There are some signs of life offshore, even though there is still very little effort going into working the deep blue.

With next week a short one for most people with the one holiday that actually discourages fishing occurring on Friday, and the rest of the weekend being pretty much family-orientated, there isn’t too much likelihood of the weekender conducting any sorties afloat.

Once that is over with however, things could change quite markedly. For one, the month will quickly become April and, in many years, that has seen the action really commence.

It is unclear as to what actually makes it all happen. Whether it is the timed arrival of certain species of bait or the predators themselves that gives rise to the increased action is unknown. Perhaps there is a certain synergy between the hunters and the hunted that makes for fast action and essentially starts the recognised fishing season remains to be learnt.

For one, we know that the bait species do not normally reside here. They almost magically appear and then are commonplace; be they flying squid, flying fish or huge schools of small jacks or other species.

The flying squid are, in fact, juveniles of a much larger squid that normally lives at depth. So their arrival is probably equivalent to “the young of the year” or the results of the squids’ last breeding season.

But, to take things a step farther, why do these things show up when they do? It is not as if there were any land-based inputs such as river flow to effect changes in offshore conditions.

Bermuda simply isn’t big enough to have any significant impact. So it must be something else that triggers the onset of what we term the “fishing season”. Possible factors include day length (unrelated to daylight saving time), current movements although these can vary and, probably the most obvious one, water temperature.

A look at the current NOAA (the American governmental agency that studies weather and such) sea surface temperature map will show that Bermuda is just about right on the boundary between two temperature ranges with the warmer one just intruding from south of the island.

Put into terms of degrees, it looks to be just shy of 70F, which is thought by many to be the “magical” mark for summer species. Assuming that the waters south of the island gradually move northward, then based on the present analysis, the water should warm markedly over the next few weeks.

Perhaps clear evidence of the warming trend are the humpback whales which are apparently numerous in the waters around the island at present. Just how numerous is hard to say; partly, because no one knows for sure just how many of these whales there are or how many routinely migrate through this part of the world.

At any given time, there might seem to be a lot but because they are capable of moving quickly, and out of sight as they are under the water, even one or two can give the impression of many.

In any case, they are a true harbinger of spring and the start of the summer season which involves boating, angling and beach activities. Even though it is May 24 that is seen as the start of summer, the nautical crowd has to get going well in advance of that date.

Tourists regularly and not just a few locals too will immerse themselves in the sea at various beaches once the sun proves warm enough to make the water enticing even though the seawater temperature might be lacking a bit.

So, to get to the point: even the anglers who take the winters off should be in the process of getting the boat and their gear ready. As mentioned earlier, effort has been low but some of the charter boats have gotten some early work and have had a chance to work the Edge and at least Challenger Bank.

A very few amateurs have made abbreviated runs without much success although strikes were reported. It was the catching that proved difficult.

The professionals were more successful with some rather intriguing catches of mixed bags. On one trip, Captain Alan Card’s Challenger managed a nice brace of wahoo with a school-sized yellowfin tuna and a few dolphin, a species more usually associated with high summer. What was especially curious was the solo yellowfin because tuna are known to be schooling fish, particularly when they are in that size class. There must have been a bunch over there somewhere.

On another trip, wahoo were the dominant catch and there have been other reports of anything up to about ten in a single day, mostly coming from Bermuda’s Edge. So far sizes have been variable with most fairly small but the odd one bettering 50 pounds.

As the weather settles down, expect the fishing to pick up. With the water now warming, it won’t be too long before some of the other summer faithfuls like rainbow runners show up and with their influx you can expect the bigger beasts like the larger tunas and the billfish. All told, a decent spot of trolling should result in some Tight lines!!!