Neptune team romp home at Malindi
Last weekend at Malindi saw the fiftieth anniversary of the oldest tournament on the Kenya coast, now called the Herbie Paul International Festival, and appropriately it was won by the team skippered by Herbie's son Angus on Neptune, fishing with Richie Moller and Russell Brumby, as experienced a bunch of Malindi anglers as one could find.
Fishing was difficult on the Saturday, with the Neptune team leading with three sail released just ahead of Unreel, whose anglers Dave Williamson and Rob Hellier had two sail. Snark, with D Fisher and J Behr were running third, but only nine sail were caught that day by the fourteen boats, together with a mix of tuna, wahoo and dorado.
On the Sunday the fish were more active, but Neptune romped away from the field with seven more sail to give them a total of ten plus some smaller fish for a massive lead with a total 1632 points. Unreel, with two more sail, just held onto their lead from a fast finishing Kamara II team of Pat and Simon Hemphill and Hamisi, who also had four sail but a few less other fish. A great effort from these Shimoni anglers, far from the Pemba Channel where they are consistent top scorers, but fishing for marlin and for sail are two very different skills!
Fourth place went to Simba, with Mark and George Allen and Mtawali, with three sail, while close behind Tarka also had three sail for Paul Worthington, Phil Revett and skipper Callum Looman. Angus Paul was Top Angler with five sail, with Daryl Gates catching the biggest other fish, a 24.3 kg wahoo, a good fish over fifty pounds and bigger than some of the sailfish – the latter of course are all released.
Thanks are due to Mike Tracy, from UK, a longtime friend and client of Herbie Paul's, for his very generous sponsorship, and to Winemasters and the Driftwood club for their sponsorship with drinks for all three days.
The light line tournament, the Churchill Trophy, was fished on the Friday with eight teams of enthusiasts taking part. Fishing was slow, with only four sail caught in total, two of these on Tarka with Paul Worthington, Maingi and Callum Looman on the rods, the latter catching his sail on 8kg line plus a yellowfin on 6kg line to win Top Angler. Unreel, with David Bird, Phil Revett and Rob Hellier, decided to buck the conventional wisdom trying for sailfish, and went after the yellowfin at Watamu, despite the tuna being quite a challenge on light line. With thirteen tuna, the biggest weighing 15kgs, and a wahoo they finished just a whisker behind the winners – one more small fish would have put them in front, a brave try! White Dove was third, and Simba fourth, both with a one sail. Thanks to Wells Fargo Couriers for their sponsorship of this event.
From Hemingways at Watamu, boats have been catching tuna, and despite the shortage of sail at Malindi White Bear had a multiple strike in Sail Alley just half an hour off the mooring. Tony Prior was fishing when five sail came up together and all five were leaping on the lines! One came off, one line broke and three were fought to the boat to be tagged and released for an amazing experience. A couple of days before, B's Nest with Ignatius Okara and Alex caught eight wahoo, while skipper Adam Ogden took the Shelley family, on holiday from North Yorkshire, out in his Black Widow for twelve year old William to catch his first sailfish, and with younger brother Thomas shared tuna and dorado for a memorable day.
