With Good Friday now behind us and April ahead of us, it is time to get serious about angling prospects. The belief that the season starts in May is largely fictitious, going back to a marketing ploy used by the now-defunct Fishing Information Bureau which was pretty much a one man operation in the form of S.L. "Pete" Perinchief in what served as the precursor to the Department of Tourism. Similarly, things don't end suddenly at the end of November which was the appointed end to the recognised season.

For our purposes, the season is more like late March/April once the weather starts to settle down until December. Once into January, the effort is close to negligible in terms of game fish as lobsters and bottom species become the preferred target for the year-round professionals. With the spiny lobster season over, the offshore effort turns serious once again.

With the commercial boats starting to work the offshore, it is merely being observant to fairly accurately gauge what the situation is. In the normal course of affairs, one would expect to see catches of mackerel and increasing numbers of wahoo, some of which might be reasonably large. The season usually starts off with the emphasis on trolling and while tuna and other species can and do occasionally figure in the mix, it is the wahoo that is the sought after species.

If the offshore settles down quickly, then some chumming may start and the first sign of this will be a catch of half a dozen or more yellowfin tuna. Normally this would be in the latter half of May but, as is often the case, the timeline can shift dramatically from year to year.

If you are actually able to get offshore, there are other signs that are worth noting. The tides (actually currents) around the Banks often tell a tale and the sighting of bait species might lead to fish directly.

This technique also works when doing a bit of a wander through water not usually traversed by boats travelling to and from the Banks. It is possible to come across concentrations of bait literally out in the middle of nowhere. Often finding such a phenomenon can be the first indication that there are game fish associated with the bait. Sort of like when you find some floating debris that has attracted dolphin and wahoo which are usually willing to please.

In the absence of any signs, the overall strategy is to try and cover as much water as possible. Getting a strike is a good sign that there may be other fish in a given area, but don't discount the possibility that it might really have been a lone fish. Spending an inordinate amount of time in a single location can be counter-productive, not to mention disappointing.

While we tend to think of fish as occurring in schools, this may not be the case. This early in the season, migratory fish sometimes move in dribs and drabs as they either search for each other for mating or continue their ceaseless hunt for food. Once the food is located, they will probably stay in the general area and, over time, other fish searching for the same thing turn up and, well, then you have a concentration which may or may not last, often depending on the amount of bait.

This is often the pattern of the spring wahoo run. Someone locates a concentration of fish on Bermuda's Edge or on the Banks and then goes back to the same location the next day only to find that the fish have moved. On the Edge, they tend to move clockwise around the Edge and may move a mile or more in a single day. Recognising this movement allows the astute skipper to follow the fish and to catch as many as possible before the aggregation of fish breaks up and they spread out.

Looking elsewhere for signs that good things are going to happen here, the billfish seem to have cooperated down off Port Lucaya, Bahamas for the 31st Annual Bacardi Rum Billfish Tournament. This year the recently fished event took on an all release format and the winning boat was the new Lighthouse Point, Florida-based Bertram Divine Intervention which caught and released two blue marlin. Second place went to Certifiable with one blue marlin and a sailfish release. Fish On, a regular visitor to Bermuda, had the most releases with a total of four sailfish.

What was surprising was the size of the wahoo that won in the Game Fish division. This was a 78-pounder, considerably larger than a run-of-the mill fish that usually figure in the final standings of most billfish tournaments.

For various reasons, this tournament does not boast large numbers of blue marlin although there have been some large fish caught over the years. What does auger well for Bermuda is the fact that a couple of weeks ago the marlin had made their presence known a thousand miles to our south, so they can't be too far away from our traditional fishing grounds. Anyone willing to put in the time and fuel to explore "uncharted" regions to our south and southwest could well encounter a blue considerably closer than we might think. Certainly, by May we actually start expecting to have marlin figure in the proceedings. The foreign fleet arrive in June and then in July the major tournaments all take place with things winding down in August, even though no one tells the fish this.

Now, despite all these positive indicators, most anglers are not ready for the fishing season. Even if the wahoo all go wild this week, just about the only boats that will be in a position to take advantage of the situation will be the commercial boats and there will be some of those that will miss out because of being on slip or sorting out mechanical difficulties. Pros recognise that such things go with their territory and there are swings and roundabouts but it is the amateur who usually comes up wanting. Quite apart from having neglected the boat over the winter, there is the simple matter of most of us having day jobs that preclude being able to drop everything and concentrate on getting the boat shipshape in the shortest possible time.

So, at the moment, things still seem to be relatively quiet offshore but there is no telling when that might radically change. The message here is to get the lead out and do whatever needs doing to have the boat ready for the next fishable weekend. When you look at it, there are really only about 20 weekends that are available to the amateur along with a few holidays. And some of those are already committed to picnicking or cruising. Then factor in a few weather-related cancellations and there really aren't that many opportunities for the sportsman. All the more reason to be ready for the onset of this season's Tight lines!!!