The weather is slowly but surely moving in its less predictable, more unwelcoming mode that characterises the wintry or “off” season for anglers. Some days are glorious; others way too blustery and, in between, the seas can still be unpleasant even when the other conditions appear quite nice. It is really getting to be a time when it is a luxury to be able to pick and choose your days.Even those who never venture offshore should have an inkling of conditions out there. The recent breezes and water currents have done a great job of chocking up smaller harbours and coves with masses of brown Sargassum weed.There was once upon a time, in Old Bermuda, when such an arrival would have been a cause for rejoicing. Remember that the Island was heavily dependent on farming, both as local sustenance and as an export product (wow, have things ever changed!).The olden times referred to were about 60-70 years ago, prior to our dependence on chemical fertilisers and other imported manufactured products.Farmers used various manures, other compost products and, best of all, enjoyed the bounty of the sea in the form of the brown weed that seasonally washed up on the beaches and other enclosures. There are plenty of old photographs of horse-drawn wagons or carts down on the sandy beaches as men loaded them up with stacks of washed-up seaweed. Best of all, it was free! All it would take was for it to be clear of the seawater for a while and the rains (also free) would make sure that it was well-washed by the time it was ready to be ploughed into the soil.Some of the problems today are a bit basic: like access to the beaches and the fact that the beach cleaners do their level best to keep the sands clear of seaweed. So even getting it is a bit of a logistical challenge; then there is probably nowhere to store it to let it cleanse (no one is going to use fresh water to wash seaweed!) itself naturally; and , finally, there are alternatives that can be bought in bags and distributing machines that take everything to a next level.Funny thing; seaweed on a beach is the most natural thing in the world but most beach-goers don’t like the smell of it rotting (a perfectly natural process) or it even being present on the beach (it probably has more logical right to be there than people do) because it interferes with sunbathing (a most un-natural pastime, if you really think about it).Having said that, though, there are still a few who swear by using seaweed for their banana patches.While it makes sense that plant material, albeit brown plant material as opposed to green, will contain most of the nutrients required by the plants a gardener might want to grow, there is some evidence that the compounds that make up the seaweed combine to have a synergistic effect on other plants, proving to be a better fertiliser than the bare component might make you think.Anyway, leaving the land and going back out onto the briny, the large mats of weed are floating all around the Island, for the most part, making life miserable for many a troller.Not only is the weed on the surface, it also displays characteristics of partial buoyancy and travels along just below the surface, almost like it has a life of its own and wants to snag your deep trolls.One slightly good thing about the weed is that almost all of it that gets caught gets caught on the deep troll wire from the unit to the lead ball. While this can contribute to the wire twisting and then parting, thereby sending the ball to Davy Jones’ locker for all eternity, it also means that the bait is still presented pretty much as the angler wished.There are lots of other good things about brown floating seaweed that we don’t usually see and even less often think about.For one thing, in most other places in this part of the fishing world, an influx of floating seaweed means game fish. Dolphin-fish are closely associated with floating weed all the way from Florida to Virginia and fishing boats actually go out of their way to find it and work the area around such beds. There ar often other game species lurking in the area, with the theory being that the smaller fish that live under the weed are a ready supply of food for predators. There are a few who surmised that the fish used the weed to shelter them from the sun, but that seems pretty unlikely. The important point seems to be that they do harbour sought-after fish. Here, for some unknown reason, they are nothing but a nuisance to fishermen.Now, you should know that the Sargassum weed, to give it its proper name, hosts an entire community of its own. Given that it floats all over the North Atlantic Ocean, this is going to be a pelagic community and is really quite specialised. It also gives its name to the Sargasso Sea, which we sit on the edge of. That body of water actually moves around even though we don’t.This pelagic community has all sorts of creatures in it from bryozoans that crust on the stems to shrimp and crabs that grapple their way through the brown jungle. Associated with it are a number of fish species, mostly as juveniles or baby fish. It is quite possible that some of the pelagic game fish spend their early days in and around the weed forests but there really isn’t a whole lot known about the early life histories of wahoo, tuna and their ilk.Common enough with the weed are species like filefish, jacks of all sorts of descriptions, triggerfishes and almost larval Bermuda chub. Slightly larger, say to three or four inches are small brown and white-stripey looking, laterally compressed (sideways-squeezed) fish that bear little resemblance to their adult version which is the highly-coloured dolphin that we so like to encounter on the end of a hook.Those who doubt that such a community exists can find out for themselves by taking a net and collecting a clump of weed. Hold it over a bucket of seawater and start shaking. Things will fall out and some of them still swim around. Given that they are mostly really small (like a quarter of an inch) and predominantly brown (camouflage is an important part of this game), they will be hard to identify. This latter bit is especially true when you consider that a lot of larvae look nothing like the adult (did you forget that caterpillars become butterflies?). In any case, some of those tiny things that live in the weed, might one day grow up and be the trophy fish that provides you with Tight lines!!!