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IGFA Corporate
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Shark Adventure in Watamu, Kenya in the Indian Ocean
Andy Little |
 TURTLE Bay skipper, Mark Jury, knows a hotspot in the Indian Ocean where a bloody deadbait slung over the side always brings a monster tiger shark under the boat. He promised instant action when we drifted over the 500 ft deep mark - and he was right. My fresh bait was seized by a tiger estimated at 1,000 lb, which could have swallowed our crewman in one gulp! For sheer jaw-dropping excitement, I’ve never experienced a fight on rod and line which compares with the 14 ft-long Indian Ocean monster. The tiger was twice the size of anything else I’ve hooked in my long angling career. Last week, I reported on my first blue marlin from Kenyan waters after 25 years of frustration chasing these prized billfish. But skipper Mark also urged me to have a crack at the tigers because there are definitely record-breakers off the Kenyan coast.
A huge tiger estimated at more than 2,000 lb was hooked last year and sportingly released. It would have blown the world record out of the water if it had been officially weighed in Turtle Bay, Mark said I had a good chance of topping my personal best tiger of 400lb from Florida, where they predate on tarpon in shallow water. In contrast, Indian Ocean tigers are usually found 500 ft deep down and as far as 40 miles out. We motored towards the tiger hotspot, towing lures to snatch shark bait. Mark reckoned we ideally needed a 20 to 30 lb barracuda, kingfish or amberjack. |
 When I hooked something that felt the right size, it turned out to be a massive rainbow runner. I have caught hundreds of these fish, but nothing as big as my 15lb shark bait, which is probably the ceiling weight for rainbow runners. In Florida, it might have been a record. The belly strips were cut off for marlin bait later in the day and the tail was also removed so that it wouldn’t spin in the water. It was a gruesome sight, but necessary to attract one of the big tigers. The deadbait was mounted on two massive 12/0 hooks, attached to a double strand of 400lb wire. The rest of my shark outfit comprised a heavy duty, 80lb class bent butt rod with the reel loaded to the brim with 130lb line.
The 500ft deep tiger hotspot was a pinnacle rising from the bottom, around which the shark patrolled. The bait was presented on a downrigger, which is basically a heavy ball weight with a release clip so the deadbait can be free-lined at the correct depth. A 4.5 knot tide was running, making it tricky to get the drift exactly right to present the bait in the area for the maximum amount of time. Our first drift was slightly off the mark, but the second was spot on. Mark instructed me to leave the rod in the holder and study the tip. It was being savagely attacked by smaller species, probably snapper, before it slowly started to bend over, almost as if it had snagged bottom. |
 Mark told me to hold on tight as he gunned the engines to set the hook. The adrenalin raced through my body as the line pinged free of the downrigger and started to melt from the reel at a rapid rate. Crewman Adam Lenga helped me into the chair and fit the full harness as Mark slowly backed the boat towards the fish. At that moment, I felt the awesome power of what I had hooked. Even with the very heavy gear, I made no impression on it whatsoever. The runs were neither fast or spectacular, just hugely powerful and impossible to stop. I gained an inch or two of line whenever possible and the unseen monster began to grudgingly move towards the surface.
Suddenly, there was a change of tactics from the shark. It decided to surface on its own and then effortlessly surged away from the boat. A massive dorsal sliced through the surface and I could see a huge, mottled shape just below the waves. Mark announced that it wasn’t particularly huge and I should put some effort into what I was doing! My response was to mutter the immortal line from the Jaws movie: ‘I think we need a bigger boat!’ The tiger remained on the surface until we got it close to the boat. I wondered how Mark and his crew would handle the big fish, but he’d seen it all before and knew exactly what to expect. Only one of the 12/0 hooks was stuck in the corner of the shark’s jaw, which Mark said was perfect, making it easy to remove. He wanted to put a tailer over its head so it could be dragged close to the boat to retrieve the hook. |
 But pandemonium broke out! The tiger was having none of it and dived back towards the bottom, leaving me powerless to stop it. Another ten minutes of pumping followed before it was back on the sur face alongside the boat. Crewman Sunday Murira almost got the tailer around the beast’s head at the second attempt, but it was violently thrown free and shark spray swamped the boat. This time it only took five minutes to get it back within tailing distance and it came up vertically from the depths. As its massive head emerged through the surface, Sunday expertly placed the wire tailer over it. Then I realized the awesome size of my tiger. It could easily have swallowed Sunday without him touching the sides. All hell broke loose when the tailor tightened around its head. It took the combined strength of both crewmen to control the big fish. I was told to stay put in the chair, just in case the big tiger went off again. But it calmed down and allowed the lads to roll it on its back so they could remove the hook. My heart was beating ten to the dozen as I stepped out of the chair to have a good look at what I had just caught. First estimates by the crewman put it at somewhere between 800 and 1,000 lb. We judged its length against the boat at 14 ft. It was a big, fat female and by all accounts the dimensions actually put it over 1,000 lb. But the size was almost immaterial. I felt privileged to have caught such a magnificent fish and to watch it recover and swim away back into the depths was magic. It was actually nearly twice as big as anything I had previously caught and the images of the Indian Ocean battle will remain vivid in my mind for many years to come.
Contact Mark on 00254 721723396 (Kenya) or 079392 73388 (UK).
Also, see www.fishingkenya4marlin.com
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Andy Little
