from striped marlin successfully tagging all three, a lovely way to end off 2006.

January - the fishing was great with plenty of striped marlin sometimes in large packs plus a few blues and blacks and sailfish. But it was also very frustrating spending too much time on shore listening to the radio reports. Alley Cat, Clueless and Tega came down to Shimoni in the middle of the month to sample the great fishing since things were still very quiet further north. Clueless had a great day on 11^th with 3 stripes, and Alley Cat had 2 on each of 11^th and 13^th. Tega raised a big pack that took everything only to leave them with 1 fish when the smoke had cleared. The Austrian team of Frans Neuwirth, Erich Grausgruber, and Franz Jankulik had a great week fishing on Broadbill with billfish every day but their first for a total of 1 black marlin, 6 striped marlin and 7 sailfish. The highlight was a beautiful 125-kg black marlin on 30 caught by Erich plus 4 of the striped marlin were better than 65-kg.

I received a wonderful bonus at the beginning of the month when my son, Chris decided to come and spend part of his gap year working with me on Kamara II. Having your own son enjoy the same things that you do and work with you is a wonderful experience that not many fathers are blessed with. And especially since Hamisi was hors d'combat following an accident in late December whilst trying to save his own boat from being smashed against the pier leaving him with a broken arm.

February - The fishing picked up even more with great variety including quite a few grand slams. Marcel Dekkers and Dinand Rouwenhorst from Holland fishing Kamara II had an outstanding week with 1 black marlin, 7 striped marlin and 11 sailfish in their 6 days. This included a GRAND SLAM on 7^th, the first for Kamara II something that has been eluding us since she arrived in Shimoni. Broadbill also had a slam on 5^th with Stephan Kaulbars and Karsten Möller with a blue, a stripey and 3 sail. These guys had been fishing for some years without ever catching a billfish so in their 2 days with Pat they had a blue, 3 stripes and 3 sail. Having broken the ice with the first slam Kamara II recorded another on 13^th with John Carr-Hartley, Doug McKendrick and Martin Poole with a black, a stripey and 2 sail. Then on 18^th/19^th with Charlie McCrow and Lindsay Brown from London we recorded her first super slam with a broadbill, a blue, 2 stripes and 2 sail on an extended combo. Charlie has uploaded a short video of this blue marlin on to Google videos, titled "Kenya blue marlin with Sea Adventures" with some nice footage of an active fish.

There were no really big marlin caught but quite a few between 200-300 of both blues and blacks. On 10^th Brian Emmott took a nice black on a lure on 50 estimated 280-lb, and on 13^th as part of the slam John Carr- Hartley caught his first black marlin after many, many years of trying estimated at 120-kg on 50 both from Kamara II. Lindsay Brown's blue marlin on 19^th on 30-lb line we estimated at 90-kg, which was part of the super slam.

March - the marlin continued right through the first week with the sailfish going on for longer. Marc and Richard Ager on 1^st fishing aboard Kamara II had an 80-kg black marlin and 2 striped marlin, then Reinhold Netz and colleagues fishing on Broadbill on 4^th had 5 sail. Charters were few and far between but marlin were being caught by those boats still venturing out until after end first week. It then became very calm and the wind started switching in to the south but still quite a few sail in the deep water. Broadbill picked up an 80-kg black marlin on 15^th and one of the other boats had a stripey on 20^th and a mako on 22^nd.

April - we continued fishing in to April and although there were no billfish caught we did get a lot of small stuff including dorado, yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, wahoo and rainbow runner. On 13^th fishing in heavy rain with my sister, Pippa and her husband Bruce over from Australia we had a lot of action including a nice 23.5-kg yellowfin tuna caught by Pip. The large numbers of skipjack was particularly pleasing since we have not been seeing these for many years now and had started to think that we would no longer get them. But this is a really good sign and could mean that the big blue marlin may come back too.

El niño & la niña - The last time that we were subjected to a major el niño was 1997/98 and that was followed by a la niña in the 1998/99 season. During October 1997 the East African coast was pounded by exceptionally heavy rains and just in one weekend we measured 18 inches at Shimoni. During the el niño of 2006 the East African coast was yet again pounded by very heavy rains during October and November. But, from a marlin perspective it was the la niña that followed the el niño that was so incredible. I don't think that any of us have ever seen such incredible fishing as we did from 3^rd week November 1998 to end February 1999. There were no troughs, just one mega peak in which two of the Shimoni boats passed the 100 marlin mark, White Otter and Kamara. The marlin were in packs, we were raising 10-20 fish daily and if you only caught 1 marlin you thought that you had had a bad day and Shimoni was the place to be. 2006/07 was confirmed an el niño so could 2007/08 be a la niño? I pray that I will once again have the privilege to once again witness such amazing fishing and I am convinced that with Broadbill and her new engines, and Kamara II 150 marlin would not be out of reach.

Links - Sea Adventures is pleased to have formed alliances in many countries with agents who have agreed to market Sea Adventures in 2007/08. For Russia, Latvia, Ukraine and Belarus, contact Vladimir Mertsen of the company "Fishing Caravan" ( www.info@fishing-caravan.ru ). In Denmark Svend Bie Christensen has produced a website specifically to market our operations at www.blackmarlinfishing.dk . And in South Africa you might like to take a look at www.pureafrica.co.za for all your safari needs in Southern Africa. "Tight Lines Visreizen" has accepted to become our exclusive agent in the Netherlands. They are in the process of developing a new web site but in the meantime you can contact Bert at < info@tightlines.nl >. Existing Dutch clients of Sea Adventures may continue to contact us direct if they wish. We also emphasize that no one company in South Africa has exclusive rights and that we accept direct bookings. We also thank all those other agencies who have sent us business over the past year and we Sea Adventures would be very interested in entering in to further agreements for mutual benefit.

We hope to see as many of you as possible during the 2007/08 fishing season in Shimoni and let's hope that my predictions for a la niña come off. If it is anything like the last one you will never forget the experiences. We wish you all the best for the coming season whatever you do or wherever you go and please stay in touch.