Big Game Fishing - Jigging - Popping worldwide

Kingfisher Weekly Fishing Report for Week ending Sunday 10th December 2006

Weather Full moon was on Tuesday, but a calm week with an offshore breeze in the morning and later the NE monsoon starting to make itself known. Sunday the NE was blowing in the morning, not strong, but still unpleasent and making Malindi bay a muddy brown colour. Calmed down later. Some rain on Wednesday recording 0.67 pts, about 15 mm. Water surface temperatures have been ranging from about 84 F - to as much as 90 F. Sea water not really dirty except for Malindi Bay, but further out there is the usual dirty water line.

Fishing This week the fishing is really dominated by the EFSA European Championships with teams from most European countries and South Africa. Sixteen boats are taking part over 4 days, fishing out of Hemingways in Watamu. The scoring system appears to be highly complicated and controversial. I can not yet understand it, but one thing is sure, billfish are not the highest scoring fish. Most catches consisted of sailfish, giant trevally, wahoo, kingfish, dorado, yellowfin, baracudda and some quite big bonito. On some days the yellowfin were very noticeable, feeding on the surface over large areas in the deeper water off Malindi. They do not often take well in this mode and very few are being caught. At the same time the depth sounder is showing a huge mass of bait fish (sardines) at times so dense that the bottom does not show up on the screen. When this lot finally surfaces there should be some great sport to be had.
On Sunday Eclare left Watamu for an overnight trip on South Mlima together with Unreel and B's nest. I will get the result on Monday, but initial reports on the radio would indicate that all three boats did well.
To give you some idea of the catch rate over the past week, Kingisher recorded the following; Sailfish 41, Marlin 1, wahoo 10, dorado 36, giant trevally 29, kingfish 19, yellowfin 5.
The 'Pope's Trophy will be fished for on Saturday 16th December. This is a fun comp. costing 6500.00 K.Shs for each fisherman, lunch included and a crate of Tusker per boat. Boats are given free or nearly free, by their owners, and all proceeds go towards educating Alister and Debbie's 3 children, who incidentally are doing very well in their various Schools. Stefanie and Shannen are in South Africa, and Andrew still at Pembroke. Each team will consist of 4 fishermen per boat, starting 6.30 in the morning and boats should be back by 2.30 pm. We hope to see many of Alisters friends here this weekend. Some good prizes are to be won.
The beach seine nets are doing much better these days, on small fishes anyway. I am sure that with the trawlers staying 5 miles off shore will have an effect. However, what effect are these heavy trawl nets going to have on Marine life down at the bottom of 600 ft of water? Can not be good.

Once again I am drawn to the medias insensitive reporting. In this case it is the murders of several young women around Ipswich in violent Britain which Sky News refers to as ' Prostitutes' at every awailable opportunity. I find this quite unacceptable. By drumming in the word ' Prostitute ' to the millions who look at Sky News you are virtually branding them as social outcasts, And they are not. They are young English women who, for whatever reason, have had to take up the sex trade, and will no doubt be exploring every avenue to get out. Some will only be there for a short time, others may get married and raise a family. Will all these girls still wear the label of ' prostitute ' for the rest of their lives? Of course there is the diehard professional for whom the sex trade is her chossen profession which fills a necessary requirement in any society. It is, so I am told, the oldest profession and yet in Britain still bears a stigma. First and foremost though she is a British woman, a part of the Society, and should be accorded the courtesy she deserves. And has any thought been given to the parents and family of these young unfortunate girls who have now been branded
' Prostitutes.' I would think they are devastated HP