It is now October and as all old-timers will know, the adage “October, all over” refers to the end of the hurricane season — at least for Bermuda.Truth to tell, while tropical activity still has more than a month ahead of it, the water around here usually cools off enough to take strength from a tropical system rather than enhancing it.Do not be misled, such storms have happened before and there is no reason why they should not happen again. It is just that the passage of winter gales is more commonplace and what we come to expect at this time of the year is periods of continuing blustery weather punctuated by rainy squalls and a drop in temperature that brings out all sorts of Arctic fashion.There are signs that we have just about reached that juncture. That it is only the beginning of October is being pushed way back as there are displays in town and elsewhere that suggest that it is actually late November or early December. If that were the case, there would be plenty of boats resting on blocks in yards or secured on safe moorings with barely a glance a week from owners, much less a journey on to the ocean.Happily, we have not yet reached that juncture; there are those who still hanker to wet a line and to put some fish in the freezer before winter becomes official.But perhaps the whole season is not all lost — just yet. This past week has seen a flurry of yellowfin tuna activity on the Bank. While most of the fish are as one would expect schoolies in the 30-35 pound bracket there have been a few substantially larger fish caught.Capt. James Robinson’s Wound Up had a brace of hundred pounders — always nice, especially on tackle suited to such brutish fish; while other boats have caught fish in the 80 to 90-pound range. Some numbers have been had by boats concentrating on chumming. One boat had something like 35 fish in two days — a fair old haul even if the fish were mostly in the thirty pound range.Such intelligence from the offshore professionals might have a few weekenders planning a quick excursion to the southeastern corner of Challenger to see if the fish are still there but one must suspect that this mini-bonanza will not last long. Chances are the fish are on the move and are just passing through. Certainly, they weren’t here all summer when they should have been.The reasons are unclear but the most likely cause was a lack of bait: there weren’t many reports indicating the presence of numbers of flying fish or shoals of flying squid around the Banks which would have given any migrating tuna cause to pause.This situation, apparently, has not changed; so the likelihood of these fish, however many there might be, putting down roots and staying is indeed remote. The basic message here is that if you want a crack at some tuna, then you had better head offshore this weekend because they may not be there next week.There may well be some more of the larger yellowfin moving through the area because experience has generally shown that the bigger tuna do not stick around at any time of the year. They are on some sort of migration that takes them through the local area where they are vulnerable mostly to trolled offerings.Time of year seems less relevant although there is less information on what happens during the winter months. During the summer there are reports of schools of large yellowfin tuna that are seen from crews on sailboats on their way to Bermuda. The fact that they don’t show up here probably means that they miss the Island by a few miles which, in this ocean, is really not surprising. They also move rather quickly, so it is a bit of here today, gone tomorrow. And that has a “now or never” ring to it.Sadly for all concerned, the September wahoo run has failed to materialise, at least as desired.Last week saw a few flurries with catches of four to eight fish but these were inconsistent and probably the result of scoring on multiple strikes. Two out of a double strike or three out of a triple might sound nice, but loses its lustre if that was the only strike of the day.There wee certainly reports from boats that had done the grand tour of the Edge and both Banks with nothing to show for their burned fuel. This is not exactly going to shift people off a couch that is getting ever more comfortable as winter mode sets in.Other smaller game species are still around. Blackfin tuna, in particular, should be at their most abundant although the cooling water will soon see a slowdown of their activity. Amberjack and bonitos usually please well into the cooler months, so there should be some possibilities there.What is really needed is for the robins to start being more consistently available because it is live baits that are needed to ensure success with the larger jack species.For those who follow such things, the IGFA-sponsored International Great Marlin Race continues to provide surprises. This programme consists of releasing marlin caught during selected billfish tournaments with electronic tags that report where the fish travels to. The “winner” is the team that tagged the fish that travels the farthest.The latest such winner was a black marlin, estimated at 800 pounds, released off Lizard Island, Australia (part of the fabled black marlin grounds off the Great Barrier Reef). The fish travelled 2,577 miles in 69 days with the electronic data providing a record that is used by scientists to try to fathom out the lives of the fish that are so dear to the sportsman.There have now been several such “races” but this particular result was the second farthest recorded.There is some possibility that one of the local billfish tournaments will prove attractive to this branch of research. Bermuda is just about as central to the Atlantic as you can get and it is likely that the marlin that are caught here have not only come from areas to our south but also from the east, maybe even the Eastern Atlantic proper. Thus such tagging might shed some interesting light on the movement of the fish that happen by here seasonally.Unfortunately, the biggest impediment to such a programme is the cost of the tags which run into the thousands of dollars.It is kind of scary to take a valuable piece of electronic equipment, stick it into a fish and then watch it disappear into the depths with the hope that, one day, it will pop to the surface and download all its data to a satellite. It doesn’t take too much imagination to think of the myriad things that could go wrong, resulting in a financial loss not to mention no data. That could put a serious damper on what started out as some very promising Tight lines!!!