Here we are, a holiday weekend and one that is probably not going to be too fishing friendly, so don’t plan on an excursion. Instead, there will be family social events that preclude trips down to the boat much less taking the boat anywhere. You will have to wait until the next public holiday to have that wish endorsed and, in any case, you had better have the boat ready by then anyway.It may sound a bit like Aesop’s fox and the grapes but most amateurs will volunteer that the seas will be too stirred up from the recent stormy weather for the fishing to be any good and there probably aren’t any decent fish out there anyway.The former observation may well have some merit; forecast conditions do not have the seas dropping out anytime soon and things are likely to be lumpy; mind you, there are those who maintain that the ocean needs a good mix now and again.There is little in the way of current information relating to the blue water fishing scene. There have been precious few trips offshore due to the conditions and the imminent end of the lobster season which means that fishermen have to get their gear in before the deadline as well as try for one last payday from the crawlers. Thus their effort has been mostly on the inner bottom.Judging by some of the signs such as water temperature and reports form farther south, the fishing should be moving into a more summery mode. Wahoo are available all year round but there should be a flurry of activity soon. For various reasons, this may well coincide with the dark of moon which will be towards the middle of April. Unless this year is to be exceptionally abnormal, one should expect weather conditions to settle down and become more predictable and the fishing effort should increase. All these factors will combine to produce better catches and, with that information, anglers can be better equipped to make their plans.Regardless of the state of the offshore, much of the focus this weekend will be on kites; particularly if Good Friday was too blowy or, as has often been the case in the past, too calm, to fly a kite. While the history and religious significance of kites is well known in Bermuda, what is less known is the fact that for thousands of years other cultures have been using kites for catching fish. While some fishing books and articles will assign the origin of this practice to Pacific islanders, there is some evidence that it may have originated with the Chinese. That would not be too surprising given that they seem to have been light years ahead of the rest of the planet in most areas of endeavour for quite a few centuries.Most of those who have fished offshore have encountered kite fishing and a variety of techniques that a reapplied by various skippers. This tactic was developed for the Florida market by a captain called Bob Lewis whose name adorns many of the kites that have been purchased by local skippers.Quite unlike any of the more complicated shore-based versions, the offshore kite is an absurdly simple square piece of cloth material with two fibreglass sticks that, when assembled form an “X”. It may occur to you that these sticks are the offcuts from longer fibreglass rod blanks and you would probably be right. There is nothing special about them, beyond the fact that they are light, very strong and fairly flexible. On the strings, usually nylon or Dacron for strength and long life (sounds a bit like a Chinese toast!), is a plastic/enforced cardboard slide which serves as the bridle for the kite. Although this is critical because there is where the kite flying line is attached, the really important bit is an inked in stain on the string. This is the pre-marked place for the bridle to attach and, no, they are not kidding about it. Unless the line pulls from that point, the kite will not go up. What is actually more amazing is the fact that when it is rigged properly, it will fly in breezes that are seemingly way too calm for any kite.Locals tend to use kites from anchored or drifting boats to get the bait, live or dead, back in the chum slick. There is also the thought that a bait skipping the surface imitates a flying fish or other bit fish; squid can work as well.Much less used here is a method whereby kites are used to troll form a moving bat. This takes a bit more boat-handling skill; given the relative importance of staying on the edge of the drop-off regardless of where the wind is coming from. In places where the top of an undersea structure or feature is being worked, boat direction is less important and the wind/kite work to present the bait much the same way as an outrigger does.There are actually a variety of fishing kites: those that we are familiar with and others that are used by shore fishermen, especially surf fishermen to get their baits away from the beach and out into the zone where the returning surf tends to concentrate the bait fish and crustaceans and that is where the game fish usually know where to find them. Such a rip area may be beyond casting range and so the combination of a kite and an offshore breeze make the presentation of a bait ideal. This doesn’t really apply here so, unless something radical happens, the angler’s kites and tactics are unlikely to change.If spending time ashore is simply too much to bear, there is another ruse that may be useful for getting out on the boat and that is whale watching. One can at least drag a line through the water while covering the deep water between the Banks and the Edge while waiting for the leviathans to show and, even better, put on a performance. The latter can include breaching or jumping clear of the water and when they do that, there is an almighty splash that will get most anyone’s attention.Although various species of whales and dolphins can be seen offshore almost any time of the year, the sought-after ones are the humpback whales. Given a scientific name that translates to “big-winged New Englander”, this takes into account the history of whaling and the industry’s importance associated with early New England as well as likening the flippers to wings and alluding to their size.Humpbacks spend their summers off New England and Nova Scotia, feeding on the vast amounts of plankton that occur there. They then migrate south to the warm Caribbean where they spend the winter and have their babies (properly referred to as calves). Then they head north again with the warming trend bound for the feeding grounds. This movement brings them past Bermuda.One of the larger whale species, this whale is not particularly wary of humans (one of the reasons that it was hunted so successfully) and it is certainly not cryptic by any means. These graceful giants do not slip silently by the Island, instead that cavort and explode on the surface, travel in family groups, allowing the landlubber a rare sight into the social life of one of the ocean’s great mammals. They are also too smart to be conned by any of the baits or artificial lures you may be dragging; so if the reel screams off, you can be pretty sure that it is fish of some sort providing your Tight lines!!!