Old Man Winter is definitely starting to flex his muscles as the forecast for this weekend is less than conducive to any form of fishing, much less the challenges of a tournament.

This is a shame because the wahoo fishing is good, but not spectacular, at present. This would make for a competitive tournament, provided it gets to take place before the present run peters out. That is where catching the right weather window is critical.

Local charter boats are trying to make the most of it by making commercial trips and, for the most part, are getting results. Boats like captain Russell Young’s Sea Wolfe have had enough in the way of success to post pictures of hauls on social media in the hope of gathering up some enthusiasm from the angling public.

While the emphasis is on wahoo, there are still some yellowfin tuna around that will please. The blackfin tuna distinctly prefer the water at its warmest but, with luck, it is possible to catch this species throughout the year.

Dolphin, seldom numerous, please on occasion but are also known to prefer warmer climes; Billfish, usually patrolling deeper waters than those frequented by local fishermen in the off months, are uncommon incidental hook-ups.

There is still fishing to be done but the weather is rapidly restricting the amount of time that can be dedicated to that pursuit and with most anglers restricted to weekends, effort almost completely disappears.

As the sports fishing angle starts to taper off, many shift their interest into the more traditional bottom species. This should, at least, guarantee a supply of quality fish in the freezer for the months ahead.

Nowadays, from the bottom, anglers settle for hinds, coneys and barbers with the very odd rockfish inspiring great joy in anyone lucky enough to catch one.

Old timers rue the days when hinds were considered a nuisance species and the market only wanted rockfish and the other grouper species. All of the latter are now protected species here and very rarely encountered by anyone. In fact, many of the Island’s anglers have never even seen any representative of those species.

A quick look back into history shows that, for many years, the commercial fishing that was done was almost exclusively for species like groupers, with porgies and jacks occasionally being the targets. Many of the so-called floating species or other pelagics were ignored despite the knowledge that they were present.

While hook and line has always been a recognised fishing method, the use of fish traps or pots and nets were the commercial fisherman’s main tools.

While there was every reason to now that these were effective and maybe too effective in decimating fish stocks, there were a lot of other factors at work as well.

Back in 1900, the Island’s population was less than 20,000. Fishing boats were rowed by hand or powered by sail, thus limiting the areas which could be reasonably fished. Remember also that refrigeration was still a long way in the future. Any fish caught had to be kept alive in wells or fishponds.

By the start of the Second World War, there were something like 30,000 living on the Island and while many boats still relied on the wind, the need for local food made fishing all the more important and fuel-powered engines became more a norm.

By the end of the war, the population stayed in growth mode, so food demand continued to increase. This meant more fishing effort. Two other changes also came about as a result of some of the technologies spurred on by wartime conditions.

One of these was the advent of electronic depth sounders and the arrival of refrigeration on a scale that became readily available. Now fish could be caught and then stored for long periods.

As demand increased so did effort as well as efficiency and it did not take long before the limits imposed by the relatively small area of the reef platform and the basic biology of the fish involved brought about a reduction in catches of the preferred species. Gradually, fishermen started to shift their emphasis to other more numerous species only to eventually see the same declines in those as well.

Legislative changes to the regulations governing fisheries then afforded protection to many species, both directly and indirectly but as many were rather surprised to learn, a reversal of the forces acting on an environmental system do not usually allow the restoration of that system to its historical parameters. So, sadly, there is no plethora of groupers for modern anglers to exploit.

Taking leaves out of the sports fishing book, the commercial fishery moved into fishing for pelagic species as the turn of the century approached and is pretty much the picture seen today.

Simply put, everyone who goes fishing needs and wants Tight Lines!!!