It rather looks like a sudden movement from the sublime to the ridiculous has heralded the swan song to this year’s angling season.

Put in realistic terms, a commercial boat goes out one day and scores a dozen or more prime wahoo, only to return to the same area the next day for a paltry singleton and a couple of blackfin. This followed by days most productively spent at home working on the boat; borne out by no one else having much to show for their efforts during the period in question.

The lack of an influx of juvenile mackerel and tuna did not help the overall situation, but the truth of the matter is that those juveniles probably did happen by; just not as close to the Island and the off-lying Banks as fishermen would like to see.

Think about the myriad amount of fish that traverse the Atlantic from north to south and back again; then throw in the fish that make the east-west migrations, again both ways, and that is one heck of a lot of fish. Yet the Island sees only a very small part of the total movement. A miss is as good as a mile and it takes only a few miles to ensure that migrating fish miss the Island and its offshore structures completely.

Most fish tend to exhibit some degree of aggregation. The simplest form of this would be the school, or something that we may interpret as a school. For instance, if a number of wahoo are caught at a given area on the bank, the thought tends to be that there is a school of wahoo hanging out there.

While this may be true, it may also be that there is something — bait, temperature or whatever — that gives individual fish a reason to stay in that area; kind of like singles frequenting certain bars. They are not there together as a group, but they are all there for the same reason.

The lack of the desired bait may be why the wahoo and tuna have set out for new territories in the hope of finding what they are looking for.

And right now, whatever that is, it isn’t here. As a result, we may get some action from small groups (schools, perhaps?) or a few individuals when the fish’s and angler’s time and place happen to coincide. As that becomes less likely, then the effort will reduce further the chances of a run-in.

While it will remain possible to catch a few wahoo and maybe the odd yellowfin over the next few weeks, interest will quickly start to wane and we will have moved firmly into the off-season.

That is why the commercial operator is glad to be able to transfer his interest to lobsters at this time of the year.

With pessimism increasingly becoming the standard view of the offshore situation, are there any bright spots in sight at all? Well, happily, there should be at least one that the weekender can take advantage of.

Some will recall that last summer, much of the chumming on Bermuda’s Edge that was done to obtain live robins for later use on the Banks and elsewhere, was stymied by hordes; literally, hordes of yellowtail snapper. While this would normally be welcomed, the problem was that almost all of these fish were under the legally accepted size. As mentioned, that was about a year ago and those fish would have spent that time growing and should now be of legal size.

Yellowtail snapper are a marvellous fish from both the angling and eating points of view. They are very game, considering their size, and, given that they probably attain the greatest size in their normal range here in Bermuda, there is every reason to think that all the records should be held here. With that aside, even a three or four-pound yellowtail is large enough to give a good account of itself on suitable tackle and then provide two rather nice fillets.

Chumming is the preferred method of going after yellowtails. Try the deeper reef areas out from, say, 22 fathoms. With the seasonal protected areas now open to fishing, there are plenty of places easily accessible to even the small boater. Some enthusiasts insist on night fishing for yellowtails, but they can bite just as well during the day.

The key element seems to be a leeward tide and one not too strong, as you will want the chum to sink. Yellowtails are a reef fish and, as such, move around and between the corals and so forth. Once enticed by chum, they will move up nearer the surface as they try to find the source of the bait. Lots of yellowtails are caught on bottom rigs even without chumming.

Mixing sand with the chum will help it to sink and there are plenty of theories relating to the use of sand and just as many who have never used sand and still achieved good results. Also remember that the one thing wrong with yellowtails is that they will spoil quickly. So bring lots of ice and chill the fish immediately after capture. Cleaning them, using the guts for chum and placing the fish on the ice as you catch them is a good technique.

Conventional rods and reels work, although many prefer to use spinning rods to get the bait back into the zone where the bites are coming from.

Handlines, while not sporting, also get results and, at the end of the day, isn’t the object of the exercise Tight Lines???