
Big game fishing spots in Kenya
Big game fishing spots in Kenya : There are some of the best big game fishing locations in the world along the Kenyan coast, which is surrounded by unending deep blue oceans. Over the years, it has been established that tropical fish like as sailfish, wahoo, marlin, barracuda, tuna, dorado, and many more call the 560 km long Kenyan coastline home. Dolphins are another animal you could come across while offshore fishing. We’ll examine some of Kenya’s best safari destinations for big game fishing in this article.
Watamu.
Watamu shoreline, which is located north of Mombasa, is arguably Kenya’s greatest place to go big game fishing safari. This is corroborated by the creeks and bays that are home to a greater variety of reef and open-water fish than any other area along the Kenyan coast. Giant black marlins, some weighing over 200 kg, are a common sight at the Watamu Banks, one of the greatest sport fishing locations. The popular nighttime fisheries of swordfish and sailfish are likely to present themselves to you along the Watamu banks. Watamu also has excellent rips that are black marlin and other large fish havens.
On the other side, fishermen fishing for bait fish love Watamu’s boiling pots, another well-liked location on the island.
Kilifi.
A little Swahili fishing community called Kilifi is located 73 miles from Mombasa and 40 km from Watamu. The village’s extremely lucrative waterways and reefs make it a favorite safari destination for fisherman. Kilifi Creek is where most of the big game fishing in Kilifi takes place. The creek’s mouth creates one of the area’s deepest harbors, which makes it one of the best marine habitats for spotting big game species like sailfish and black marlin. Furthermore, there are some amazing rips that are home to huge schools of bill fish approximately 13 miles from the Kilifi coastline. In addition, nighttime fisherman seeking swordfish and broadbill are drawn to the Haggard and Vipingo Aqua mountains to the north and south.
Lamu.
One of the first Swahili settlements on the north coast is the Lamu archipelago. The archipelago is a well-liked location for deep-sea large game and bill fishing. Some of the best fishing spots on Kenya’s coast are found in Kiunga, near the mouth of the Tana River, although they are not well known. Lamu is also where the food-rich Somali currents and the East African current converge. There are tonnes of bait fish in these rips, and they are flourishing. Conversely, the northern banks, which are located right outside the archipelago, are well-known spots for blue and black marlin, some of which weigh more than a thousand pounds.
Malindi.
Located south of Lamu and north of Watamu, at the mouth of the Sabaki River, is the Swahili settlement of Malindi. One of Africa’s richest maritime biodiversity areas is Malindi maritime Park, a continuous aqua environment that stretches to Watamu Marine Park. With a variety of fish including blue and black marlin, wahoo, swordfish, barracuda, and sailfish, deep sea fishing is excellent here. The Malindi banks, which are closer to the coast and well-known marlin and sailfish havens, are followed on the southern point by the north banks, which stretch all the way to Lamu. Significantly, Malindi is home to the largest sail fish reserve on the Kenyan coast, and sightings of schools of these amazing species are frequent during the day.
Mombasa/ Diani.
Since inshore fish follow the ships, Mombasa is the ideal location to spot them. The seas along this coastline are additionally rich with packs of sailfish with large numbers found on the southern Diani waters. There may also occasionally be black marlin in the Mombasa waters. These rare aquatic animals migrate via the Mombasa channel, and timing might make all the difference. This area has great undersea structure, which serves as a home for many open sea fish. When going big game fishing in Mombasa, you may expect to catch fish like barracuda, wahoo, black marlin, tuna, and sailfish.

Shimoni.
Shimoni is located on the southernmost point of Kenya’s coastline, which shares a border with Tanzania. The location is close to the Pemba Channel, a marlin hotspot that has a variety of marlin species, including black, blue, and striped marlin. However, the most common species seen here are packs of sailfish and striped marlin, both of which can yield up to five fish in a single session. In addition to several billfish species, the Pemba Channel, which descends to a depth of 820 metres, is home to a diverse array of marine life, including sharks, wahoo, kingfish, Dorado, and giant trevally.
When to go for big game fishing along the Kenyan coast.
First off, the best times of year to go big game fishing along Kenya’s coast are during the windy Kusi and Kaskaz seasons, which run from July to October and December to April, respectively. The underwater currents and waves caused by the comparatively strong winds, which reach speeds of up to 25 knots, may push food items like algae, causing the smaller fish to become more active. The larger, predatory billfish are drawn to the movement of the smaller fish.
The migration patterns of many fish species present along Kenya’s coast are likewise impacted by the monsoon winds. The Watamu boiling pot serves as the hotbed for black marlin, the most prevalent billfish found around the Kenyan coast. Black marlin are most frequently discovered during the Kusi wind season. That being said, this does not exclude you from running into some at other times of the year. On the other hand, January is a very good month to catch sailfish, which are the most sought-after species by fishermen. The most promising locations are in the Malindi and Watamu seas. The greatest time of year to see blue and striped marlins in the Pemba Channel and underwater mountains off the coast of Watamu is from January to March. The majority of the catches made here weigh between 100 and 400 pounds; the biggest blue marlin ever recorded was captured in the Watamu Mountains in March 1995 and weighed 1248 pounds.
