Some fine spring weather has seen boats making the pilgrimage to the Banks and other favoured fishing grounds but, thus far, there has been little to report. Some schools of bait, mostly mackerel, have been seen but there has been little else worthy of note.

A few wahoo have been caught and a day's effort should meet with some success in this respect. Bottom-bouncing and some chumming for bonitos and other species has also kept the commercial fleet buoyant, for want of a better word.

With the lobster season shutting down on Wednesday, there will be an upsurge in effort after the Easter holiday weekend and this should bring in more detailed reports of what is actually happening on the offshore grounds.

The inshore is still quiet as well with there having been no hauls of jacks or that most desirable bait species, anchovies. That situation could change overnight, particularly now that the inshore water temperature is moving upward in leaps and bounds.

Real traditionalists will be speaking of a baked red snapper for Good Friday.

Sadly, this is all a bit of a misnomer because before refrigeration, computers and all the other modern conveniences, life really was a whole lot simpler. In the first instance, the real red snapper does not occur here. This species, which is related to the grey snapper, is most often encountered in the Gulf of Mexico where it supports important commercial and recreational fisheries.

What passed for a "red" snapper here was the species that was the focal point of the vertical line fishery in the 1980s. Although more distantly related to the snappers, there were a few species of deep water fish that happened to be red (a good trick, considering that red is the first colour to disappear as the light is attenuated by depth), were vaguely snapper-like, were edible and boasted an extremely large eye (back to the light attenuation business).

With little effort going into the vertical long-lining, there is probably every chance of success should you wish to try your hand at this old-fashioned technique for securing a Good Friday feast.

Back in the day, handlines were the weapon of choice but most modern anglers will prefer a rod and reel. Use a leader with a minimum of five hooks (more is better because where it is going, it will be hard to feel the "nibbles"). Use a tough bait like squid although anchovies work well – if you can get them.

The preferred venue is along the drop-off of the Banks or Bermuda's Edge. Start at about 70 fathoms and work out to something like 90 or a hundred. Drop the line down and jig away to your heart's content. You may have to shift a couple of times, but you should almost surely encounter them and, if you are really lucky, it is possible to come up with one on each of your hooks.

Where you are fishing there are a couple of other possibilities: one is the so-called "bastard" or lesser amberjack (again, the big eye is the giveaway) and the other is the misty grouper or "John Paw". The latter is likely to be a challenge to get to the surface on anything but the heaviest of tackle but you are welcome to try your luck. All told, a seasonal distraction, until the real fishing season kicks in, which should be anytime now.

After all the fuss and publicity relating to the listing of the Atlantic bluefin tuna on the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), things petered out rather dismally when the motion was rejected.

Environmental organisations recognised that the trade in that species involves just too much money so that there are few countries willing to support such a restriction. Anyone wishing to follow the progress, as it were, of this issue can do so on the internet at www.bbc.co.uk.

Not surprisingly, Japan was not in favour of the measure. The bluefin is the preferred tuna for sushi and other delicacies and only a small portion of the world catch is made in Japanese waters or by the Japanese fishing fleet. Realistically, the market for bluefin is in Japan.

Interestingly, one of the countries that did not support the ban was Canada, a country which is usually viewed as pretty "green" and conservation-oriented.

To put things into context, Canada has a total allowable catch of around 400 metric tonnes of bluefin tuna. A quick and dirty calculation using an average weight of 500 pounds per fish (the farther north you go, the larger the tuna seem to get), it works out that the entire quota could be made up of something like 1600 fish. In the scheme of things, that simply isn't a whole lot. Especially when you consider that the number of licences is severely limited and the entire fishery is quite closely policed.

Perhaps things are put into more perspective when you see that the provinces with bluefin fisheries (Atlantic Canada) tend to be on the lower end of the Canadian income bracket and the fishing communities are lower still.

Some information that has been gleaned first hand suggests that fishermen hope to catch at least one bluefin tuna per season as the income from that single fish will get them through the winter months when fishing isn't really much of an option. That's when the 1600 or so fish starts to equate to the something like 1600 families that are dependent on the resource. Other less industrialised nations were also intent on maintaining the bluefin as a source of revenue.

While this is all understandable, it does call into question just what can be done about the problem. Its value means that it will always be a target of choice, but what happens if Mother Nature comes up short and the stocks really do collapse. The naysayers should be reminded that other stocks have collapsed to the point that commercial fisheries are no longer viable. Such circumstances would spell disaster for both the fish and the fishermen.

Present management measures which are, at best, subject to all sorts of political persuasion seem to be directed at postponing what many believe to be inevitable. The question will come up again later this year when the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meets to consider measures for the future. The outcome is likely to be something similar to the present.

The Club Nautico of Cuba has also extended an invitation to the Bermuda angling organisations to participate in the 60th annual Ernest Hemingway International Billfish Fishing tournament. This event will take place in Havana, Cuba from the May 24-29.

This is held in high regard in Cuba, largely because of Hemingway's association with the island and the development of big game fishing.

The relationship with the US is a bit of handicap because it prevents many of the high roller boats from taking part in the festivities. A number of Bermuda residents have been involved in the tournament and all the reports have been positive with the costs of the event being more in line with what the average angler can afford in pursuit of Tight lines!!!