SALTWATER FLY-FISHING & SAFARI

'Safari', its a wonderful Swahili word meaning 'travel or journey', and one which conjures up images of shimmering African plains, of lions all tawny in the warmth of the setting sun, or the gentle swaying baggy pants walk of elephant, with the scream of a fish eagle in the distance.

'Safari' the beat of drums, of 4 X 4's trailing dust and the promise of excitement.

Its that promise of excitement and African magic as 'Safari' starts to gain new meanings and dimensions as internationally, Blue water fly-anglers begin to realise that the waters off Kenya, traditional home of the Big Five, also offers them a chance at what must be the absolute ultimate of all slams,  Broadbill Swordfish, Blue, Black and Striped Marlin, as also Shortbill Spearfish and Sailfish. What is seriously exciting about this is that all these fish are to be found simultaneously in these waters, and the periods that they are there coincide with the good weather found during the changes of monsoons.

Imagine going on 'Safari' to fish for the Big Six, and when you've done that, and are bored with chasing big fish around the ocean, climbing aboard a Safari vehicle and going to see the Big Five, the Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Lion and Leopard.

The old saying of there being always something new out of Africa.…how about Broadbill Swordfish on Fly?

It's this realisation of there always being something new that makes flyfishing the waters off Kenya and especially the Pemba Channel Fishing Club such an exciting destination, and the excitement starts early in the morning as, with a quiet rumble of diesel motors, and in the company of lateen rigged Arab Felucca's and the smaller Galawa's, you slip quietly out to sea.

Those early mornings are gorgeous, with shafts of sunlight busting through the fat banks of Cumulus cloud that line the horizon, turning the wings of the flocks of seabirds working the teeming bait schools into a kaleidoscope of wheeling sweeping fragments of color. There's no shortage of baitfish, right there on the exit to the ocean, almost on one's doorstep, so the bait rods buck and kick as the Bonito and Skipjack Tuna get hauled on board, and deftly filleted into the strips of bait that play such an integral part in the teasing of fish.

Those essential ingredients required for a successful trip are all there, baitfish in plentiful supply, good seagoing boats equipped with excellent tackle, and that other vital element so often missing at other destinations, an experienced English speaking crew. In this case the PCFC have fallen in love with the close-up, hand-to-hand type of combat and the excitement that blue water flyfishing brings to big game angling. Honed by hours in the bush and oceans of Africa, the crew have eyes like hawks, and the competition among them as to who sees the fish first is intense. I've never been able to figure out how they manage it, but once they've spotted fish they just never lose sight of it, and that's another vital link in the chain. Once you get to see that fish, you can get a bait to it, and then keep feeding it until it's good and mad and ready to wallop that fly into its version of a fishy heaven, and they are good at it, these Pemba Channel fellows.

They spotted the second Sailfish that came sliding out of the depths, just seconds after Martin Davis, a South African based ichthyologist had hooked his first ever Sailfish on fly. I had helped him get hooked up when Mohammed nudged me, pointing with his chin and giving me enough time to pick up my rod and cast, and the two Sailfish, hooked within seconds of each other from the stationary boat, skittered off across the indigo blue of the Indian Ocean. Double header on Sailfish, with two of them tailwalking and diving and running over the surface of the ocean with that great glorious flag of a dorsal fin steaming behind.

The clear incandescent electric blue that lights at the base of a Striped Marlin's dorsal and pectoral fins, changing it from a sleepy greeny-brown dirigible basking on the ocean surface into the most stunningly beautiful creature as it banks and powers it way through the gentle ocean swells in search of the teaser that caught its attention. The heart stopping moment as it hangs, frozen between sea and sky with the bright iridescence of Billy Pate's fly stuck deep into its bill. The magic of watching a man, made canny and wise in knockdown, drag-it-out battles with over a thousand bill fish handle that Marlin. The moments of sheer mastery that made bringing that 124 pound fish to gaff on 12lb tippet, in just under forty-five minutes seemed so effortless and easy, but in so doing Pate established an All-African record that will stand unbroken for years to come.

We saw dozens of fish on that trip, big, sassy Striped Marlin that crashed our flies, breaking and making a mockery of the 12 inch shock and 15 inch class tippet that you have to use when trying for record fish in terms of IGFA regulations, (and which some anglers feel currently restricts the ultimate size of fish that one can catch for world record purpose)

The sheer volume of Striped Marlin that we saw on that trip that had both Billy and Jodi Pate excited enough to make them say that they would continue to return to flyfish these African waters. "Beats Ecuador at it's very best" was Billy's comment when asked how he compared these waters with some of the places he had visited and fished.

And the best of it, is when the day is done, you can follow it up with the excitement of trolling at night, adding a totally new dimension to the whole sport.

Peter Ruysenaars, owner of Pemba Channel Fishing Club and his crews have spent a lot of time investigating trolling at night, and with remarkable success. They have succeeded in catching numerous fish using this method of angling, and now that Broadbill Swordfish have been taken on fly some hundred odd mile up the coast, it won't be long before this species is added to the impressive list of fly caught fish that Pemba Channel Fishing Club is so rapidly establishing.

(John Costello, author of this article has over the years flyfished internationally for all the major saltwater species. PCFC remains one of his favorite destinations. He became the first ever person to catch a marlin on fly in African waters, landing a 107lb fish on 20lb tippet.)