Sports anglers usually target particular species, then go after the biggest they can find, often on lighter tackle when they are looking to catch records. The most prestigious prize is a billfish, and of these the rarest is the broadbill swordfish. Broadbill are usually fished for at night, as they are deep dwellers during the day and come nearer the surface to feed at night, but a new technique pioneered in American waters is to fish on the bottom in the deepest water, often up to 600 metres, during the day. The first swordfish locally was caught near Watamu recently by this method, and veteran skipper Pat Hemphill at Shimoni recently took a party of South African anglers who wanted to try this tecnique. Armed with the correct tackle from America, Pat set out in his boat, appropriately named Broadbill, and with the bait helped down with 8kgs of concrete in over 2000ft of water his angler, Christo Wentzel, hooked into a huge fish, which was slowly fought to the surface.

Two and a half hours later, with the fish near the boat, a huge pod of about fifteen pilot whales, voracious large members of the dolphin family, appeared round the boat and attacked the swordfish, biting chunks off it's head and shoulders and instantly killing the fish - with the hooks in one of the chunks! Fighting off the whales, the crew were able to recover what was left of the broadbill, which weighed 155 kgs, for a great first for skipper, angler and crew!

Another huge fish was a black marlin  which was caught on Unreel at Watamu with skipper Rob Hellier. A team of South African anglers were jigging for a variety of fish around the Canyons, when behind a yellowfin tuna on a line as it neared the boat could be seen the purple glow of huge pectoral fins and a tail - a very big black marlin. The tuna was quickly bridled and rigged on a heavy rod, and back in the water it swam down deep, and after a few minutes it was swallowed - the marlin had engulfed it and hooked itself. A two hour fight ensued with the anglers taking turns as they tired on the heavy rod, and the fish was eventually gaffed, to turn the scale at 390.5kgs, one of the biggest marlin in recent years.

White Otter is one of the oldest and most famous boats along the coast, with well over a thousand marlin scored over a fifty year career, and when skipper Peter Ruysenaars brought two anglers from Tanzania up to Watamu for a few days fishing in her she appeared to have lost none of her skills, with two striped marlin and a sail tagged on Wednesday. Delta is another visiting boat from Mtwapa, and had a nice black marlin for Fred Genneson over 200kgs.

Successful local boats at Watamu include Sand Dollar, with a blue marlin of 110kgs and a stripey, and Black Widow where angler Jim weighed a blue marlin of 179.5kgs, as well as catching twenty dorado, while Neptune from Malindi had an amazing day with regular angler Leo Haak who released a black marlin of 140kgs in the morning, and then also with live baits, had a double header  with a black marlin of 120kgs, and a stripey of 60kgs, an unusual simultaneous strike. Fishing at Malindi, Snark had a great day with eleven sailfish, while Tina had a black marlin of 150kgs as well as a sail with Toire van Lerland.

The annual Penn Challenge, with thirteen teams of anglers from Holland and Belgium is in progress, with the team on Kipapa leading the first day with a nice black marlin, results next week.