THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

ISREAL
Potentially, as with its near neighbour Egypt down the other end of the Red Sea at Sharm El-Sheikh,
Eilat has a tremendous fishing potential. You only have to put on a set of scuba gear and walk in over
the edge of the rocks as I did to appreciate the diversity, abundance, and sheer quality of the fishing
which could be on offer within just a few yards of the shore. It was quite staggering.
Unfortunately, it isn't available, as the Israeli's, along with the Egyptians, prefer to keep it as a marine
national park, which on the one hand is understandable, but for an angler, very disappointing to say the
least.
I did manage to track down a few holiday maker boat trips where they would let you put a line out over
the back trolling lures for bonito or whatever, but nothing worth bothering with. So, I had to content
myself with my little telescopic rod down at the harbour snatching out all sorts of weird and wonderful
things, none of which would have made half a pound.
KENYA
One fish I had long wanted to catch but somehow always seemed to miss out on was a sailfish. With
that in mind, after taking advice from a number of people including Dave Lewis on specifically selecting
the venue offering the best chance of success, I booked a trip to Malindi fishing with Angus Paul who
operates the kingfisher fleet based there.
February was ear marked as a good all round time to be
fishing, and requesting Angus personally as my skipper was
also a key part of a recipe, which I was assured would be
successful.
So there I was very early on the first morning stood on the
jetty steps looking out on the moored fleet of offshore boats,
with numerous smaller craft ferrying anglers out to them
across the lagoon. Then I glanced seaward where beyond
the protection of the reef, I could see big breaking swells
coming from across the Indian ocean.
They start fishing early in the morning there for just that
reason. As the day heats up, so the breeze gets stronger to
the point that by late afternoon you can sometimes barely
stand up in the boat. The idea then is to get out early, bag
up, and be back ashore before that happens.
Our primary target - Sailfish
I also remember how cool it felt, and how we even took a
bit of a battering in the skiff from swells making it in over
the reef top. I remember too thinking we need to get some
early fish so as not to miss out in case Angus decided to
cut things short, worrying that this might be yet another
missed opportunity.
I made it on to the boat at around seven am while the Kenyan crew were still getting everything ready.
By around half seven we were exiting the lagoon, and immediately the lures were being paid out. Small
self weighted skirted lures with long cuts of fish lashed to their hooks fished in a spread along the
outside of the reef, and by five minutes to eight, the first sailfish had been to the boat, was tagged and
released.
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