Stormy weather has continued, but while this may deter the fishermen, it does not always affect the fishing. But there have been very few trips made this week, a sad reflection of the very depressed state of the tourist industry along the coast. While September is usually quiet after the August holiday rush, it is sad to see many skippers not doing a single trip in the week.

Last Monday was very windy, with sleeting rain most of the day, conditions when most skippers would prefer to be telling stories in a warm bar, yet Callum Looman took his boat Tarka out from Watamu, and returned having tagged two black marlin, as well as a couple of giant trevally, a wahoo and some yellowfin tuna for an amazing day. The next day the weather was better, and he followed by boating a black marlin of  117kgs, which they were unable to revive for release, so it looks as if the Banks has plenty of marlin around. Normally these fish tend to move on around mid-September, but the prolonged wild weather might explain this.

Clueless, from Malindi, went out to the North Kenya Banks on Sunday, catching over 500kgs of yellowfin with ten of these over 20kgs and the biggest about 30kgs, while a few days earlier Tarka had a similar day out there with eight fish over 20kgs. A fish over 20kgs merits flying a white flag so this figure is a critical one when tuna fishing!

Also from Malindi, Eclare went out on Wednesday and released a hammerhead shark of 50kgs and caught half a dozen yellowfin, and noted the weather had calmed down from the previous two days. So now we must hope for more clients to avail themselves of Kenya’s deep sea fishing facilities – the fish are there and waiting!