Wednesday – The Fishing Excursion

Ken Rodwell was at the Reception Desk at 7:30 in preparation for our deep sea fishing adventure. His grandfather moved to their place at the mouth of the Mtwapa River at the end of the Second World War. Both he and his son were originally journalists and started one of Kenya’s first newspapers, the Kenya Times. Recently they have turned their interests to fishing. We boarded a 36 foot yacht and headed out to sea. With all of the recent rains, we had to travel almost 2 nautical miles before we were at the beyond the tidal fresh water.

We began to troll along the “seaweed line” running 7 lines simultaneously in addition to the 2 lure lines designed to attract the fish to the surface. All of the lines ran at the surface, carefully placed to avoid entanglement and to give a broad coverage behind the boat. Within about 20 minutes the first fish hit the line and I found myself in the “fishing” chair fighting and reeling in a 6-7 kg Dorado (also known as Mahi Mahi in Hawaii). They really like to jump and it is impressive to watch as he is landed. We all had opportunity to land fish. Adam and Lori brought in the largest at just over 10kg !!

It is luxurious to be taken to the fish, to have expert staff to place and lure the rods, as well as to land the fish in the boat once you reel them in. We met back at the house following fishing for some tea and coffee while our choice of fish was cleaned and prepared for us to take back with us to the resort. The other fish were shared among the staff. Everyone was able to enjoy the success of our fishing expedition.

We returned with our prize catch and were met by the chef and his staff who took instructions as to how to prepare our “catch of the day” Lori and I elected to have ours pan-fried while the kids opted for fish and chips. It was a great meal and a wonderful fishing adventure in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Kenya.