Deep Sea Fishing In Watamu

 

By Peter Muiruri

I have never experienced deep-sea fishing. In fact, I have never done any fishing; the tiny mudfish in our village stream was not practice enough.

It was therefore, understandable that I got a rush of adrenaline the moment we landed at Malindi Airport on a Thursday, ready for this year’s Captain Morgan Billfish competition, held from November 24 to 30.

The excitement made me forget my wallet on the plane, which I only realised after I got to the terminal building. An airport official who noticed my apprehension waved at the pilot just as he was about to taxi away towards Lamu. Who knew that a pilot could delay take-off for a few minutes to hand over a wallet!

For the last 18 years, international anglers have used Hemingways Resort in Watamu as a base for their fishing expeditions. Appropriately, the hotel is named after the great American hunter and epic traveller, who was also known for his prowess in fishing.

Though previous teams have come from as far  as Australia, Europe, and the US, South Africans dominated this year’s week-long event with 50 competitors.

We arrived at the hotel just in time for lunch. We had hoped to catch some of the action in the high seas. But as we learnt, any fishing business starts early in the day, but we consoled ourselves that the following day would give us the ideal moment to follow the action.

Kenga, Hemingways’ diving expert, suggested that we go snorkelling in the nearby Watamu Marine National Reserve. The experience, he said, would be unforgettable.

Fear of water

I am not a swimmer, but this has nothing to do with the fear of water.  I am just not comfortable  with any amount of water that covers my entire body. But Kenga egged me on, promising to be my support should things go awry.

In the water, anything can go wrong but I had confidence in someone who had been in these waters since childhood. 

True to his word, the marine park is a treasure trove — beautiful coral gardens and spectacular tropical fish — all in a ten-square kilometre enclave manned by the Kenya Wildlife Service. Fishing is prohibited here.

We got back to the hotel just in time for the arrival of the first team. There was excitement on the beach as Michael Baines, a South African angler, hauled his 18kg catch of giant trevally to the weighing bay.

A sumptuous meal later in the evening followed by stargazing wrapped up our day.

Play catch up

We set off to the open sea by first light Friday morning. Our fishing boat was named Bamara, originally from West Africa.

With it we were supposed to catch our lunch. On board were 12 local and international journalists and their equipment.

Our captain was Garry Cullen, a sports fishing veteran. With 50 years of experience in deep sea fishing expeditions, I could find no better authority on the competition.

The competitors’ fishing boats, including B’S Nest, Ol Jogi, Simba, Sea Storm, Black Widow and White Bear, were already out to sea. We had to play catch up and soon lost sight of land.

Thanks to a light breakfast and a pill, seasickness was kept at bay.

“Those are three fishing boats out there. We will try to follow them if we can,” someone pointed out and the rest strained their eyes to locate them. All we could see were tiny dots on the horizon. It would be another hour before we came close to any of them.

Sea faring can get monotonous. Hours go by with little action. But Garry has managed to fish for half a century without getting bored.

“Fishing requires patience and that’s why fishermen make good husbands,” he said. In the ocean, we needed such light moments.

“The fish are always on the move and come to the surface two or three times a day. If they have enough of their natural food down there they have no reason to get our baits.”

That explained why we hadn’t caught our lunch four hours on. But with the big ocean all around us, we kept our hopes alive.

Ocean’s big five

Garry told us more about sports fishing and why Kenya was an ideal location. The country, he said, had little bad weather in addition to harbouring all the big fish that anglers around the world look for.

I came to learn that even the ocean has its ‘Big Five’ just like land animals. These are Broadbill Swordfish, Sailfish, Black Marlin, Blue Marlin, and Striped Marlin. Catching any of these is the ultimate goal of the anglers in any competition.

We followed several boats circling an area thought to harbour the giant fish. The fish seemed to be playing games with the anglers. The baits were ruffled several times eliciting cheers from the team.

All too soon, however, the movement ceased indicating yet another ‘escapee’.

The competitors practise what is called ‘tag and release’ technique.

In order to conserve the species, anglers attach a tag to any billfish recording the type, date of capture, time and location before releasing the fish back into the waters.

The information is relayed to the local marine authorities. The record is also relayed back to the hotel for the official tally.

Meanwhile, there was excitement on our boat too. Our team too, had accomplished the task of hunting for lunch, much to Garry’s relief.

We wasted no efforts in taking memorabilia photos with the two yellow fin tuna before they ended up on our plates. By evening, all the teams were back and the scoreboard: 33 sailfish and a black marlin recorded.

Corrie Barnard, Hercules Lowrens, Perceival Brower and Selvyn Niebuhr emerged the winners with 2,400 points.

They had tagged and released five sailfish and one marlin. Niebuhr also took the overall prize for the best angler in the competition having captured the lone marlin earning him 600 straight points.

For all the hard work, there was no better way than to celebrate with a drink — Captain Morgan to be precise — next to the turtle-shaped rock off the coast while listening to fish tales.