Action on the Banks has been good this week with plenty of black marlin being raised, with the average size between 40 - 80kgs, although one or two bigger fish have been reported as hooked, but lost.

Alleycat released two marlin on Monday, but they had three more hook-ups which failed to stick on, so that's plenty of action for the anglers, and the same boat had another a couple of days later. Also on Monday Unreel had two blacks all in the same area - it's interesting how one day there seem to be marlin everywhere, while the next day only sailfish might be seen. But results don't always tell the story, three marlin strikes with hook-ups as Unreel experienced one day is a fun day for the anglers, even if none of the fish come to the boat. But the boats are also catching wahoo and yellowfin tuna daily, with some kingfish and the occasional giant trevally.

Tarka also has been successful, with a marlin on Friday and another the next day, then six sail on Tuesday and both a marlin and a sail on Wednesday to cap a very good run, but skippers know that a flat day is inevitable eventually and keep their fingers crossed.

Ol Jogi tagged four sail with angler Matthew Fliermans, this boat has had good fishing in August with five marlin and about thirty sailfish, while B's Nest tagged two sail for Bruce Skinner and Angus Campbell. No reports from Malindi boats this week, nor any news from Shimoni yet, though fishing often starts later down south.

August traditionally was a prime month for marlin on the Watamu Banks  and I recall fishing with Ian Rooken-Smith forty years ago in his 31ft Bertram Apple Pie, running down to Watamu in big seas at the end of August from Malindi. We trolled for bait for nearly three hours, but failed to catch one, so eventually put out a frozen bonito he had brought and had an immediate strike from a nice sized black, which failed to hook up but destroyed our only bait - and that was that!

Catching the bait is still a problem, each skipper having his secret methods and  we once saw skippers in  Palm Beach using a little spinner-jig on a heavy weight fishing it deep through bait shoals they picked up on the echo-sounder. Trying this here in our local waters, we never caught a thing! Perhaps someone has improved on  this! Years ago rainbow runner was the most used bait, preferably fished live but trolling very slowly or else the fish just flapped along on the surface, and bonito were hard to catch, but for several years very few rainbow runner have been found on the banks, and bonito or the smaller version frigate mackerel do the trick. Interestingly small dorado are used in the Americas, but I don't recall a marlin strike on this fish here, though it would attract sharks.

Some of the well known boats are not yet in action, waiting for the main season for tournaments starting later in October, but they miss one of the best parts of the season. The first big tournament will be the Herbie Paul  Malindi Festival,  over the holiday weekend  22nd/23rd October, followed by a string of closed competitions  for overseas clubs when the sailfishing starts to peak in November and December. This is usually a different run of sailfish to the ones being caught now, centred off Watamu and the Banks, and the fish seem to come in first up around Lamu and Kiwaiyu, then move down to Malindi waters.