Fishing News Flash

To all our Friends and Fishermen, With email being the way to comunicate in this day and age we have decided that it is better to give every one our news this way rather than send Christmas cards where you can not give any news.

We have had a difficult start to this season 2003 - 2004, mainly due to adverse travel advisoriys against Kenya by both the U.S. and Britain. May through to October were some of the worst months we ever experienced and yet the fish were there. Big Yellowfin and Marlin were caught and those few who did go out to sea had excellent fishing. November and December however have been really good and very busy.

In August Adrian left us to try his hand at being in the bush. He has always enjoyed the wilds, the birds etc. So he went off to Lewa and Batian has come to join us again and is running Eclare and doing a sterrling job. Herbie works hard keeping all our five boats in tip top nick it really is a full time job a lot of credit to him and our mechanics. Herbie still does some of the Safaris to our camp in Tsavo East near Sala Gate on the banks of the Galana River.

Debbie takes a lot of the safaris ,herself and has had some really good trips and seen a lot of interesting things. We have kept you all up to date with our fishing news up to the end of October. November was a very busy month for us with 4 big tournaments. The first one was the African Billfish Cup a Dutch competition with 9 teams taking part. They had some exciting fishing with a lot of big Tiger Shark. We try, and do release all these Tiger shark as it now seems that these are resident fish and are found in only one small area.

Eclare released a monster of approx 500 Kg caught by Mr Kremer. Tina caught a total of 11 Tigers in the three days of the competition, whilst on one day Snark released two very large Tigers, one released by Martin van ter Meij estimated at 480 kg (see attached picture.) The Sailfish came during the month but were hard to hook. The Mathews/de Villiers Memorial Trophy took place with a good group of fishermen from over seas and upcountry.

There were some really good prizes to be won. This tournament was kindly sponsored by East African Safari Air Express a new Airline which has just started up. They fly out of Europe and London Heathrow. For further information please contact us. They also fly Nairobi Malindi return four times a week.

Straight after this comp we had the British Billfish Competition with 16 teams taking part over 8 days. Only Billfish count in this competition. It is run from Hemingways by our good agent Worldwide Fishing Safaris. Peter Petzer and Jim Midgley did a great job. Neptune was top boat, 28 Sailfish caught in 8 days. We only had 2 boats taking part in this competition. Neptune and Eclare did an overnight with some of the clients, and Neptune caught 12 Sailfish over the 2 days.

Eclare tagged a small Broadbill. After this event we had the Zimbabwean CADSAS comp 10 boats, incredible considering the problems they are facing in Zimbabwe. They all came up here to have a good time, and from all accounts they did. Unfortunatly the Sailfish did not oblige very well. They were there in large numbers but not interested in any form of bait.

The same for the Driftwood Extravaganza, but in this competition there was brilliant all round fishing. Neptune got 60 Yellowfin in one day. There were a lot of Giant Trevally caught in boiling pot during November Tina released 7 good size ones in one day. These Giant Trevally are a sight to be seen when in a feeding frenzy. Some really good Wahoo were caught in November, 2 of 36 Kg.

The Sailfish have come into their own now. In the begining of December Neptune and Eclare caught 11 and 12 respectively on Monday 8th December and lost a lot more.

As we write this news letter the wind is starting to blow from the North which is not safe for our boats anchored in the bay so we are planning for them to be anchored inside by the light house and Neptune and Eclare have moved up to Ngomeni. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New year and hope to see you all here soon.