Today's guest on our boat is Stane Vidmar, a Slovenian folksinger and a very enthusiastic gentleman who has been fishing in numerous places all over the world. From Hawaii to Alaska & from the Amazon to the Seychelles, and today he was seeking for striped marlin......not yet in his little book, who hasn't got one, of species caught.

After a small breakfast and supplying the boat with food & drinks we set off at 06:30 to start a day of Big-game fishing. The fishing here always starts of with the same ritual........baitfishing. Coming out of the bay there's a baitpatch where quite often plenty of Bonito's can be caught with little muppets/skirts. We use the belly strips to give the other lures on both sides (so in total 4) extra flavour.

The setup on the boat is as following: 2 50lbs. rods & reels on either sides, with 2 80lbs. rods & reels with big Kona-Heads in the center, thus creating a maximum spread of lines in the water. Flashers & daisy-chains are also used to stir up the appetite of the marlin even more.

The nice thing about bait-fishing in the early morning is that it gives action straight after coming out of the harbour. I believe this action often contributes to the positive karma on the boat. You can question this, but I'm sure that a positive frame of mind can help to create a wonderful day......... and not only for the art of Big-game fishing.

Next destination.........the deep blue water near the lighthouse, located at the north tip of Pemba Island. This is the area where most of the stripeys are caught. At average trolling speed it takes about an hour to get to the prime waters, although on the way up there sailfish and other bycatch like wahoo, barracuda and falusi (swahili for dorado) aren't uncommon at all.

The boat is equipped with depth-meters & GPS, but doesn't have the ability to read the temperature of the water via a satellite, as I read about a very well known and highly renowned charter-boat in Cabo San Lucas. Remember........, we are still fishing in Africa, in my opinion the forgotten continent, although this is a completely different story !!

After the work in the early morning, belly-stripping the bonito's and sowing them onto the different hooks, all the lines are set for the big catch. The Slovenian singer showed me his photographs of previous fishing adventures, and I must say I admired him. For me it will be a dream to gain more experience on Big-game fishing as soon as I will be finished with my education, International Marketing. Anyway....., it was another sunny day on the magnificent blue waves of the Indian Ocean.

Big-game fishing is like the fine art of hunting on land, a visual sport. A good skipper & crew can optimize the chances of catching big fish by searching for rips, birdlife or other signs on the water. Rips are different currents with different temperatures of water that come together. This water is full of oxygen so a lot of fish, with the marlin on top of the food chain, can be found in these areas.

During the marlin-run at the Pemba Channel Fishing Club, the ideal wind blows from the North-East, and is locally called the "Kaskazi-wind".

Once arriving in the deep blue waters, Abii, the other crew-member, and I start searching the surface for marlin. It is now our task to spot the marlin, this seems quite easy, but it isn't. Being at sea all day, looking at the waves for hours, it's very easy to lose focus. Big-game fishing is a waiting game, but when it all starts to happen you have to be ready in an instant. Mainly it's just a matter of experience before you can spot a marlin in the water. The eye has to be well trained!!

10:00 AM.......... a big dorsal fin divides the surface behind one of the outer lures. "MARLIN, MARLIN", we shout and rush from the tuna-tower down to the deck. Meanwhile, the Slovenian folksinger leaps out of his chair because of our shouting & he's overlooking the waves to catch a glimpse of the fish he has dreamt of!!!

I get the rod out of the rod-holder, the line is attached to the left outrigger and the marlin is still behind the lure. I set the drag on virtually freespool, guiding the reel with my hand. The reason for doing this is to give the marlin time to turn before setting the hook, which increases the chance of hooking up..............then it happens!!

The line swishes off the left-outrigger and the reel starts screaming like hell. After a couple of seconds I set the drag and strike 3 times. This actually sounds easy, but it has got to be done with great delicacy, because the mouth of a marlin only has a few soft parts. Now...., the marlin leaps completely out of the water and starts jumping off to the horizon with an incredible speed. Now I give the rod to the Slovenian who has already taken place in some kind of medieval apparatus, also known as the fighting-chair. The reel is still screaming loudly under the immense power of the fish. The most important thing now for the customer is to keep the rod-tip low in the same direction as the fish is swimming.

After a couple of hundred yards the fish comes to a halt. It's from this point on that the real physical work for the angler starts. He has to retrieve line on the marlin by pumping the rod. At this time it is very important to keep constant pressure on the line. The fish is still furious though, behaving in a teasing passion.

Immediately after handing the rod over to the customer, I help Abii to retrieve all the remaining lines from the water. The deck must be completely free of all obstacles so all the attention can go out to the fish. Abii and I put on our gloves. It is Abii who will grab the leader and brings in the fish as soon as the swivel hits the top-eye of the rod. The marlin isn't near the boat though, she's still jumping inextinguishable and she's still taking line from the reel with every jump. After half an hour we still can't see her, but slowly.........very slowly the reel is filling up again. And then, at last, we see her in a purple-bluish shade at the surface.

What a terrific animal. Her complexion shows her pure speed, flexibility and enormous strength. Now she's starting to get closer and closer. To be honest, I'm really shitting my pants, because I'm the one who has to grab the bill and free the marlin from the hook.

The swivel hits the rod-tip and with a firm grip the fish is pulled to the boat. I am leaning halfway over the side of the boat to grab the bill. Imagine.............hanging half overboard with your heels stuck under the fighting chair, to keep you from falling in the water. This picture combined with big waves is a fantastic adrenalin-rushing experience. What a beautiful fish and what an astonishing power!!!!!

After I freed the hook, which can be quite a perilous task, photos can be made, while I'm retrieving the fish. Reviving a marlin is very very important!!!! It strongly increases the chance of survival. After a couple of minutes holding the bill under water with one hand and keeping the marlin straight, by holding the dorsal fin with the other hand, I let her slip back into the big deep-blue Indian Ocean........no time is being wasted and all the rods are rigged up again......

All the fish are released, that's very good, because nowadays there aren't too many around anymore, thanks to our Korean, Spanish & Japanese friends.

Just staring a bit in front of me I'm thinking that I'm just living in a fantastic dream. Sitting in the tuna-tower looking at the 'smoke' of the lures just trying to understand what happened today & the most incredible thing happens...............a 'pack-attack'!!!!

Four or five stripeys come up simultaneously from the deep depths. The Slovenian, still gasping for breath after his previous fights that day (at the time we already caught and released 3 marlin), probably has the most memorable day of his life. Four reels start screaming, but we can only manage to hook up with three.

There we are, a Kenyan deckie, a Slovenian folksinger, and a Dutch student, standing next to each other. All three of us have got an enormous fish on the other side of the line. This is actually the first time I am hooked up with a marlin myself, now I not only see her tremendous power, I can actually feel it. That feeling I can try to explain on paper, but you can only really understand this if you have had the experience.

Thanks to the expertise of the skippers, Ramadhan and Abii took turns behind the steering wheel, we managed to bring in all three. Totally devastated, but completely satisfied, we all shook hands and then we coursed back for the bay.

Here we were welcomed with a nice cold beer. After we had our meal it was almost time to go to bed again and dream about the day...............and all the other adventures still to come during my stayings here.

The end!!

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