IT seems to have all gone quiet over there. Over there being the offshore fishing grounds. Sports fishing effort is way off and even the final Bermuda Anglers Club fun tournament failed to produce much in the way of results. Commercial boats have moved into their winter tactics with drifting over the Banks producing the most fish for the least cost. The fish that are caught in this manner are generally preferred in the marketplace and can be readily sold at retail prices on the roadside.

While the total amount of effort being expended is still very limited, some success has been had. Capt. Keith Winter's Playmate managed to chum up some nice middleweight yellowfin (50 pounds plus) on the Bank and then added a couple of wahoo, one of which topped tout at 55 pounds. Not a bad haul for the so-called off season.

Trolling the Edge should produce a few wahoo although it would be unreasonable to go expecting double figures. Really the key to fishing at this time of the year is to put in a few hours' trolling somewhere close to home and to catch a couple of fish and then to head on in. This means that an acceptable amount of fish has been caught for an equally acceptable expenditure of fuel and time.

This is a good time to take advantage of calm conditions to concentrate on yellowtail snapper. Chumming over the deeper reefs is the key to success. There are those who will contend that sand is necessary to get the "yelltons" to come up but while it may help it certainly isn't a necessity.

A good tide or current that is straight off the stern is required. For some reason, anything that goes to windward is off putting to yellowtails. Other than that, all you need is a good steady chumline and an ability to get the bait back there in a hurry. For this, a spinning rod is ideal even though conventional gear can be made to pay off as well. The use of circle hooks will also increase your hook-up percentage.

Fresh bait is also a plus with good quality anchovies probably the best bet. Patience is a prerequisite because it does take a while to get the fish into the feeding pattern and to start to move up toward the source of the bait. Once this happens, they should stay as long as you continue to ladle out the bait.

Although most anglers will pursue the snapper during the daylight hours, it has long been established that the fish will feed on into the hours of darkness. So, if you get the fish up and are comfortable finding your way home in the dark, you stand to make a serious haul as this species can occur in vast schools and it is nothing to rack up a couple of hundred pounds This can happen in pretty short order if the average size of the fish is anything like the three to five-pound norm that we have here in Bermuda. Keep an eye out for a world beater too.

Although the majority of the world records for this species have been set in Bermuda, Florida holds those set on ultra-light tackle. Two-pound test and four-pound test in both the ladies' and men's categories are either vacant or held by fish that weigh three pounds or less. Even an average Bermuda snapper would dislodge these records, so it might be an idea to take along a spinning rod spooled with light line. After all, if the fish are in pleasing mode, once the ice chest has been filled, it might well be worth taking a shot at a record.

It will take a real trophy yellowtail to break any of the Bermuda-set records, most of which are over eight pounds and running on up to 11 pounds. An interesting note is that all ten of the Bermuda-held world records came off Challenger Bank. All the world marks were set in 2004, the year when IFGFA first recognised the yellowtail as a line class game species. On a final note, although most of the world records are from Bermuda, the Bermuda records actually exceed the world records. Many of the local records are fish bigger than 11 pounds and the biggest is a 13lb 14 oz whopper caught by James A. Pearman in August, 1971.

Those who are already hungering after big fish might enjoy visiting this website: www.ghanabluemarlin.com

The website is quite comprehensive and features some photos of very large fish. There is also an interesting newsletter with accounts of recent fishing seasons that should provide the marlin addict with a bit of a fix.

By all accounts the fishing off this African nation is nothing short of fantastic with big blue marlin the star attraction. The water there has been known to boil with large (200-hundred pound plus) yellowfin and bigeye tunas. The marlin are there to feed on them so, it gives some idea of the size of the fish that one is likely to encounter. Unfortunately in this rather remote part of the world there isn't much of a charter fleet so the fish don't get worked the way that they should and this means that it is hard to get a good picture of the actual situation. One suspects though that the fishing could be top notch.

The same can be said for several other places along the African Atlantic coast. There are locations such as Senegal and Angola where the sailfish bite is terrific and the quality of the fish in terms of size truly amazing. Cote De Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) is noted for fantastic wahoo fishing where this species is one of the mainstays of the commercial fishery on a scale that dwarfs Bermuda's efforts.

Anglers with the requisite funds and an adventurous spirit should consider hitting these new age hot spots before the ravages of industrial commercial fishing reduce the numbers of fish as they have seemingly everywhere else. Likewise, changes in environmental conditions can also effect concentrations of fish. While usually longer-term, such variations can lead to changes in the fish population.

There is also a tendency for the fish to move around, almost as if they could sense that there were certain areas where they were especially vulnerable. A good example of such would be Madeira which in the early 1990's was red hot and has since seen very few big blue marlin.

On this note, it will be interesting to see if the greatly increased summer effort for billfish locally will have the same effect and eventually leave us short of our share of Tight lines!!!