Watamu is a lively place during the Christmas holidays, particularly in the angling world, as holiday makers launch their boats, many trailed down from up-country, and the charter boats get busy with families trying their luck and tourists from the full hotels all having a go!

The Watamu Sea Fishing Club annual Christmas competition is one of the coast's most popular events. Sponsored by Captain Andy's Fishing Supply, Yamaha and Zodiac with excellent prizes, a team's total points are divided by the length of the boat, giving smaller boats a good chance as the points system is heavily geared towards marlin to counter the usual complaint that the professional boats are just too good at catching the sailfish!

The evening of Monday 27th December sees the raffle, draw and auction taking place at Ocean Sports, while fishing starts at 6.30am on Tuesday 28th from any port, back by 4.30pm and weighing in at Ocean Sports. The second day also finishes at 4.30pm, followed by the prizegiving at Ocean Sports. There will be a BBQ grill morning and afternoon daily on the lawn in front of Captain Andy's shop, and a disco and dinner every evening so fun for all and maybe a huge marlin as well!

Kids are always keen fishermen, and on Boxing Day Ocean Sports will host the annual Kids Competition. Don't be fooled this is not serious fishing, as last years winners presented fifteen sailfish tag cards and were back by midday - but with the Paul family from Malindi there was plenty of experience there! And for the Under-13's, Friday 31st Dec. at Captain Andy's Mida Creek premises will see the kids at work up the creek from 8am till 12am for the weigh-in at 12.30pm with hot dogs and sodas for all. Entries, info etc from Capt Andy's shop or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for all these so don't miss out!

After the successful Capt Morgan tournament Hemingways ran an informal competition, Sailfish University, with mainly South African anglers, four teams for four days. 26 sail and four marlin were tagged, with Matthew and Warren Meredith both catching a marlin on Ol Jogi, and Cassie Le Roux and Dean Guildenhuys  likewise on Black Widow. With eight sail one day and four another, as well as two marlin, Black Widow took boat honours, with the boats fishing different teams of anglers daily. Outside the competition Seastorm also found a marlin for Anton Rodahl, so quite a few striped marlin being seen in the Rips now, a good omen for the next few months.

Malindi boats have also been successful with marlin, Neptune having a great day when, having found four sailfish on the way down, regular angler Peter Hoffman hooked a good black marlin that attacked the lures near the Banks and eventually released a fine fish estimated at 180kgs.

With his fishing companion Mario Caio on the same boat catching another good black estimated at 120kgs a few days later, a lucky pair of anglers here!

Another pair of regulars, Bernd and Marc Neufeldt have started on Snowgoose with a black tip shark, and this team will be after shark for a fortnight yet, while on Eclare, fly fisherman Johnny Onslow had to be content with one sailfish daily on conventional tackle as the sail proved elusive on fly. With more boats going out for the next few weeks, there should be plenty of action from now on.