Unusually strong winds blew for four days from Wednesday last week, putting a temporary stop to fishing until the storm passed over but by Sunday the seas had subsided and boats started to go out again.

Before the storm Snowgoose had tagged a black marlin which swallowed a Rappala lure and stayed hooked for the fight, giving Reiner Schwarz his first black marlin, an ambition for which he had spent several days in vain live baiting, the more traditional method of catching these fish!

Next day Greg Mutch on Neptune got a good mixed bag of two sail, three giant trevally, two kingfish a wahoo and a big grouper of 50kgs, but had to wait for a few days till after the storm to add the black marlin on Eclare. Alleycat also had a marlin on the Wednesday, while Tarka released a marlin each of two days earlier in the week and Ol Jogi, doing her first trips had an amazing day with ten sailfish, all caught close to Watamu along 'Sailfish Alley', living up to it's name, as Graham and son Matthew Woods tackled multiple strikes in the morning. Next day, the sail weren't to be found, but with Graham tagging a marlin around 110kgs a pretty good two days fishing!

The new fishing season kicks off around late June/early July with a few boats from Watamu and Malindi tackling the Banks and the Boiling Pot area, normally the only areas to find fish in the early part of the season. Tarka found a black marlin and a sail with a bull shark of 113kgs another day at the end of June, while Eclare and Neptune found sailfish in June and July, with fly rodder Billy Lynch from Nairobi catching a couple of sail on fly, difficult at this time of year with high winds and rough water. Seahorse was also away early in July with sailfish and a black marlin released, and followed this with two more marlin at the beginning of August.

Other boats joined in, Alleycat and B's Nest all finding marlin and sailfish with skipper Rob Hellier on his Unreel reporting a nice black marlin around 200 kgs which was totally demolished by packs of sharks as the boat playing this big fish drifted into the shallows of the Banks!

Sailfish were also present further down the coast, with Ken Rodwell's Delta at Mtwapa scoring two sail one day and four on another, while Eligio Battaia at Mombasa found sail as well in his Inca, so these fish seem widely spread, a good sign early in the season.

Even on those days when marlin and sailfish are not seen, there are plenty of yellowfin tuna, wahoo, kingfish, dorado and the ever present giant trevally to be caught - these latter fish provide a very hard fight, and being resident as opposed to migratory, tagging and releasing them has proved to be a wise move as even on those days when bad weather put the other fish down, the GT, or karambesi as they are called locally, which are usually caught deep on downriggers, can provide the angler with good sport.