The last thing on anyone’s mind this weekend will be fishing — or any form of maritime excursion for that matter. No matter that Humberto and Imelda have departed and headed for northern climes, the sea around here is so stirred up that no self-respecting fish would venture into the upper-water layers. It has been a good while since the South Shore appeared that milky colour rather than the deep cerulean blue everyone is so used to.

Very niftily sliding between the heavy weather of the past few weeks was the Macallan Wahoo Tournament. Last Sunday, taking advantage of the brief window that allowed for reasonable sea conditions before the late afternoon saw deterioration in the weather, the event was most successful with a large proportion of the registered boats weighing in at the Dockyard weigh station.

A crowd of onlookers were rewarded by viewing a long sequence of wahoo weighed in on the various line classes. Many were prime specimens of the species, which is one of the more sought-after locally, seasonally making Bermuda one of the world’s hotspots for wahoo, a true pelagic wanderer not too commonly found elsewhere.

The heaviest wahoo on 12lb test was caught by Jake Commandeur, who boated a 26-pounder. James Chiappa had the 16lb test winner with a 39-pound wahoo.

Captain Jeff Morash’s Breighton Breezy had the junior winner with Tucker Morash catching a 20-pound wahoo on 20lb test. No mean feat.

The 20lb test award was won by David DeSilva with a whopping 59-pound wahoo that, by all reports, gave a very good account of itself before it could be brought to boatside.

Moving to the heavier tackle classes, Bernard Dowling, fishing on Captain Allan Bean’s Paradise One, won the heaviest fish on 30lb test and over with a 50-pound specimen, while Bobby Lambe, fishing on board his Last Chance, took overall heaviest wahoo honours with a 61-pound wahoo.

The High Point Boat was Captain Michael Barnes’s Hakuna Matata with a total of 1,652.05 points, narrowly ahead of Captain James Chiappa’s Eastern General that managed a challenging 1,614.70 points.

Quite apart from renewing interest in a tournament that was once the late-season staple of the angling community, one of the big positives was the amount of participation by individuals who were not generally considered to be anglers. All too many tournaments concentrate on angling club membership or abilities on line classes that are beyond the layman. This event welcomed allcomers regardless of experience — a most refreshing outlook.

Although the tournament was restricted to a single species, there was some variety brought to the weigh-in. One boat, in addition to weighing in a wahoo, had also caught five or six rather nice mahi mahi that were associated with a piece of flotsam they had encountered.

A real showstopper was a very fine amberjack that delighted the crowd when it tipped the scale at 64 pounds. A handsome fish that still displayed a fair amount of colour from which the name is derived.

All told, the fishing was very good with many of the professionals bemoaning the use of light tackle, which gave many a fish just too good a chance of escape. That said, more than a few anglers had the prowess and ability to subdue feisty wahoo on those light lines.

A wide variety of techniques were successfully used. Some boats concentrated on live baiting while others stuck to the time-tried traditional trolling methods. Both had positive results. Most of the waters around the island were covered; some boats worked the East End and others went as far afield as Argus Bank, 20-odd miles to the southwest.

With the last big competition out of the way, many anglers will be thinking about putting away their boats for the duration, but this can be a mistake. Barring nasty weather days, the fishing — especially the wahoo action — should continue for the entire month of October. In fact, some of the best wahoo-fishing often takes place late into the month with larger fish becoming more commonplace.

Live-bait fishing will remain a good way to catch large wahoo, although anglers can be divided into those who troll a daisy chain waiting for the juvenile mackerel or small blackfin tuna to find them and those who anchor up and actively try to catch some ocean robins that can be held until ready for use. Both baits have their moments, as wahoo and most other pelagic species readily feed on them.

On another note, storms often bring in flotsam of all sorts, and such materials can harbour schools of wahoo and mahi mahi. It is not unheard of for a boat to catch a dozen or more of either, or both, when coming across such. Some boats carry a marker buoy that can be deployed when a productive floating mass is located. That way, it is often really easy to rapidly regroup and return to the scene of Tight Lines!!!