Lots of people gauge the passage of a year by the occurrences of several events; sort of like: Good Friday, May 24th, Cup Match, Halloween, Christmas and New Year. And those who subscribe to this way of thinking will be quick to tell you that, after next weekend, we will be into the downswing or the twilight of the year. Goodbye, 2013, as it were.But, “Whoa”, the angling calendar moves quickly enough but not quite as insanely fast as that holiday-based version. The billfish season highlights have certainly come and gone, but that does not put an end to such. There will be marlin on the offshore grounds for another three months with smaller fish dominating the action as August gives way to September and the wahoo become the species of prominence.The final leg of the Bermuda Triple Crown provides a quick summary of the billfish season so recently flown by.The landmark 40th annual Sea Horse Anglers Club Billfish Tournament was another successful event, with three days of fine weather, largely coinciding with the near full phase of the moon, which should have been to the satisfaction of some skippers. Anyway, regardless of any lunar influence, the conditions allowing the 27 participating boats to comb the deep water surrounding the Island. This they did with some success, even though the numbers of marlin continued to drop off from the success rate enjoyed earlier in the month.The three days saw a total of 42 marlin (41 blues and a solo white) caught with all but three being released. It was just one of those boated fish, at 594 pounds that gave Elaine Jones’ Mama Who team, fishing aboard Capt. Alan Card’s Challenger the winning edge by a mere 94 points with a total of 1,594 points ahead of close pursuers, No Vacancy and Tease Em, both on 1,500 points. Top angler was Sherry Jones (1,500 points) on Capt. Neil Petersen’s El Cazador.The largest fish of the tournament was the 622-pounder caught by Sail Ricks on El Cazador. Surprisingly, there were no entries in the largest game fish categories.As the final leg of the Bermuda Triple Crown, the catches made in the Sea Horse event played an important role in determining the winner of this prestigious tournament series.When all the hype and hollering had died away and the final results announced, it was Capt. Tom Ross’ Callie Girl (3,700 points) that swept the honours away from Capt. Tom Lynskey’s Uno Mas based on time with Capt. Bull Tolson’s Sea Toy closely behind with 3,547 points. Just like the horse racing version with the same title, this was a close run race. Especially when it is taken into consideration that 39 boats were involved in one or more events covered by the trio. Although not making it into the top three this year, local boats enjoyed considerable success, proving once again that they can compete with some of the world’s best.Local waters also continued to prove that they are host to some high quality blue marlin fishing. Maybe not the world’s fastest action but it certainly boasts a large average size with a high degree of reliability. The three tournaments, each with three days of fishing, saw a total of 167 billfish caught consisting of 138 blue marlin and 29 white marlin. There were just three other game fish weighed in: two wahoo and a yellowfin tuna.Many of the foreign boats are in the process of departing these Islands. The North American tournament circuit hits the big time.The Ocean City, Maryland, White Marlin Open claims to be the world’s largest billfish tournament and has prize money that runs into the millions! Other events are not quite so large but offer big money or other attraction. The so-called Boy Scout tournament in the US Virgin Islands also rates highly on the competitive list of events.Not only does the tournament circuit beckon, but as the summer progresses, so does the chance of a hurricane increase and most visiting boats have some “go to” safe location in the event of such a storm. Such places are not exactly close to a mid-Atlantic outpost that hardly provides enough safe moorings for its own boats.Thus the recognised billfish season has come to a close. Not that the fish know any different; they will continue to cruise the deep water until the first cooling blasts of the autumn alert them to the fact that they need to make their way south to climes that are better suited to their warm water nature.So, the best news is that we have a great week coming up; at least for most of us, it is a short week followed by a nice, long holiday weekend. Arguably, the time of year when Bermuda is at her best, plenty of cricket action for those so inclined; for others, lazy days on beach, boat or at barbecue.With so much leisure time available, many will be able to manage at least one day offshore where the focus is more likely to be on “eating fish” than on spear-bearing behemoths.Even though wahoo will be less common than during their peak times of the year, there will be some that will take trolls and others that will come to investigate chum lines where they can be caught on artfully presented baits.Frustration often results from trying to catch a wahoo on a mono leader but there are a couple of odds in favour techniques that can help. One is the use of long shank hooks and the other is the commercially available nylon coated metal leaders. For some reason — maybe they are mistaken for monofilament — wahoo will often grab baits off these. One word of warning, these are best for one time use, the internal wire rusts really quickly and becomes as seriously weak link, often parting under little pressure.Live offerings, usually as robins, almost always get results from wahoo or just about anything else of a predatory nature.Around now, barracuda start to take interest in chumming procedures and they can make the robins skittish and are pretty much guaranteed to shred any mackerel that you try to bring to the boat.Still, this is all action and can be entertaining with rainbow runners and other floating species providing a source of fresh fillet. Down deeper, a large bait or, better yet, a live bait may entice an amberjack or bonita, both of which are present in good numbers and willing to please.Quite apart from being good sport fish, both species attain sufficient sizes that a casual bottom drop intended for a hind or coney can suddenly be transformed into some very Tight lines!!!