AFTER a rather different spring and cool start to the proceedings, summer has finally arrived and temperatures are soaring. The sea conditions have been conducive to offshore angling and the fishing is at its most pleasing. One can hope that the cooler than usual sea temperature may result in the fish remaining active instead of avoiding the heat by staying deeper during the heat of the day. So far, so good.The monumental wahoo run that seemed to last for months has now slackened off but not to the point where it isn’t possible to troll successfully and manage a few. The size has slipped a bit but then, isn’t that what is expected at this time of the year?

The thing which is missing seems to be yellowfin tuna. There are some around, even some rather nice ones, but no one really seems to be able to get much in the way of numbers. The quality is pretty good with many of the fish being in the 60 to 70 pound range. Generally the chumming turns up a few but most anglers’ catches have smaller game such as rainbow runners and jacks to show for their efforts.

Some success has been had by chumming up a bunch of live robins and then drifting out into deeper water where the tuna should reside. Any wahoo in the area might also well take an interest but, for some, this is a preferred method of taking trophy tuna. Just remember that even a small, say 20-pound yellowfin is capable of inhaling a live robin, so even live-baiting is not going to guarantee the biggest tuna in the vicinity. Should the bait head downwards, do not be dismayed, quite apart from the fact that a tuna or wahoo will dive down on such a bait, there are plenty of amberjack and bonita who will take advantage of such an offering.

Mid-July is associated with high summer, calm seas and hot days with billfish action and, so far, there has been no shortage of fast-paced action. The big money, high attention-grabbing tournaments thus far have all been successes and Bermuda’s reputation continues to be enhanced.

Last week saw the Seventh Annual Bermuda Big Game Classic fished in ideal conditions with the fish being in a willing mode. This successful tournament set new benchmarks this year and continued its history of success with plenty of action and great camaraderie between the participants and local supporters. There was a total of 57 entries with the Bermuda flotilla being very well represented. Although they acquitted themselves well, the local boats failed to dominate the event this year, failing to finish in the top three.

The tournament had its usual quota of hard luck stories and fingernail-biting moments. One such sob story came when visiting boat Bree broke off a fish on 80-lb test after five hours. On the final day, a fish came up dead, was boated and subsequently earned the boat negative points by not making the minimum weight. Also on the last day a qualifying fish was weighed in at 570 pounds, only to have local boat Triple Play set the pace with a 596 pounder while anxiously awaiting the arrival of Sea Toy’s fish at the scales. In the end it came down to just a few pounds but that left Triple Play hanging on to claim the two day carryover jackpot.

The winning boat was Perfect Parts with five blue marlin releases. In second place was Sea Toy with three blues (one landed) and three whites while JACS took third with three blues and two whites.

The overall catch made by the 57 participating boats was a total of 110 billfish consisting of 62 blue marlin, 47 white marlin and a single spearfish. Of these five were blues that were brought to the weigh-in station with the 616 pounder caught on the first day by Alex Adler on Weez in the Keys holding off all comers to win the biggest fish in the tournament award.

One thing worth noting is that despite this unprecedented performance, there is overwhelming evidence that Bermuda boasts quality rather than quantity of fish. While there is no doubt that local waters produce large fish, the Blue Marlin World Cup has been won enough here to justify that claim, the numbers leave something to be desired.

To reduce the tournament to numbers the average billfish per boat per day works out at about 0.65. This is not spectacular by any means and, if you deduct the whites and spearfish and just concentrate on the blues, the number dwindles to a rather mediocre 0.37. By comparison, a tournament like the Virgin Islands’ Boy Scout event boasts averages in excess of one fish per boat per day with almost all the billfish caught being blue marlin.

Having said that, the odd thing is the huge number of white marlin that were raised and caught. Normally in the course of the July tournament, whites are very much playing second fiddle to the blues. Most experienced fishermen usually equate the wahoo run with the onset of whites, frequently having them actually run with the wahoo.

Most of the hot spots for white marlin are coastal regions such as Virginia, U.S.A. or Venezuela, South America. Although they do occur in the open ocean, many associate them with continental shelves rather than the middle of the ocean. In fact, most years only see a couple of dozen whites figure locally quite unlike the relatively huge numbers that have figured in the three major tournaments thus far this year.

There have been reports of small schools of whites baling up some sort of bait and feeding. Similarly, double and even treble strikes have been experienced. There are precious few locals who can recall having to deal with more than one white marlin at a time, so this really is a bit of a landmark year. It will be interesting to see if this persists over the next few weeks as the water warms up.

Currently underway is the third leg of the Bermuda Triple Crown in the form of the Sea Horse Anglers Club Billfish Tournament. Fished from Thursday through Saturday, this is one of the Island’s longest running tournaments and the only one specifically directed at billfish, boasting an illustrious history under the able administration of David Pantry, a long-time Sea Horse member.

Perfect Parts leads the quest for the Triple Crown with 3,200 points from the Bermuda Blast and Big Game Classic. But the fat lady is far from singing. There are several boats in close contention and things can change dramatically in a tournament of this nature. Expect a lot of releases and some trophy marlin at the weigh-ins at Barr’s Bay Park. Anyone wishing to follow the thrills and spills can use the Internet and log on to http://www.bermudatriplecrown.com/seahorse.jsp

Rest assured that there will be plenty of tales and lots of Tight lines!