Eight teams of anglers from the South African Deep Sea Angling Society, SADSAS, are competing in their Inter-Provincial Championships fishing out of Hemingways this week, and as their main target is sailfish, they were fortunate to find that the ‘sailies’ have really turned on and appeared in large numbers in the area off Malindi and the Leopard Reef, so not a long run from base to find the fish.

With 31 sail tagged the first day and 52 the second day the trend seems upward, so lets hope for the sort of catches which characterised this tournament a few years ago. The anglers use 10kg breaking strain line, far more fun for these sporting aerial performers than the heavier lines often used. After two days, with the anglers fishing on a different boat each day, the South Gauteng maroon team were leading with fifteen sail, despite an amazing day for the team on Ol Jogi on the second day with thirteen sail, but with only one fish on their first day they lag just behind the leaders - results next week.

The weather seems affected by the cyclone near Mozambique, with very strong winds some nights blowing green water down to the Rips and making the fishing difficult. Marlin were being caught earlier, with blue marlin on Tarka, a 190kg fish being the best last week, but this was followed by a 136kg blue two days later, and both Seahorse and Alleycat also had a blue marlin with some sail. Unreel and Billfish both had black marlin, while several boats found a striped marlin, so quite a variety of billfish around, but later in the week the Watamu boats found plenty of sailfish in deep water out from Wesa, between Watamu and Kilifi, with some good scores, so skippers had several options where to fish.

When the sail are running closer in, many anglers are happy to keep after the sail all day, but at this time of the season, many anglers prefer to chase after marlin, so the boats results depend on where they are fishing - the marlin generally being further out in the Rips where there are sail as well.

Con Jooste is a regular angler from South Africa who specialises in fly tackle, and two years ago made history with a grand slam, three different billfish in the day, on fly - he reached a milestone this week on Eclare with his one hundredth sailfish on fly. The previous day he had a striped marlin on fly as well. so well done to him!

Regular visitors Herbert and Monica Lewald on Snowgoose had an exceptional day when they had a black and two striped marlin, plus six sailfish for a grand slam. Neptune also had two marlin, a black and a blue, and a few days later they scored sixteen sailfish, so all the boats doing well.