Fishing in Mombasa
Mombasa · East African Coast · hardiness zone 13b
New here? Start with the fishing introNow
25°C · Drizzle
Today
28° / 24°
Sun
06:04 – 18:13
Moon
Waning Crescent · anglers' solunar: good
Weather read at 1:31 a.m..
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
In the water now · October
What's biting
The sport fish active near Mombasa, Kenya in October — where they hold, how to know one on the line, and the tactic that usually works. Check your licence and the current limits before you go.
FishYear-roundGiant trevally (GT)
Caranx ignobilis
A thick, powerful jack with a steep, blunt head, hard scutes along the base of the tail, and silver-grey to black colouring; mature males can be almost black.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Christopher Mark · CC BY 4.0
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
Behind this week's fishing
The day, the ground and the sky over Mombasa
Run-off colours the water and brings food in. Fish the inflows and the seams.
Overhead · Mombasa, Kenya
The sky over the water
The two clocks nothing on the ground can argue with: the length of the day, and the phase of the moon.
The sun
12h 10m of light
Sunrise
06:04
Solar noon
12:09
Sunset
18:14
A month from now the day will be 0h 06m longer. Enough light for steady growth.
The moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · waning · day 26 of 29.5
- Next full
- Oct 26 · 20d
- Hunter's Moon
- Next new
- Oct 10 · 4d
- Darkest nights
Planting by the moon: Last quarter to new: a resting phase — weed, prune, harvest, turn compost and prepare beds.
Anglers' solunar rating: good — the tradition says fish feed hardest in the days either side of new and full, and around moonrise and moonset. The evidence is mixed; light and weather matter more.
Turn of the season
Summer solstice
Dec 21 · 76 days away
Frost is rare here — most years see none, or a night or two at most.
Next moons
- New MoonOct 10
- First QuarterOct 18
- Full Moon · Hunter's MoonOct 26
- Last QuarterNov 1
Right now · Mombasa, Kenya
Forces at work
Nothing here is a guess. Each of these is read from this week's forecast and this location's climate record, and each one is pushing the season one way or the other.
- Worth watching
The moon
Waning Crescent · 15%
Waning, 26 days old. Full moon in 19 days. Anglers' solunar rating: good (a tradition).
It moves water — in the sea, in a lake's edge, and, by long tradition, in the sap of a plant. Fish feed hardest on the days around new and full.
- Working for you
Wind
10 km/h now · 24 peak
A working breeze: it ripples the surface, drifts a boat at a fishable speed, and stacks bait on the windward shore. Anglers call it a walleye chop.
It pollinates corn and grasses, dries soil, breaks stems — and it decides where the bait, and therefore the fish, end up.
- Worth watching
Rain
132.4 mm / 7 days
132.4 mm in a week is a lot. Expect blight pressure on tomatoes and potatoes, slugs at night, and blown-out, muddy rivers.
Sets the pace for everything: germination, fungal fruiting, slug nights, and how a river runs for the next three days.
- Working for you
Soil warmth
28.4 °C
Warm enough for beans, corn, squash, cucumber and transplanted tomato and pepper. Roots run hard at this temperature.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
- Working for you
Day length
12h 10m
Gaining about under a minute of daylight a day. Every extra minute is growth you don't have to pay for.
The one thing weather can't change. Plants count photoperiod to decide when to bolt, bulb, flower and go dormant.
- Quiet right now
Frost
366 frost-free days
Frost is rare here. Coldest night in the next week: 23.0 °C.
The hard edge of the growing season. Ice inside a leaf ruptures its cells — one night ends a tomato and sweetens a parsnip.
Read and watch with your kids
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