Memorable Fishing Excursion – Guest Post

After last visiting Hemingway’s resort, Watamu, Kenya, 20 years ago, and having enjoyed the great fishing the resort is well known for, I decided to plan to take out my 11-year-old son for a few days fishing, as he has never done any fishing in the ocean before!

We arrived at the hotel and we were very excited, the welcome was great, we checked into our apartments and they were very spacious, completely changed from how it was before. First evening on the Bar terrace, we could watch all boats come in the evening with different flags hung up. February and March are the best fishing times here!

The first day was a bit slow, but at the end we came back with a Blue estimated 110lbs, which I released with Mark catching a Dorado of 13lbs. The next two days, we had good marlin strikes, but we all lost them returning home with a few Dorados, which we happily had for dinner. Before returning to the hotel, I had thought we should try at least one night of fishing, as I had never fished for Broadbill swordfish, and therefore, we had to arrange for an extra charter.

Friday, 1st March 2024, we set off around 1330 hours for our broadbill fishing trip, and we headed to the Vipingo mountains. We arrived here just before sunset, and we had gotten no strikes on the way.

The day had gone, and the night was falling. Our skipper and crew were ready and took lines in, and we were now waiting for action. The first strike came in about 7:30 pm, and there it was, a broad bill. I took it up, obviously too big for Mark, and it gave me a good fight and released it in about 30 minutes; it was about 220lbs. Went dead, then another strike came in before 11 pm, and it was another broadbill. This time it looked relatively smaller than the first one, but was very powerful too and gave us a nice play on a 50lb line, but took it up and it was about 170lbs. The moon had started rising up, it was shining, and it went quiet rest of the night.

Morning came, and we started off with a wahoo, then had a good strike; it was a sailfish, which Mark happily took up and released in 15 minutes. It was a sail approximately 65lbs.

The sun was up and we started heading home, and all of a sudden we got a splash on the lures and there you go, it was a Blue on the flat line. Sat on the fighting chair quickly and took the rod, did not give it any chance and landed it so quickly in about 20 minutes, a 220lb fish, as it was just time to come home. As we geared back to the hotel, what an amazing night we had had with a nice grand slam!