September is the transitional month when the rough weather of the June-August period starts to moderate, the strong winds abate and the sea is calmer, but the consequence is that the billfish move on from the Watamu banks area and wahoo, yellowfin tuna and giant trevally often make up the daily bag on the fishing boats.

There are still marlin and sail to be caught however, as Unreel showed last Thursday when they returned to harbour with three black marlin flags, as well as three sailfish and a giant trevally. While these marlin are normally caught on live bait, it is interesting that on this occasion all three marlin were caught on small sailfish lures with a bonito belly strip , in fact on the same lure! I expect this lure will now spend plenty of time in the water!

` Tarka, with skipper Callum Looman is always a boat in the news and a regular in the top three marlin boats annually, and with three more marlin in the last week improving the tally, she (boats are always feminine by seafaring tradition) must be a front-runner for top scorer this season also. A good day on Sunday with a marlin, four sail  plus a couple of wahoo and a kingfish and a yellowfin tuna, is the sort of mixed bag which keeps any angler happy and active all day. This was followed next day with a black marlin, a sail and a yellowfin, this time with experienced British angler Phil Rivett, no doubt practising to improve on his fourth place last year in the Malindi Festival next month! Ol Jogi has also been out, with a trip bottom fishing, when a big amberjack of 40kgs was caught - these fish live deep near the bottom on the far out seamounts and Rips area where the water is much colder than on the surface. Alleycat was grounded for maintenance when a break appeared in the bookings, but was back in action again with a sailfish earlier in the week.

The Malindi ‘Herbie Paul’ Festival is the oldest tournament on the coast and was originally fished over a week in November, to start off the fishing season there. Now fished over the October holiday weekend, the light line Churchill Cup will be on Friday 21st October for the thin thread aficionados , followed the next two days, Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd by the main competition. With the weather calming now the sailfish focus usually switches from the Banks to the Malindi/ Mambrui area, and Neptune was showing the way when with Guy Raemacker last Wednesday they had a great day with five sailfish and 27 yellowfin fishing the Malindi waters, and plenty of sailfish were showing in this area. A few days earlier at Watamu the same team had two sail, a 26.5kg kingfish, two wahoo and an 18kg cobia, or black runner as they are often called here. So book a boat now for this fun competition, always well supported and a great social occasion.

Mtwapa is a centre for a lot of charter boats, with easy access to the many nearby hotels and good fishing, and Kipapa was out again last week with some keen anglers from South Africa. A double header of sailfish was raised, and Eugene Henning hooked and caught his first sail, a thrill for the whole family. Several good strikes on the downrigger came adrift, leaving the anglers wondering what particular monster of the deep had evaded them, and giving them some great stories!