It has been a good week for fishing, with marlin being caught all along the coast,  better weather and calmer seas. North of Mombasa in the Rips, the fish have been mainly blue marlin, while south around Shimoni striped marlin have been the predominant catch, with sailfish being caught close in off Diani.

Fishing from Watamu, Alleycat has had a very successful run with seven blue and two black marlin in the last week, with an amazing best day on which they released two black and two blue marlin, with one of the latter estimated to be about 320kgs, a very fine fish indeed. This last Tuesday they came in flying three blue marlin flags, with all the fish about 100kgs, so what a week! The same day Sand  Dollar released a blue marlin estimated at 180kgs, while the previous day Unreel tagged a blue around 160kgs and Peter Hoffman, a longtime regular from overseas released two black marlin fishing in his own small boat, quite an achievement! Clueless released a blue of about 160kgs, with Soolyman catching two blues about the same size so some good fish around the Rips.

At Shimoni, Simba down from Watamu fishing with regular client Mark Smith for a week, has scored one sailfish, five striped, three blue and one black marlin, with the latter being tagged with a satellite tag, while one of the blues died on the line and had to be boated, and was weighed in at a huge 381 kgs, making this the biggest fish landed along the coast this year so far. White Otter and Broadbill both released a striped marlin this Wednesday, with the latter boat finding both a blue and a stripey the previous day. Patrizia II caught two stripeys from the four from which they had strikes, and on an earlier trip they had a nice blue marlin of 141kgs, so the Pemba Channel yielding good fishing at present.

Shuwari at Diani tagged nine sailfish on a morning trip – there seem to be a lot of sail in this area – while Iron Barde fishing from Kilifi had a black marlin. North at Lamu, Little Toot found a black marlin, while Seyyida had a stripey so an impressive catch of marlin everywhere along the coast.

Tournaments at Malindi this weekend, Kilifi next weekend and Watamu the one after, followed by the mid-week Friends of Kenya  at Hemingways will make for a busy time for anglers.