Just what is going on out there? Here we are at the height of what should be the blue marlin season and while there are good numbers of fish and plenty of action, the majority are white marlin.Not what we would expect. Bermuda has never really been a hot spot for white marlin although they have been caught on a fairly regular basis over the years. Back in the early days of sport fishing, the accepted conventional belief was that the whites arrived early as the water warmed up, only to be replaced by the blues as the summer progressed.Whether there is any truth to that is now a bit of a question. Another supposition is that the white marlin tend to be more coastal in range and the real white hot spots like Virginia and Venezuela serve to support that theory. Even the water temperature theory is a bit suspect because early Japanese longline records showed increased concentrations of white marlin in the general vicinity of Bermuda during the winter months.Even in the billfish tournaments of the last few years although there has been a greater than expected presence of whites, it was the blues that dominated. Not so, so far this season. The whites were definitely making a statement.Looking at how the action took place this week, and there were a few surprises, here is a snapshot of what happened.By noon on Monday, the day of the World Cup, nine boats fishing in the Bermuda Blast had released fish, mostly white marlin. In addition to the boats fishing this event there were some others that had confined their gambling to the World Cup. All the anglers offshore kept their ears to the radio and cell phones awaiting word of a notable catch somewhere; if not here form the eastern Atlantic that had started fishing some four hours earlier than here.On the local scene there were continued reports through the ever-shortening day as boats caught and released a single spearfish, ten white marlin and eight blue marlin. None of these seemed to make the 500-pound World Cup minimum weight. Under such circumstances it would not be long before the rumours started to flow. And they did.By late afternoon, the word was a 600 something pound blue from the Cape Verde Islands. There was also speculation that the prize money would go unwon if no one could catch a qualifying fish.Despite internet searches, phone calls and plenty of gossiping nothing was substantiated until there was official confirmation of a 525.5 pound blue off Kona, Hawaii. With Hawaii the final place to fish, the speculation was that the tournament might be won by that very fish. Naturally, nothing is ever so straightforward. It wasn’t long before another Kona fish moved into first place by about 50 pounds.The overall view was still that this would not be much of a worthy winner, seeing as how most recent winners had been markedly bigger. And were they all to be disappointed. Heck, no, as things drew to a close on the global stage, angler Scott Shaw, fishing from the boat Maui Jim off the fabled Kona coast, put things to rights by boating a 729-pound blue marlin that claimed the Blue Marlin World Cup spoils.As always there is a small caveat: Maui Jim was entered in the main World Cup pot, so took the lion’s share of the money up for grabs but was not in the additional Big Blue pot. But the 525.5 pound fish was and so Sea Genie also cruised away a winner.Back to Bermuda and Tuesday, the Blast continues. With the fish all safe as the tournament was a total release event, the angling continued and added seven blue marlin and an amazing 21 whites to the release tally. There was also a second spearfish released.As the final day commenced it was still wide open with four boats sharing the lead with 700 points but with plenty of competition right behind them. Little did anyone expect Capt. James Robinson’s Wound Up which was competing for last place with no points at all to get really wound up and pull off first a phenomenal three blue marlin releases in the morning that catapulted them into the lead and then added a fourth to ensure first place with 2,000 points. This gave them a major chunk of the big money at stake and proves that it is never over until it is over. In second place was Seaduce with 1500 points just ahead of Sea Toy and Rameseas which each had 1200 points.The final Bermuda Blast tally accounted for 44 teams, fielding a total of 245 anglers. There were 74 fish caught and released: two spearfish, 28 blue marlin and a staggering 44 white marlin. Anyone willing to do the math would see that these statistics worked out an average catch rate of 0.56 fish per boat per day.Looking ahead to the Bermuda Big Game Classic (July 13-17), the bite is expected to improve by: A) those who believe the moon plays a role it will be full and B) those who believe that as things warm up there are more fish on the grounds and they are more active. In any case, the focus will be on putting large fish on the dock. While many of the blue marlin released in the Blast were mid-sized or small fish, at least two of Capt. Robinson’s fish and a few other reports substantiate the fact that here are some hefty candidates out there. Next weekend will tell the tale and casual observers can expect to see some festivities and big fish at Barr’s Bay Park.Boats not involved in the marlin madness continue to report good tuna action and a fair few wahoo are being caught by boats that insist on staying on the troll. There is also plenty of small game around, rainbow runners, jacks, mackerel and before long the chum slicks will be gathering spots for barracuda. The latter will do their best to keep the robins away and to slash every hooked mackerel into pieces. On light spinning tackle they can provide some decent entertainment and, once filleted, make for respectable eating. That, despite the number of cases of ciguatera and other fish poisonings that people report from down south. Plenty of barracuda fillets have made their way into the local market as just plain white fish.So, high summer, not a tropical system in sight and calm, hazy Bermudaful days what else is it going to take to get you out in a boat and to try for some Tight lines!!!