Despite all sorts of gloomy predictions, the weather last Sunday turned out to be more than appropriate for the season’s final large-scale competitive event : The annual Royal Gazette Wahoo Tournament.Considering that the previous weekend’s weather made for a non-starter and the month of September moving ever onward to its conclusion, it was a good thing that the tournament took place when it did.Perhaps the only downside to things is that the fish could have been more cooperative. Anglers had trouble locating and catching frigate mackerel, the preferred live bait and many resorted to using robins. Although live-baited was the likely method of producing a tournament winner, there were some nice fish caught on traditional trolls and rigged baits.There were plenty of stories about the “onesthatgotaway”, with the lighter line being blamed both for its inherent weakness and general inability to set a hook. One boat had a line scream off only to have a blue marlin start cavorting across the ocean before parting that line. An impressive display, by all accounts. But, in the end, it was only the wahoo that would count.There were a total of 12 boats weighing in at the Dockyard weigh station and although some might argue that this was a poor turn-out; in fact, it is just about in keeping with what the organisers would have expected. The normal rule of thumb is for between 25 and 33 percent of entrants to actually make it to the weigh station. Given that the original entry was for 46 boats then a dozen weighing in would be just about right.Actually, it was probably somewhat more than a quarter of the participants simply because the hurricane-affected weekend before led a number of would-be participants to take their boats out of water and, having done so, there wasn’t a whole lot of point in putting them back overboard just to fish one tournament and then to have to drag it up again.Then factoring in people who were off the Island or otherwise occupied that second weekend and unable to fish, the total number of participating boats was undoubtedly less than 46, even though the real number may never be known. So whatever that was, something like 30 percent is probably pretty close.Although the numbers were less than the case in some years, overall the class was a good bit better than some of the “bumper” years. The years that boasted high numbers usually saw a lot of school-sized fish in the 10 to 20 pound range that diminished the quality but enhanced numbers.This year saw only two fish weighed in that were in the 10 to 20-pound bracket. There were nine between 20 and 30 pounds with the largest number, 11, being made up of fish in the 30 to 40-pound bracket. Four fish bettered the 40-pound mark but came up short of the 50 while three went over 50. Number crunchers will note that something like 12 percent of the fish were over 50 pounds, not at all bad!There are a couple of minor vagaries to the rules that need some explanation. The big winner is for the heaviest fish regardless of points scored. The point scoring system utilises what is known as the factor system and rewards lighter line catches semi-exponentially. So, for instance a 20-pound fish caught on 20-lb test line scores 100 points. Were it caught on 12-lb line it would score 277.7 points; 156.25 on 16-lb test and a mere 44.4 on 30-lb test lineIn the case of this year’s tournament the overall heaviest wahoo, won by Kevin Mello with a fine 57.5 pound ‘hoo would also have won the high point overall award if there had been one because his catch was made on 16-lb test and the factor system would have aided this. As it turned out, because of the rules of the tournament and the fact that there was only one entry on 16-lb test, there was no 16-lb test award.Another contender for a high point fish was Kirk Dill’s 37.2 pound wahoo caught on 12-lb test. Keen observers would have noted that in the line test categories the point scorings are irrelevant because the prize simply goes to the angler with the heaviest fish caught on that particular line test. Thus, the heaviest fish would also have the most points. There were three entries on this class of line.On 20-lb test line, a category with 10 entries, the winner was Tyler Mello, a junior, with a 47.6 pound wahoo.Kevin Mello, fishing 30-lb test line caught a 55.2 pound fish that garnered the 30-lb line class award. This was the best fish out of the 15 entries received.The High Point Junior Angler, here is where the point scoring comes back into things, was Alyssa Mello with a total of 517.5 points scored by catching a 45.5 pound wahoo on 20-lb test.It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that the family Mello, fishing on Tantrum, collared the majority of the awards and took the High Point Boat honours (notice it is again points, not pounds) with a total of 2,714.07 points ahead of Capt. Bobby Lambe’s Last Chance which also bettered the 2,000 point mark.Apart from the satisfying weigh-in of 29 fish, something else of note was that there were five junior anglers who weighed in fish. Two of them also succeeded in winning prizes which indicated that there is some considerably ability up and coming. This is a most encouraging sign given that recent years have seen a decline in interest in fishing from the younger set and, as is the case with any sport, its future is in its youth.With most of the serious tournament fishing out of the way for another year, it may not yet be time to put all the gear away. There is still every chance of a late flutter of wahoo action and there would be some live baits out there. Never expect juvenile mackerel or tiny tuna to navigate their way out onto the relative safety of the open sea without the local predators and the one migrating from their northern limits extracting their share of nature’s bounty.There are some who reckon that September can be the best fishing month of the year and although this year has not been particularly stellar, there should still be enough wahoo and yellowfin to provide a day’s interest. September is also a month that sees some less frequent visitors migrating through the area. Sailfish, in particular, often turn up unexpectedly at the end of a line as can mako shark and some hefty little tunny (mackerel) and oceanic bonito (skipjack). In short, don’t jack it all in just yet: there are still a few promising opportunities for some Tight lines!!!