Spring has well and truly sprung with flowers blooming, longtails favouring the South Shore cliffs and whales cavorting in the deep.

Best of all, the angling action is back. Actually, it has been going on for a few weeks now and the weather has not been so bad as to preclude effort. So, where have you been? Just because it doesn’t get reported in the media does not mean that there aren’t any fish waiting to challenge the angler.

Burying your head in the sand and totally staying away from boatyards and any place fisherman and anglers might congregate and swap tales may be the reason on missing out on some rather hot wahoo action last month before the bright moon put a stop to the proceedings.

At least, that is what gets the blame. The argument is that a bright moon allows predatory fish like wahoo and tuna to be able to see enough at night to be able to hunt down their prey.

Mackerel and tuna often feed on tiny shrimp-like organisms at this time of the year and these deep-dwelling planktonic species migrate towards the surface during the hours of darkness, so it makes sense that if the tuna can see them, they will eat them.

For the most part, though, the blue-water predators are creatures that feed by sight and, obviously, daylight is best for this. It does make some sense that early-morning and around dusk are times when the fish might be more active.

With the return of daylight, the hunting should be better and a lack of food during the hours of darkness would have hunger as a driving force. Similarly, as the light begins to fade, the urge to fill up before a period without the prospect of food seems logical.

This past week has seen some fast-paced wahoo action primarily focused on the Banks. Now, this is worth taking with a grain of salt, because almost all the effort has been directed that way. There are portions of Bermuda’s Edge that have not been properly worked over and there may well be pockets of wahoo cruising along that drop-off.

Recent successes include a haul of ten wahoo by Captain Alan Card’s Challenger; a feat that was mirrored by a couple of other boats while others made do with lesser bags.

Sightings of clouds of flying squid have also been most encouraging and some boats have been successful in locating schools of tuna.

Some might argue that it is a little early for schools of yellowfin to be settling in but, all in all, the offshore winter was exceptionally mild.

Even back in February when there was some sporadic bluefin tuna activity, some blue marlin were hooked and at least one was brought to boatside, not exactly what the fisherman expects at that time of the year.

More evidence came from the early arrival of the humpback whales as they continue on their northward migration to the rich feeding grounds of New England and Atlantic Canada.

Now that there is obvious bait on the Banks and probably elsewhere around the island, any migrating pelagic fish passing this way are likely to stop simply to take advantage of this mid-ocean pitstop, a feature that often makes isolated islands a fishermen’s paradises.

While not quite beach weather just yet, inshore, the grey snappers are starting to appear around docks and jetties. Schools of jacks have been tearing up the water in secluded bays and coves around the sounds and between the islands in harbours at the East End and all the way westward.

Bonefish are on the sandy flats and while there are only a very few who go in search of them, the quality of bonefish to be had here is nothing short of top-shelf. Perhaps best of all, they can be caught off a beach or by simply wading into shallow water with a spinning rod, negating the requirement for a boat.

The Bermuda Game Fishing Association, the apparent local angling authority, has released its 2023 calendar of sanctioned angling tournaments involving clubs and other organisations.

The officially recognised competitive season gets off to a start next weekend with the Bermuda Fishing Clubs hosting their annual tournament. Subject of course, to weather, this particular tournament is unique in that it is a team event that awards the total number of points scored on separate light tackle line classes.

While such a version of light tackle fishing is obviously not everyone’s cup of tea, there are plenty of other options for a competitive day on the briny ahead. So now is the time to make plans to go out and grab some Tight Lines!

• To view a PDF version of the Tournament Schedule, see “Related Media”

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2023 Tournament Schedule.pdf