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IGFA Corporate
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Big Hits on the Reef, Watamu, Kenya in the Indian Ocean
Andy Little |
 The vicious looking Barracuda is known as the sea pike, but it's meaner and faster than its fresh water counterpart. It has the got the most fearsome set of dentures of any fish that i've hooked. Barracuda are a common sight in big game fishing anywhere in the world, and i was happy to catch a string of these impressive predators in Kenya during my adventure trip to beautiful Turtle Bay. New forest fishery owner, Mike Jury, invited me send a whole week abroad his charter boat in the Watamu National Reserve where he goes equipped for most species. but you either love or loathe Barracuda. they drive you mad at times, hacking into hard earned livebait. I reckon they are a great sporting adversary with an amazing turn of speed and fantastic acceleration. They also jump like crazy and hit anything chucked at them. Average weight is about 20lb, but a couple of the bigger fish we hooked off Turtle Bay were closer to 40lb and over 5ft in length. |
 To mix things up, Mark suggested we drift fish on the edge of a reef 500ft below us. There's a mixture of species in these areas with giant Trevally (GT) and Amberjacks being the most prized. With a four knot tide running, the drift was going to be fairly swift so we decide d to have a crack o pirks and jigs on 30lb class braid rods. Even with pirks weighing a pound, it takes a long time for your bait to hit the deck. Then you crank up as fast as possible and hold on for dear life if something slams into your pirk in the depths. Anyone who has this kind of fishing will know that it's damned hard work. Cranking up the lure at high speed is bad enough. Add 30 or 40lb of Trevally and it's backbreaking. Mark took a break from driving the boat and joined me down on the deck for a couple of drifts. First drop down we had a double hit of GTs around 35lb. Although Marks fish stayed bright silver, mine had turned completely black by the time it had hit the surface a peculiarity with these species. We had brief encounters with giant amberjacks, but they came adrift soon after hooking up. These are one of my favorite reef dwellers and in this part of the world it's unusual to get them up to 80lb. |
 I was hoping for something in that category as it would have trounced my previous best by 20lb. They are great sporting fish but are often finicky feeders. Livebaits and fast trolled deep lures score if there are plenty around. But on this trip it wasn't to be - another excuse for going back. Mark revealed that hardly anyone bothers to target this species. Bill fishing is the main preoccupation, which is a shame as there is so much on offer in these fish rich waters- and most of them are big. An hour of arm aching pirk fishing was more than enough in the heat, so we dropped a couple of down rigged deadbait rigs, which again were wolfed down by the giant trevally. As often happens when you have got a hard fighting fish on, others follow it like sheep. this enable me to nail another spectacular fighter in the shape of a queenfish. I've got a soft spot for these and on the right gear they are fantastic scrappers, cartwheeling through the surface layers before diving to the bottom, tuna style. |
 Before moving off in search of Marlin, we took the opportunity to catch our dinner over the reef. Dropping baited hooks down on a big lead, the rod tip rattled even before the rig had touched bottom. The main culprits were beautiful red snapper, which made fantastic eating as well as wanting to yank your arms off! But there were all sorts of snappers down there and we had grays or mango snappers as they are often called, mutton snapper and even a couple of small cubera snappers. Our crewman, Adma Lenga and Sunday Murira, cut fillets from the snappers and cooked them up in the galley. You can't get them fresher than that and washed down with a cold drink it recharged our batteries. Although the marlin fishing proved hit and miss on the Indian Ocean, i had chances each day. In between times, we had loads of action from all manner of species which made it one of the best weeks fishing i've experienced. The season runs from October to the end of March and I'm already planning a return trip. Mark tells me last season was there most successful with over 600 marlin being tagged and released. After capturing my first blue from Kenyan waters, i will be back looking to try and catch a stripe and a black on my return.
Contact Mark on 00254 721723396 (Kenya) or 079392 73388 (UK).
Also, see www.fishingkenya4marlin.com
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Andy Little
