February an unlikely time for some of the hottest fishing action that anyone has seen in a while, but there you have it.While there has been little in the way of sport fishing, the commercial fleet has been enjoying close to incredible success with a variety of species much to the delight of local restaurants and the fish-consuming public. Simply because the techniques used by most of the commercial operators are the same ones used by sportsmen underlines the fact that just about any offshore opportunity should pay off, even for the rankest amateur.As was pointed out here back in December, suddenly an apparent desert can suddenly erupt into a plethora of marine life usually well populated with predatory fish taking full advantage of the bait species. That is certainly the case here at present. The cool, clear winter water is teeming with bait and they are garnering plenty of attention from species of interest to anglers and fishermen alike.The bait species in question here is the saury. Although this is not often seen here by casual anglers, it is an important species in the scheme of the oceanic food web. Not a particularly large fish, it probably reaches a length of about a foot on average although it may well grow somewhat larger. As with most bait species, it occurs in schools that can be vast.The saury itself resembles a garfish but only superficially. In some locales they are referred to by fishermen as “billfish” but they are not to be confused with what the sportsmen calls “billfish”. The latter refers to the marlin, swordfish, spearfish and sailfish species. To the inexperienced eye, a saury might be thought to be a juvenile marlin but nothing would be farther from the truth.In some places in Asia, the saury is sought after as a food fish and rates as something of a delicacy in certain societies. Where the Asians really use saury is as bait for the longline fleet with longliners carrying hundreds of cases of frozen saury. This is a preferred bait when it comes to pelagic species such as albacore and, for the record, was the main bait employed by the Taiwanese boats that spent their winter months in the general area of Bermuda fishing for albacore and whatever else might happen along. A classic case of “match the hatch” as the fly fishermen might say.Commercial and recreational fishermen in areas like Nova Scotia often follow concentrations of schools of saury when searching for bluefin tuna. When the one encounters the other, the school of sauries leaps clear of the water to try and get away from the predator, which puts on a pretty spectacular display as it crashes through the school, devouring all that it can.There is a similar situation offshore right now and schools of yellowfin can be seen leaping and smashing their way through the water as they pursue the sauries. Tuna busting water and wahoo proving to be as cooperative as they ever get who could ask for more? Might there even be a billfish or two in the mix? There really is only one way to find out and that will entail you getting out of bed at first light and out onto the water.The only problem is that this all took place before the last bout of gusty conditions, lowered temperatures and a general inclemency to the weather. If the weekender were to make an offshore run, would the conditions still be similar? The answer is anybody’s guess but the betting should be on the fish sticking around for a while. The bait does not move too quickly and the water temperature probably has something to do with that. Likewise between the acreage provided by the two offshore banks and Bermuda’s Edge there is enough bottom structure to hold bait here for a while at least. Finally, a blow that we find off-putting is a next to everyday occurrence for our fishy friends. The watery world is a far different place to our own.So, with any luck, there should be some opportunities to get offshore (even the Edge has proven fruitful) and enjoy a shot or two at a wahoo of some description. Reports have wahoo ranging from fish weighing in the ‘teens to 60 pounds or better. As usual they don’t seem to run in mixed size schools but often they are not too far apart, so it is possible to catch a small fish followed by a larger one a few hundred yards farther away or vice-versa. Either, in any case, is no cause for complaint.Some additional tell-tales are reports that the local offshore longlining boat has enjoyed some recent success, catching a number of swordfish and two bluefin tuna in the 300-pound range. Factoring in the expected range limits for the sort of boat in question and the timeline involved, it is more than likely that the bluefin were caught somewhere in Bermuda waters.Not that this should come as anything of a surprise. Just because we seem to concentrate on the Island’s drop-off and the two banks off to the southwest doesn’t mean that there aren’t fish elsewhere within the 200 nautical mile zone that Bermuda claims.Cast your mind back to times when a boat making an ocean crossing to or from the Island have caught large marlin or tuna or reported action from wahoo, dolphin or other species. Although it might seem to be the middle of nowhere, the ocean is traversed by loads of fish on a regular basis.With at least one confirmed bluefin hook-up in the recent past, there is every reason to think that there might be more around and while they might not be the true giants of the species, they are still mighty big fish, plenty capable of testing out even the heaviest of tackle.What people forget when it comes to bluefin tuna fishing is the fact that the biggest fish are caught in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. One of the reasons for this is that the fish have migrated northward along the US east coast feeding all the way on menhaden (an oily fish species), herring and other goodies.The Gulf, up in Canada, is also full of bait as the summer comes to an end and the tuna, when they get there, are totally in feeding mode and fat. That accounts for their largeness, what accounts for the catching is that fact that a great deal of that body of water is only about ten fathoms deep.This means that the fish can run but they really can’t hide, as it were. The boat can follow them for miles if need be unlike the deep ocean around here where they can put their heads down and pretty much just keep on going, giving new meaning to Tight lines!!!