It has been a bit cooler since one heavy shower of rain earlier in the week, and the fish have been quieter, while not a lot of activity was recorded amongst the boats as tourism is still at a low level at the coast. But next week looks busy with good bookings, and towards the end of the month Hemingways hosts the annual Capt Morgan tournament when teams of prizewinners in South African competitions are rewarded with a week of sailfishing at one of the most productive periods in the season. Two years ago, the event averaged over twelve sailfish per boat day, an all time record - this activity is usually triggered by the switch in the monsoon winds to blow from the north-east, the kusi, traditionally about mid-November.

The big tuna seemed to have moved away from the areas around the Banks and not many wahoo are now being caught, so it is up to the sailfish now, and reports from Malindi the last two days indicate the boats have been much more successful with scores up to double figures yesterday. No one knows what suddenly causes these fish to start taking the baits, as they can often be seen finning around on the surface but the boats don't catch them!

Earlier from Watamu both Ol Jogi and Black Widow tagged striped marlin, and this species should start to come in to the further out areas of the Rips soon, again catalysed by the onset of the kusi winds. So far on calm days the wind has moved slightly towards the east, but there are no real signs of a significant switch yet. B's Nest had a good day catching five sail with Gideon Fullard and Glyn Rodel on the rods, while Alleycat found four sail, Unreel a couple and Castle Lager, which a few days before found four big yellowfin up to 24 kgs, had to be content with a single sailfish. Black Widow, with a ladies team of Vanessa and Eloise Evans tagged a couple of sailfish, and Seastorm had some days with mixed bags of tuna and wahoo.

Kipapa from Mtwapa has moved up to Watamu with clients looking for big tiger sharks, but so far these have eluded them - usually the way with sharks, they are all around one when catching tuna and not wanted, but hard to find when targeted! However they did find a couple of giant trevally and a cobia, the latter one of the ocean's most tasty fish but sadly rare.

Further south, some good tuna and some sailfish have been caught at Mtwapa, and Mombasa  boats had wahoo and tuna, while down at Shimoni few boats have been out, but some sailfish and the occasional striped marlin have been seen. Their busy season starts with the change in the monsoon so all anglers are now praying for those northern winds!