Here it is: April can summer be far behind now?Well, to look at the United States East Coast is to conjure up two more months of harsh winter. The fishing will have much better intelligence now that the spiny lobster season has come to an end. This will mean that virtually the entire fleet will start putting effort into catching either game fish like wahoo and tuna or combinations of game fish along with the bottom species that are more marketable.But, really, the best measure of the sport fishing scene comes from the charter fishing fleet. This segment of the industry concentrates on the wahoo, tuna and billfish but, at times, this can be misleading as well.When there isn’t a charter party paying for the fuel and the trip, then many local charter boats move into the territory of the rest of the commercial fleet.Actually, when you look at it that way, most of the weekend anglers fall into the same sort of category. They will go fishing for whatever is out there unless there is a particular tournament being fished which limits them to just the eligible species. Even then, anything that may be caught but doesn’t score points or releases, is just as likely to find its way into the fish box.In any case, at the moment, the fishing has slowed up markedly from what it was. Well gone are the days of double-figure wahoos and a nice assortment of albacore, yellowfin tuna and dolphin.Recent offshore reports continue to mention mixed bags but the quality of the fish seems to have dropped off markedly. About the largest wahoo recently has been in the ‘teens to low 20’s, a far cry from the 40 and 50 pounders of just a few weeks ago.What Allisons there have been have been smallish as well: the difference here is that if they stay and feed, they can put weight on quite quickly and could be prime chumming game for light tacklers in June.Just about the only fish that is really consistent around here is one that doesn’t have much of an impact on the local angling scene. The albacore which was the target of the Taiwanese longline fleet in the Bermuda area were incredibly consistent in size, coming in at around 40-45 pounds. In the freezer boats, they could be seen stacked like cordwood, all pretty much the same size.To look at the species, that is a really large size. The species tops out at about 80 pounds, so more than half the maximum makes for a rather handsome specimen. For that reason, it is a shame that we don’t have a bit more of a directed fishery here for albacore but it just doesn’t look likely. Part of this stems from the fact that they are most abundant in the local area during the winter and shoulder months; a time when anglers are unlikely to be heading offshore.A few have been caught by chumming over the years but again the preferred fishing technique at what should be their peak time of the year is likely to be trolling. A bit like the anglers and the fish passing like ships in the night; knowing each other is there but never catching sight of one another.While not a truly tropical species, with the days getting longer, more and hotter sunlight streaming down from on high, the warming water will again send the albacore to their preferred grounds (often cooler waters like the Bay of Biscay). Although they occur pretty much worldwide, there are not too many areas favoured for species like blue marlin that rate as albacore grounds. It’s just one of those lifestyle things that Mother Nature sets out.As an oddity, but one that has a fair few outings in the category of outrageous tales comes a story of a blue marlin that impaled its bill into a 24-inch diameter crude oil loading hose. This took place recently just off the coast of Angola where tankers arrive to take on cargoes of crude oil destined for refineries overseas. To give some idea of the inconvenience that particular terminal provided about 250,000 barrels of oil a day. To replace the rubber pipe (really a massive hose designed to withstand significant pressure) took a couple of days. None of the reports say what happened to the fish but it probably doesn’t take a real good guess.The fish was probably chasing some sort of bait when it stuck its nose in, so to speak. The fact that the rubber would contract and basically hold the bill in probably would ensure that, in the absence of forward motion, the fish probably suffocated in short order. Whether or not it would still be in useable, or edible, condition is a question that goes unanswered but given the poverty of such places a couple of hundred pounds of free fresh fish probably gave the town a treat.There are a lot of stories about similar incidents with swordfish often being cited as the culprits. The problem is that many lay people cannot tell a marlin from a swordfish from a spearfish. In any case, there are an awful lot of anecdotes and not a few documented cases of such. Most involve sinking some boat or other but there have been a few spectacular cases of people being speared, notably Iain Card here back about five years ago.Anyone wanting to follow up on this and similar events might want to go on the internet at http://coatesman.blogspot.com/2010/03/marlin-stuck-in-oil-rigs-and-pipelines.html. Other on-line searches will turn up other events that have been recorded over the years. Some are apocryphal but others have been verified. Some are simply believable.Looking ahead, and giving you a “heads up”, there is barely a month to go until the official sport fishing season kicks off. A sneak look at the hitherto unpublished BGFA tournament report reveals that both the Bermuda Fishing Clubs Annual Tournament (BFCAT) and the Sandys Boat Club event are slated for Sunday, May 1.Details will obviously be announced but angling club members might want to put some start into organising their teams for this year’s event. If it doesn’t go off as planned, for whatever reason, the alternate date is in late June, just ahead of what has become known as marlin month. With Easter and the Good Friday holiday slicing up the month, time will fly by and before you know it, it will once again be time to head offshore for some action and Tight lines!!!