For those who love fishing, the real adventure is going on the boat of real fishermen and work with them for one day. And if that is an adventure on your national coast, imagine doing it abroad. Maybe on tropical seas. Maybe … in Africa. The most famous fishing places in Africa are along the east coast, facing the Indian Ocean. The part of sea included between Ethiopia and Mozambique, to be exact. Foreign, beautiful seabeds, alien fish, incredible colours and different fishing techniques will make every fisherman excited.
The new trend for African holidays is this kind of “sea safari”. That is, go fishing with local fishermen, spend one or two days on their boats and try to take the same fish they are taking. And if Kenya and Tanzania are already well organized for this new sport, other nations are learning how to do this. And they are attracting tourists on these new adventures.
About game fishing in East Africa
Before you go big game fishing in East Africa you shall be informed about the place and the characteristics. The largest number of fish arrives to the east coast of Africa with the monsoon storms, that is from May to September. This is the best time for finding yellowfin tunas, dogtooth tuna, big eyes, king fish, barracoodas. But this is also the heavy rain season so you must face a very bad weather all the time.
A much better climate is the dry season, from October to April. There will not be much fish in the ocean, in those months, but fishermen will love chasing billfish, sailfish, marlins, swordfish too sometimes. Basically every season is good for fishing along the African east coast, it all depends on what do you want to fish and what will you tolerate – as weather – for doing it.
Where to go game fishing
When time of big game fishing comes, on the east coast of Africa, there are many shores, places and islands where tourists can do this particular sea safari. The whole island of Madagascar is perfect, so are the archipelagos nearby – Seychelles, Reunion and Mauritius. Try the Bazaruto Island of Mozambique as well, and also Vilankulo, Beira and Quelimane. Almost all the coast of Tanzania is a paradise for fishing, especially Zanzibar. As for Kenya, you shall fish along the Mombasa-Malindi coast line. Fishing in Somalia is quite a problem, today, due to the troubles with local fishermen, pirates and fishing industries’ rights. The best places over there would be from Mogadiscio to Hafun on the famous “African Horn”.
The best places ever
Among so many locations, here are some places highly recommended for good fishing along the African east coast. Watamu – Kenya – is the number one tourist fishing place: billfish, yellowfin tunas, wahoos are the main protagonists of these seabeds. Very large fish fishing is possible along the Bazaruto Island shores, in Mozambique: a great place also for marlins fishing, this one.
If you are in Tanzania, prefer Zanzibar especially for sailfish and black, blue or striped marlins. You will find the best tuna also in the Mauritius Archipelago’s waters. A little difficult, instead, to recommend fishing places in Somalia. There are plenty of them, but the government often creates problems, especially to foreigners who come “taking local fish off the Somali fishermen’s nets”. So you better ask local tour operators and the embassy before booking a sea safari along the Horn.
