Sea Adventures Ltd. Newsletter 2006/07

As we look back on the past season it is interesting to recap the events that led us to adopt a change in strategy during 2006. We had developed on our live aboard safari options to Pemba Island since 1992 and we had purchased “Kamara II in order that we might have two boats available for these. Since 1992 we had regularly purchased fishing licences from the Zanzibar Government for the right to fish in Pemba waters and over the years these safaris had become very popular. But all this was to change back in May 2006 when the Zanzibaris made some outrageous changes in legislation that would effectively make the safaris uneconomic. They actually gazetted a licence fee for non-Tanzanian fishing boats of $1,500 a day, although they were later to shelve this in favour of an annual licence of $3,000 per boat a 500% increase on the fee we had been paying to date. But this was not all, because the Zanzibar Revenue Authority is also asking for 25% of the turnover as tax on live aboard safaris. So, for the 2006/07 season we had no other option but to stop doing safaris to Pemba Island a very depressing decision I can tell you. As you can imagine there has been quite a hue and cry from stake-holders in Pemba and they must have lost a great deal of revenue as a result of these new fees. I am told that the situation is now that the Zanzibaris have given those in Pemba the authority to make agreements as they see fit. Pat and I plan to visit Pemba over the next couple of months to discuss the situation with the authorities and see if there might be a way that we can start doing safaris again. I will of course let you all know what transpires.

But these problems did give me the chance to explore other parts of Kenya that I had previously never visited. I did two fantastic safaris to Lamu in October and December and spent quite a bit of time fishing out of Malindi in November. In addition to these northern trips Pat & I took both boats to Dar es Salaam in September to fish the Latham Island Tournament. We really enjoy these trips and each time we get a bit better at fishing those waters and the results show. The introduction of deep jigging and popping to fishing in Kenya is increasing in popularity as it not only allows one to fish for different species, to fish when trolling is not working but also means that the angler is very much hands-on. There is no sitting around waiting for the strike; you actually have to do the fishing.

Pemba Channel –I think that some people might have misread my newsletter last year, but we have never stopped fishing in the Pemba Channel. That will always be our playground and we still fish all our usual spots. We just could no longer go in to Pemba Island doing safaris but otherwise there was no change.

July/August –unfortunately there was no fishing in May and June of 2006 and the weather in June was pretty stormy. Kamara II was out of action until late August and Broadbill was undergoing maintenance until mid-July. In July Pat did just the one day picking up just 3 small giant trevallies on 28th 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 wahoo of 16-kg, 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 –in 2006 the Latham Tournament organized by the Dar es Salaam Yacht Club took place over the weekend of 15/16 with both our boats were booked for it. Four Shimoni boats made the trip south taking 2 days to get there fishing all the way. We stopped off in the lee of Tumbatu Island, which is quite a large island off the western side of Zanzibar and then finished off the journey to Dar the following morning. This year we had to start from the Dar Yacht Club itself, which meant leaving harbour 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. Both teams on our boats were ladies teams many of whom had never been fishing before, and I think at least in one case had not even been on a boat before! 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 4th with Yolande du Plessis picking up a sailfish on day 1 to give her the top ladies prize by some way. Broadbill was placed 7th but all the girls had a ball and after all that is what it is all about, having fun.

October –At the end of September Kamara II made the journey up to Malindi to pick up the Baynton brothers for our first North Kenya safari. We stayed the 1st night at the Coral Key Resort in Malindi, which offered very reasonably priced accommodation before setting off on 2nd October for the North Kenya Banks. The plan was to fish the first night on the NKB because the nights would be getting brighter as we moved towards full moon. There were a lot of yellowfin on the NKB and we picked up 6 between 21-26 kg plus 9 smaller ones in the evening. 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 and great hospitality. We spent some wonderful evenings ashore at the resort. 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 Gary hooked and fought on 20-lb line for 1 hr 45m before bringing 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. 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 Garry were using their own up-tideing rods and catching quite a variety of species including cat fish, small trevallies and barracuda.

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 our 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 spent much of the month in Malindi and moved up there on 10th to begin fishing the following day. The great sailfishing in October had gone off although just before we arrived boats fishing out from the Ngomeni estuary had been catching up to 25 sails in a day. Although we ran up there a couple of times together with one or two Malindi boats the sails were seemingly not there anymore. 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 was 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 the casting and working that popper are all take 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 the poppers.

The Norman Matthews / John de Villiers Memorial Tournament was held over the weekend of 18/19 and Kamara II was entered by Ian Cameron and Tom Cunningham. Ian had a sailfish on day 1 but thereafter the fishing was very slow and we couldn’t improve on our catch. Neptune was the overall winner if I remember correctly.

The annual CADSAS tournament followed when the Zimbabweans invade 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. Al caught a sailfish and we raised a couple more but the slow fishing was continuing. 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. It was good that Eclaire was also going up because it always good to have 2 boats out there 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. We trolled out across Ungwana Bay to try the sailfish spot north of Ngomeni before continuing on to the NKB but the sails were still hiding away and we didn’t see any action at all. When we arrived on the inner side of the NKB in the afternoon there were a lot of big tunas 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 had just 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. The sad point was the number of long liners that we saw operating in the area and I counted 6 ships there.

December –At the start of the month Jan Söderman from Sweden joined me for a safari to the Lamu area. We departed Malindi on 2nd and headed to Peponi by way of the NKB. “Clueless”and “Tarka”had returned from Lamu the previous day following the coast and reported very little activity so we decided to go out 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 but they were not showing on the surface. We had 5 yellowfin, the biggest of 29-kg, 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. That night we pulled in to Peponi and enjoyed a nice cold beer and a chat with Nils.

The following day we fished up to Manda but the water was very dirty with a lot of weed and very few fish showing anywhere. From Manda we fished up to the north as far up as the northern end of Kiwayu but although when we got there 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, only one of which took on a 30 and this one Jan caught and tagged estimated at 110-kg. We concentrated our final days on the deep water on the outside of the NKB up to the 1000m contour but apart from tunas we didn’t raise any marlin. Whilstr we were exploring the outer canyons Nils on his “Little Toot”fishing a half day out of Peponi decided to stay along the 130m line where there was a nice rip and what a good decision it turned out to be. They tagged a sail followed by an estimated 300-lb black marlin on 30-lb line, then a striped marlin and finally boated a yellowfin tuna that weighed in at 67-kg.

For 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 and tries to prevent anyone from coming near but under Kenyan law no person may own land below the high water spring mark. They sent a bunch of goons out to tell us to move on but finally left us alone. It was a very pleasant anchorage much more comfortable than Ziwayu.

On the way back to Malindi we had a strike from a small black marlin just off Ngomeni that jumped and threw the hook. After this, a month away from home it was time to take the boat back to Shimoni.

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 13th the Allen family, none of whom had done any deep sea fishing before had chartered both boats. On Broadbill 14-yr old Robbie Hogan tagging a striped marlin together with the 16 yellowfin tuna, 2 dorado and a skipjack. Then 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 27th Broadbill fished by Edward & Steve Wilson and party tagged two striped marlin, and at one time they raised a pack of 7 or 8 marlin together, The day before Shuwari had released what they said was a 350-400 lb black marlin on 50. On 31st I took 3 youngsters out on Kamara II including Sean Flatt, whose Christmas present this trip was from his parents, Kivara Luke and my son, Chris on a half day. We had a triple strike from stripes and tagged all three of them, a lovely way to end off 2006.

Broadbill fished 9 days for 1 blue, 3 striped and 4 sail, and Kamara fished 12 days (6 as part of NKB safari) for 2 blacks (1 on safari), 3 striped and 2 sailfish (1 on safari).

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 11th with 3 stripes, and Alley Cat had 2 on each of 11th and 13th. Tega raised a big pack that took everything but after things had cleared they were left with just 1 fish. 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. On 16th they had 2 nice stripes of 77 and 72-kg, on 17th a stripe and a sail, 1 stripe on 18th and on 19th Erich released a beautiful 125-kg black marlin on 30 together with the 3 sailfish caught that day. On 20th they added a stripe and a sail and finished off with 2 sail on 21st.

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 together is a wonderful experience that not many fathers are blessed with. And especially with Hamisi being 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.

The party from South Africa of Kobus and Loret Kriel, and JP and Ria Hattingh started well with 2 stripes and a sail on Broadbill on 23rd, and 3 stripes on 24th from Kamara II a day on which we saw 14 marlin.

Broadbill fished 18 days for 1 black, 9 stripes and 12 sail, and Kamara II fished 19 days for 8 stripes and 7 sail.

February –The fishing picked up even more with great variety including quite a few grand slams. Marcel Dekkers and Dinand Rouwenhorst from Holland fishing on Kamara II had an outstanding week 1 black marlin, 7 striped marlin and 11 sailfish in their 6 days. This included a grand slam on 7th, the first for Kamara II something that has just been eluding us since she arrived in Shimoni. Broadbill also had a slam on 5th 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 13th with John Carr-Hartley, Doug McKendrick and Martin Poole with a black, a stripey and 2 sail. Then on 18th/19th 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.

There were no really big marlin caught but quite a few between 200-300 of both blues and blacks. On 10th Brian Emmott took a nice black on a lure on 50 estimated 280-lb, and on 13th as part of the slam John Carr-Hartley caught amazingly 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 19th on 30-lb line we estimated at 90-kg, which was part of the super slam.

Broadbill in 22 days fished recorded 1 blue, 18 stripes and 17 sail, whilst Kamara II had 3 blacks, 2 blues, 19 stripes, 1 broadbill and 27 sailfish in 21 days fishing. I think that you will agree that this was quite outstanding fishing averaging just over 2 billfish per day each boat.

March –the marlin continued right through the first week in March with the sailfish going on for longer. Marc and Richard Ager on 1st fishing aboard Kamara II had an 80-kg black marlin and 2 striped marlin, then Reinhold Netz and colleagues fishing on Broadbill on 4th 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 15th and one of the other boats had a stripey on 20th and mako on 22nd.

Broadbill fished 6 days for 1 black and 8 sail, Kamara II 6 days for 1 black, 3 stripes and 2 sail.

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 13th fishing with my sister, Pippa and her husband Bruce visiting us from Australia in heavy rain we had a lot of action including a nice 23.5-kg yellowfin 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.

The overall statistics for Shimoni make interesting reading with Kamara II yet again at the top of the ladder in Shimoni.

2007/08 season
Despite the rising fuel costs we have decided to maintain our prices at last season’s rates and I think that we must now be amongst the cheapest on the coast. I am looking forward to next season with great anticipation and just hoping for a repeat of the 1998/99 season. Many of you will remember the el niño of 1997/98 with the very heavy rain, dirty water and south flowing current. The fishing during that season was awful it must be said and with the 2006/07 season also being an el niño I did not expect very good fishing at all. But back in 1998 once the el niño had passed a la niña set in and the fishing was the most unbelievable that I have ever seen. Right from the start of the NE monsoon in around 3rd week November the marlin were there in huge numbers often rising to the spread in large packs of a dozen or more marlin. There were no troughs, just one mega peak and two boats in Shimoni passed the 100 marlin something that was not even dreamt of before. I just pray that I shall be fortunate enough to see fishing like that once more in my lifetime. To miss out on it if it does happen will be to miss out on one of the greatest chances you will ever get in your life.
Dutch connection –Sea Adventures is pleased to have formed an alliance with the Tight Lines travel company in the Netherlands who will act as our exclusive agents in that country.

A client who fished with us in February 2006 has posted a video on google that some of you might find interesting. The video is of the blue marlin caught by Lindsay Brown and was the final part of Kamara II’s super slam, hence the excitement from Hamisi.

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.

Tight lines !

Best wishes,
Pat, Maia, Simon, Tina, Lyndsay, Chris and all our wonderful staff