The last few days were still hot and very calm as far as the wind is concerned. So at the most unsuitable moment Marco from Germany arrived. I had given him some information by email beforehand and Faizal helped him to find a boat on short notice for a trip from Mahe. While still having a bit of wind he caught 5 Wahoos and 2 Tuna next to 17 Bonitos of up to 7kg. On Praslin he booked two more trips to the Drop Off. On the 24th this was with Christian who the day before had caught only a single Yellowfin Tuna out there but it was a nice one of about 25kg.

Still he decided for another area and it looked promising in the beginning despite a flat calm sea as quickly a 5kg Jobfish came to the boat. Next was a small Tuna, then a Barracuda and again a Tuna. This one was put out as live bait but produced nothing within two hours or so. Returning to lures also did not help and it was not before late afternoon until a few Bonitos and a decent Rainbow Runner gave indication that there was still life.

The next day Marco went out with Martin on Makaira. I came along once more hoping for some good footage this time. It was another area of the Drop that day and again the sea was more than calm. Out there we saw plenty of birds and Bonitos. After a while we finally hooked one and put it as live bait as we had seen larger splashes in the vicinity without getting a strike on lures. Did not take long til the Bonito was eaten by something that actually turned out to be a Marlin. 

The half hour Marco was fighting the fish produced me some really nice video images. Watch the clip here.

As the hook was deep inside the fish there was no thinking of a release. 

So at least Marco knows that his very first Black Marlin weighed at 109kg. That this day produced nothing more than a single Wahoo obviously did not matter at all.

During all that Christian had another `half day´ managing to tag & release a Sailfish. Animated by those catches and a bit of wind that was forecast to last I could not stop from going out myself on the 27th. Should have let it alone as the sea was again flat as a mirror in the sun burning from a cloudless sky. Emptied my (admittedly still small) trick box to the bottom, tried all sorts of lures with different running schemes, with and without large Panama strips and small Kenya strips, fishing long and short, trolling faster and slower, used all kinds of teasers - the result was a meager 6 Bonitos. On top my nice record of never having returned of a full day without at least one fish better than those is history now. Quite frustrating even as I knew it would happen some point.

Did not find much solace in the fact that also the pros had their troubles. Jürgen & Mervin reported that they saw fish when trolling, even Marlin. But they would not bite. Also jigging did not work as usual. Only few fish came on and nearly all went lost right away. Mervin reckons they were just foul hooked. On top the GTs were just following the poppers, giving them a soft knock at times but not attacking angrily as they usually do.

What could be the reason? Hot calm days of which some are quiet for trolling can occur this time of the year. But that activity is so slow for all fishing styles and for such a comparably long period of now nearly a fortnight is very unusual. Most probably the sudden and massive rise of the water temperature is the main cause. But maybe the ever so often occurring brief but hard rains with stormy winds from different directions also play their role. Last night when editing the video it was so bad that I was already fearing for the safety of my boat at its mooring. And an hour later the wind is completely gone again. Reasons for the fish not eating are obviously as many as there are anglers. The good thing is that the fish are there and some point they will have to feed again. Hopefully their appetite will be back for the tournament tomorrow! As I learned just now Greg returned from a `half day´ with a good catch of Wahoos and Tuna and Ted with his uncle on Pti Merl had Wahoo & Dorado so things might just in time come right.

In the days since the last report I learned that I had not missed anything too spectacular during my Kenya trip. Still, the fishing was very reasonable here in the meantime. Christopher (Ella) and Andre (Princess Praslin) had a few trips tallying mixed bags of Dorados, Wahoos & Tuna. Same for Christian`s (Djab Lavwal) two outings except he could add a Sail each trip.

On the 16th he went overnight to the Drop Off for bottom fishing. This resulted in some Doggies as well as nice Emperor and Humphead Snappers.

As in previous years Jürgen from Germany came to fish nearly a full month with Mervin (Divinity) and another German friend. Focus is always on popping and jigging and he had a good start. First day produced a 25kg GT and a 32kg Doggie. After that things started to slow down, though, for everybody. The transition period came with an exceptional uninterrupted sequence of very hot days without any wind so water temperature virtually shot up in no time. Apart from some highlights fish became skittish and were mostly biting only half-heartedly. Mervin´s guests in the beginning managed to hook some GTs of which a handful were huge exceeding estimated 60kg but nearly all of those went lost. At times they switch-baited for Sail and had some good results in the beginning. Also Andre helped a guest to 20kg+ GT. During the last couple of days the fish becamer ever less active for all fishing styles. Had to learn that myself while trying my new popping tackle. The gear suits me but all that came along was an obviously megalomaniac Jobfish. 

With a view to all this I am not too sad that family visit will keep me from fishing for a while.

Yesterday I returned from the German Big Game Championships in Kenya. Same week last year the Sail run was at its best with boats mostly releasing double digits and a best of 28(!) releases in a day by one boat. Unfortunately it was not like that this year. Upon arrival we learned that some Sails were around but not being too cooperative to say the least. Marlin were also still totally missing. Two days of testing confirmed all this. We released one Sail each day but the other two boats fishing got none at all.

Our team decided to leave the Sail spot alone and instead fish an area which the previous days had produced enough Tuna to overcome a coincidental Sail. Right after lines in we got the first Tuna and believed we did everything right. Turned out to be a bad error though, as we caught nothing more and pretty much all the other teams got Sailfish.

So being rock bottom of the table after day 1 we achieved quite a comeback on day 2. Due to an error we left late after all the other boats. Not to waste fishing time we dropped the lines far before the usual area. Right away we had two Sails on and eventually managed to release 6 totally unnoticed by the other boats. That day`s win pushed us up the standings to being back in business.

On day 3 obviously all boats fished `our´ area. We lost 2 Sails early for no visible reason. As we got nothing more after that we became last for that day again. It was a very tight race as with those two fish we would have won the tournament. Instead we finished last in the overall standings despite releasing most Sails of any teams (6 of 16). That`s fishing ...

Not fully matching expectations Malindi still delivered solid fishing once again with an average of just above one Sail per boat and day. Besides it was great to meet the chaps again - the German bunch as well as the Kenyan friends. And as always there was a lot to learn.

But it also feels very nice to be back home again and tomorrow I will start to find out was has been going on here in the meantime.

For shortcut to preceding reports of October 2013 click here.