Now, let’s not all go racing out there at once. The weather is improving rapidly, the boredom has become unbearable and there are even fish willing to please, so has summer actually arrived? Well, no, not really.

For a start, more than half of the Island’s keener anglers do not have their boats ready and are not in a position to take advantage of a smashing start to the season. For another, things are not so good as to cause mayhem although things are looking up and anything can happen at any time.

Probably the most promising thing is that there are numbers of yellowfin tuna out on the Banks.

Not huge numbers but enough to justify dropping the hook and getting some chum into the water. While none of the fish are giants, they aren’t all schoolies either; with some of them topping the 40-pound mark. Naturally this augurs really well for the light tackle events that start in just a couple of weeks time.

Bermuda’s Edge, seldom a place to find concentrations of tuna for any length of time are quieter than expected. there is a distinct lack of bait and that might well have something to do with that.

For some reason unknown to mere mortals the robins have been inconsistent over the last couple of years, ranging from incredibly plentiful to virtually non-existent.

Obviously, things are not that simple. There must be other bait species around — and they might not all be fish — other things live in the ocean: crustaceans, molluscs and other planktonic creatures. Certainly, longliners are getting results with albacore, Bluefin tuna and swordfish.

Those predators are not hanging around the local area for their health, so there must be something for them to feed on. While we think that tuna feed on flying fish and flying squid, that is a result of what we see and not what they actually do.

Albacore may prefer to stay at depth because of the water temperature (they apparently prefer water around 61 degrees) but they probably feed on the same things that yellowfin and blackfin tuna do, so that might account for the increased numbers of the former at the moment.

Blackfin are more of a warm water species and while they do winter here, definitely become more active as the summer progresses. Interestingly enough, an analysis of stomach contents of another warm water fish, the blue marlin, some years ago put blackfin tuna down as their favourite food.

Realistically, though, early season fishing is generally trolling and while there are many anglers who are not keen on this method of fishing, it does have its uses.

Most wahoo are taken by trolling and the tuna will also strike at moving baits, particularly when they themselves are on the move as they hunt for concentrations of bait or ideal conditions.

Larger tuna are often taken on the drag suggesting that they are less likely to feed in chum slicks. Another species that used to be associated with early season trolling is the white marlin. These usually ran with schools of wahoo but have been taken in mixed hook-ups which have included wahoo, tuna and even dolphin.

A great light tackle fish, the white marlin is all too often caught on tackle way too heavy for them to give any sort of account of themselves. So, while there is some risk involved, even this early on, try carrying a bright lure on something like 20-lb test line when traversing the deep.

Hooking a white on such gear will pay off with a great performance and make for some exciting angling. This is one of the best times of the year for the angler. Fish are moving into the area and conditions are constantly improving.

Things will change from day to day so the whole thing is unpredictable and that can make for all sorts of excitement.

This is short-lived as things then settle down and the summer malaise sets in with the lesser game species becoming standard fare before the focus shifts to billfish come July. The next few weeks are to be enjoyed and the use of suitable tackle will make it all the more pleasurable.

Bobby Rego, Danny Fox, Capt. Allen DeSilva and Casey Sowers are down in Costa Rica fishing the Offshore World Championship as the team “2003 Championship Team”. Another Bermuda-based team consisting of Kip Froud, David Skinner, Mark Henneberger and Dean Rae are also contesting the event which is taking place in Quepos, Costa Rica, an area renowned for sailfish.

Double figures are commonplace, even on light tackle and there are also three species of marlin which put in an appearance from time to time. Last year’s tournament saw 311 anglers on 64 teams catch 2,735 billfish. To put this in perspective, all but nine of these were sailfish — that’s a lot of sailfish! Apart from billfish, “dorado” (as in dolphin) are also a recognised species and there were almost 80 of those caught. anyone interested in following the local teams’ progress can find live scoring on the internet at www.offshoreworldchampionship.com.Simply stated, as this is a “world” event there will be fierce competition and no shortage of Tight Lines!!!