Kenya 2015 - Malindi

Kenya- Malindi

After having a sailfish on for a few seconds last year in Zanzibar, I had to make sure the next destination had the opportunity of catching one this time. I checked the internet and found the website of The Kingfisher in Malindi Kenya, on the east coast of Africa. Kingfisher is a family run business in Malindi, Kenya offering all kinds of fishing, they got 8 boats ready to rock!

So at the end of august, we checked in at the Diamonds Dream of Africa resort in Malindi Kenya. A true oasis of luxury in a tremendous tropical ambiance, with great food by the way! We were invited by Angus Paul, the owner of The Kingfisher at night in the Malindi Fishing Club. We discussed the possibilities they offer, from catching tiger shark to light gear popper fishing on the reef. Because the fastest fish in the ocean was my main target, we made a plan going to the offshore banks for some trolling. There should be some sailfish up there, and one of the captains I talked to told me they caught some black marlin there, earlier that week. We made arrangements for coming Friday.

In the days in between, Simone and I were fishing at break of dawn at the hotel beach. Like last year in Tanzania, we had a laguna up front, and a reef a few miles out. There wasn’t much fish to catch in the laguna. We tried a few times and I only caught one fish which they call panga. Flat like a belt, silvery like a tarpon and teeth like count Dracula to describe it in a few words. This wasn’t a good place to do some fishing from the shore.

So on Friday I got picked up by Angus and an hour later we were heading offshore, nice calm sea at first, getting worse and worse the further we got. When we got at the banks, we started catching some bonito for baitfish. Suddenly something really heavy came on my rod, this was not a small bonito!!!! Because we were fishing with hook number 4, which is very small of course, we took a lot of patience reeling it in, it kept diving to the bottom. Finally we pulled a nice 10 kilo yellowfin tuna on the deck. We kept trolling that area and we got another strike later on, after a nice fight I caught a beautiful wahoo, nice size too by the way! Catching two fish so far, I was already content actually. On the way back we caught a 15 inch bonito which we put out right away on another rod. A little while later, the reel was screaming. Fish on again! After a pretty great fight I could hold the fish I came for, a really amazing sailfish! We got back after that and stayed for some drinks in the Malindi Fishing Club. A couple of days later I went fishing with a nice kid called Arran Paul, the son of Angus. He’s a real fishing fanatic, we went with his little boat to do some reef fishing with poppers. We saw a lot fish that day but they weren’t in for a bite. Arran got a big barracuda following his lure, I got a blue spotted trevally on the popper. Great day, thanks Arran!

At night, the hotel chef prepared the trevally for us at diner, Simone said it tasted great, I don’t eat fish so I wouldn’t know, hehehe. Because the fishing in front of the hotel was no good, a friend of mine had a great idea, so he told me over what’s-app. I should try the fresh water nearby, to try for some tiger fish!

In the Malindi river, there’s someone killed by a crocodile at least once every month, which is a low rate nowadays so I was told. Bad plan!!!! I also took a boat trip arranged by the local beach boy Alex. We got some small fish on the reef. If you ever go to Malindi, make sure you book a charter on The Kingfisher, these guys really know what they are doing!

http://www.kenyasportfishing.net/

Hakuna matata

Lee