March 2017 Fishing Report

It was not until November 2016 that I made the decision to return to fishing. Many of you will recall that I had stopped fishing around two years ago to concentrate on my maritime training but that business has yet to realise it's full potential. I have not stopped doing the training so hopefully can find a way to combine both businesses. Both boats will continue to be up for sale but until such time as a buyer can be found the boats will be available for hire. Even, should one of the boats be sold any charters already booked will be honoured.

The Pemba Channel produced some excellent fishing and encouraged boats from further north to venture south where the water was blue and the marlin were in better numbers. We began the new year fishing the Diani Samaki Classic fished by neighbour Harm Lutjeboer of the Pilli Pippa Dhow Safaris, Simon Engelfield and a couple of the youngsters. We were lucky enough to win that tournament with a sailfish and a mixed bag. 

There were plenty of sailfish out in the channel as well as the marlin along with dorado and wahoo throughout January and February. There were some great days throughout January and February and no bad fishing periods, which was very encouraging. The best week was from 4th to 8th February when both boats were fished by a party from the UK led by Julian Gostling. The two boats totalled out with 16 marlin and 12 sailfish over the 5 days.

Broadbill had a couple of grand slams, the first being at the end of January with Charlie McCrow and Lindsay Brown who caught a broadbill, a striped marlin and 3 sailfish along with 7 dorado and a skipjack. We also lost a nice yellowfin tuna of about 30kg when the trace broke; I think there was too much premature talk of sashimi for dinner! Then on 5th February fished by Julian Gostling and Roger Martin she tagged a black marlin, 3 striped marlin and 2 sailfish. Kamara II had 3 striped marlin the following day and both boats had 3 striped marlin and a sailfish the day after. It was really exciting fishing and the marlin were really quite aggressive, which made it even more exciting.

The fishing continued to be good later into February with Broadbill taking 6 marlin in 3 days for Gianni de Marpillero, his daughter Paola and her son Amedeo. There was another grand slam on 25th February with a blue marlin, a striped ,marlin and a sailfish. 

Other news: The jetty has been refurbished with a new gate at the top with much smaller steps so that those with bad knees you should be able to get up and down a little more easily now we hope. 

The Shimoni Reef Lodge has been refurbished too and really looks very nice; the front veranda looks very good and many of the rooms have received new roofs. 

We look forward to seeing many of you in Shimoni this coming season. but in the meantime we hope that you have a wonderful and prosperous year ahead.

​Tight lines!