This was rather a mixed week beginning with very rough conditions and difficult fishing but becoming calmer as the week wore on. The fishing also improved considerably and as well as there being a cohort of baby striped and blue marlin passing through there were also a few bigger black and blue marlin. Kamara II had two quadruple hook ups from striped marlin and there were even a few mixed strikes of stripey with either black or blue marlins. Other game fishes were really rather few and far between with a few more dorado towards the end of the week. Tuesday 12th January – All three Shimoni boats were out today, it was very overcast and really did not look too nice. Our boats started fishing up towards Funzi and Msambweni where there had been so many sails in December. The water was really dirty resulting from the swollen Ramisi River but fairly calm. There have been quite a few thunder storms around but not much rain in Shimoni itself. White Otter went straight out and had a pack attack from sail on their way managed to hook one of them but the angler managed to knock the brake off in his excitement and that was the end of that.

There was nothing moving in close, no sails and no birds even, so we headed out. At 9am White Otter reported that they had a fish on the line but would not be more specific than that. However half an hour later they reported having tagged and released a blue marlin they estimated at 200-lb. Kamara II had a strike from a striped marlin at midday but those were the only marlins seen all day. In the afternoon the sun came out but it was quite rough. This strange weather is most likely linked to a cyclone off Madagascar but it does appear to be moving away to the south and breaking up.

Wednesday 13th January – Again all three boats out and heading out in the morning looked very similar to yesterday, overcast and dark. The sun did come out later in the morning but it was rough and uncomfortable. Russian visitor, Viktor Sinyakin caught the only marlin, a stripey from Broadbill but all in all not a much good day as one of our local skippers back in the 1980’s, Saidi used to say.

Thursday 14th January – All three boats out and all decided to head straight out to look for marlin. It was again rather rough and overcast from the outset with a big swell from the east. White Otter had a triple strike from baby blue marlins managing to tag & release one estimated at 80-90 lb. They later rose a pair of striped marlins but neither would take what was on offer. The only other billfish raised today was a sailfish on Kamara II that we failed to hook up with.

Friday 15th January – Just Kamara II and White Otter out today, the former doing a combo trip that includes the night as well. Today it was much calmer and sunny, too because until yesterday the night fishing had been in doubt. It is really no fun doing night fishing when it is rough because apart from anything else you cannot see the waves before they hit you!

Because we had the whole day at our disposal and my poor unfortunate anglers had already had two bum days I decided to start by fishing up north in close up to Chale Pt in the hope finding a sailfish or anything for that matter. There was very little moving until we got up to Msambweni and then there were a few schools of frigate mackerel but they were racing around all over the place and seemingly uncatchable. Once off Chale Pt we headed out in to deeper water and just before 10am we finally found a marlin for these guys. We got a black marlin of about 200-lb on one of my favourite lures, a black & purple “Iduna” from Legend Lures caught by Alexey Kashchenko from Moscow.

The sea was really a great contrast to the preceding days, much calmer and it was sunny. White Otter had an amazing story to tell on the radio, at around 1pm they hooked a striped marlin and whilst that was peeling line off the reel a large 400-450 lb blue marlin snaffled the lure on the 80-lb and took off. The angler, with full strike drag on whipped the rod out of the holder and immediately found the rod was not so easy to hold on to with a very angry blue marlin on the other end and full drag. Otter also has a very low transom that comes only half way up your shins so I guess he felt that he was about to get pulled out of the boat so let go of the rod! The rod tie, if indeed there was one then snapped and the beautiful and very expensive 80-lb rod and reel followed the marlin never to be seen again. Surely every angler knows that you never let go of your rod even if it means going for a swim! Just slacken the drag off!

Later in the afternoon we tagged a sailfish for Alexey Rumiantsev and then headed east across the Pemba bank. Just before dark all hell suddenly broke loose as tiagra reels started screaming and very excited instructions were being shouted about in Russian , English and Swahili – in other words total pandemonium. We had been hit by a pack of baby striped marlin of which we finally managed to tag 2 for Vladimir Kuznetsov and Ivan Baykov, the other two were on for a while but fell off after a very short time.

The night was pleasant in that the sea was nice, the moon was perfect but seemingly there were no broadbill around yet. We covered all my favourite haunts but to no avail so it was back home for a good long kip!

Saturday 16th January – Only White Otter out today whilst I slept like an “askari” (night watchman) as we say as they all seem to sleep like stones! Consequently I did not hear the radio calls but there were no flags flying from the outriggers when they came in at 3.30pm. They changed clients and headed out again to try their luck at night fishing. Apparently they fished inside the Pemba Channel, hooked up with a broadbill at some stage in the night, quite a good fish by the sound of it. But, also fishing in the same area were the local gill net fleet from Pemba Island and the broadbill swam in to one of these nets becoming entangled. For fear of getting the props caught up in the net they were forced to cut the line. These net fishers are a right pain in the proverbial especially since neither their boats or nets are marked in any way, which makes night fishing inside the channel quite dangerous. Personally I prefer fishing out across the top of the island and off the outer drop where these guys don’t venture.

Sunday 17th January – Only our two boats out today pretty calm and nice and sunny. Actually the sea is really calm in contrast to what it was a few days ago. We both headed straight out, I wanted to go quite a long way off where I had seen lots and lots of big flying fish on Friday afternoon, always a good sign. We hit quite a respectable black marlin on a lure that jumped like crazy back and forth across the wake mostly with its head pointing in our direction. We were unable to maintain contact and after a few spectacular moments the fish managed to disgorge the hook. An hour later we tagged a sail and Broadbill also hit a sail that did not hook up. They missed a couple more sails then found a striped marlin finning that would not come in to the spread. Kamara II then hooked a blue marlin on the Legend iduna that we had on for around 8 min before the line bust for some inexplicable reason. The marlin had finished its jumping and we were beginning to gain line back on to the reel when the line parted – very annoying, really irritating not least of all because it was my favourite lure, well one of them anyway.

Monday 18th January – Only our two boats out again today and the action started early. Just after 8am we saw a marlin jump and I turned down sea to look for it. As I followed the approximate course of the marlin we found a stripey finning on the surface but I think that we saw it a bit too late and it took fright and sounded. I circled round and a decent black marlin of at least 300-lb took the lure on the outrigger shot out of the water coming towards the boat. I hit the throttle to get away and then the marlin went in to overdrive but the only problem was that it never jumped again. All its runs were sub-surface changing direction frequently making it near impossible to know exactly where it was. It took out a lot of line and finally the line bust quite near the fish! Popping two decent marlin off in two days on 50, not good!

Broadbill tagged a stripey at 11am and then on the way home rose another to the teaser. It was a small stripey trying to eat a huge lure that it could barely fit in to its mouth and whilst that was happening a nice blue marlin of about 350-lb took a big lure and jumped straight towards the boat throwing the hook. Looks as though these fish have been taking extra curricular lessons in how to screw up the fishermen! Broadbill hit another stripey very close in to Shimoni and we lost a sailfish that just came off after quite a while.

As we came in White Otter was heading out on an combo to try again for a broadbill. The conditions looked ok, quite calm really.

Tuesday 19th January – White Otter just had one strike from broadbill that they missed during the night but complained the sea was really rough, which seemed a bit strange. It was calm yesterday afternoon and again this morning but the wind must have picked up in the night. Kamara II also out today.

We headed straight out and at only 7.30am whilst I was still getting the spread set and explaining my systems to our Swedish guests all hell broke loose. A pack of striped marlin had come in to the spread and were busy causing havoc. In the end only one of the 4 stuck on a 50, one of the 30’s popped off and the other two came off. One of the things that has become very clear is that it is really important that anglers appreciate that you cannot stop a marlin’s run by putting on more brake especially on 30 but even 50. All you can do is assume that your fish is hooked, you can’t do anything in any case to influence the situation once the fish has taken out 150+m of line. You just have to maintain contact and if anything reduce the brake being really careful not to reduce it too much in which case the reel may over run. When a marlin is ruinning really fast it must close its mouth to create a better streamlined shape in which case it cannot breathe. When a billfish jumps out from the water it cannot breath, hence the more it runs and the more it jumps the better for you, the angler.

White Otter tagged a stripey at 10am and then at 12 noon tagged both of a double header. We had a strike from what I am sure was a marlin that took a small lure in the wake behind the teaser and ran very fast before letting go. We then tagged a very small stripey at 12.15 so that we ended up with two marlin and Otter 3. a much better day!

Keep checking back for next week’s fishing report.