HE sixth Bermuda Big Game Classic fished over last weekend was a resounding success. An amazing total of 58 boats took part with 32 of these being visiting sport fishing boats. Over the three days of fishing, 72 blue marlin and 22 white marlin were caught. All but eight of the blue marlin and all of the whites were released. Of the eight brought to the weigh-station, two failed to make the minimum weight and were disqualified.

First place overall went to the visiting boat with a remarkable tally of 2,400 points coming from four blue marlin and two white marlin releases., another visiting boat, took second place with a total of 2,000 points from four releases. The locals proved that they were worthy opponents when Capt. Peter Olander's slid neatly into third place with 1,534 points from two blue marlin releases and a landed fish that weighed in at 534 pounds, scoring that many points.

Apart from the standings in the Classic, there were also a number of jackpots that were allotted to both daily releases and landed fish. Two visiting boats, and and local boat shared in these proceeds.

By most people's standards the big winner of the tournament was the boat when lady angler Rebecca Hawn caught a 797-pound blue marlin off of Challenger Bank on the second day of the tournament. The battle took over two hours but proved to be worthwhile as it earned the all-female team the lion's share of the cash pot generated by the participants. Hawn also won the High Point Lady Angler Trophy.

Also getting into the prize list was Capt. Stephen Cabral's that won the Biggest Game Fish (other than billfish) award with a nice 62-pound wahoo.

Of all the billfish caught during the tournament, there was a very significant portion of whites ? way more than expected. This is in keeping with the better than usual run of whites being experienced in the local area this year. Most world class blue marlin tournaments tend to see very few whites or sailfish in the catches reported by the boats taking part. In fact, many tournaments totally ignore "other" species and only score points for blue marlin caught. Part of this comes from the scheduling of marlin tournaments for times of the year that see the blue marlin as the dominant offshore species.

In terms of the blue marlin, there are a couple of salient points. Using the figure of 72 blue marlin over the three days and the participation of 58 boats (presumably fishing exclusively for billfish) then a quick calculation gives an index of 0.41 blue marlin per boat per day.

This is low compared with, say, the US Virgin Islands Boy Scout Tournament where the index for 2005 was 0.71 blue marlin per boat per day (108 fish from 38 boats fishing four days). In 2004, the index for the Boy Scout was slightly better at 0.80. So, by comparison in terms of numbers, the fishing is good here but not exceptional.

What is exceptional is the quality of fish in Bermuda waters. Of the qualifying fish weighed in, five were between 500 and 600 pounds. One fish was just shy of 800 pounds! Many of the fish released were estimated at better than 400 pounds. This equates to a large average size of blue marlin here. Again, compared with the Boy Scout Tournament, the average fish there is something less than 300 pounds and a fish has not been weighed in 18 years! We definitely have the edge on quality and in big game circles numbers are nice but size is paramount.

Even after last week's hectic activity, it seems that the big game anglers just can not get enough of a good thing. The Bermuda Billfish Tournament (better known as the Sea Horse Anglers Club Marlin Tournament) goes ahead this weekend with the armada scouring the seas for any marlin that have gone unscathed through the first three weeks of this month. This longstanding event is also the final leg of the Bermuda Triple Crown and draws support from boats that have competed in the Blast and Classic tournaments.is entered in the Triple Crown and, with just one leg to go, leads by 1,300 points. While one may think that this is an insurmountable lead, it would be folly to do so with a blue marlin release scoring 500 points and boated fish scoring a point per pound. Given that there are granders out there, 1,300 points can be dwarfed by the score resulting from just a couple of fish.

Looking ahead to August, we can expect the onset of the summer doldrums. It will be hot and probably calm as a Bermuda-Azores high pressure area starts to dominate the central northern Atlantic. Much of the fishing goes quiet. Already there is a lack of school tuna around and the few that are offshore will likely become lethargic and favour early mornings and very late afternoons to avoid the heat. Fish often prefer to stay deep and calm conditions usually allow the surface waters to warm up even more than usual.

Leaving the billfish to the specialists, the rest of us will quickly see that fishing for wahoo is pretty much a non-starter. Trolling is generally not very productive until there are signs of the autumnal run starting up. Finding some flotsam can be a godsend as such junk often harbours schools of wahoo or dolphin. On the other hand, burning fuel to go in search of anything that might happen to be offshore is not a very prudent choice. The best option is to adopt a wait and see attitude.

From the human point of view, a day out on the anchor can be pretty close to unbearable. The heat is bad enough but the lack of a cooling breeze is enough to deter even the keenest anglers. A popular option is to take up evening fishing in the channel for white water snappers. It will be cooler and the fish are likely to please. Just remember that for amateurs there is a legal limit on the amount of white waters that you can keep per day.

If you prefer to go deeper, yellowtail snappers also offer an alternative that will allow you to avoid exposure to the sun. Chumming and balling down over some of the deeper reefs can be incredibly productive and there is no official limit to the number of yellowtails that can be caught by amateurs.

Just remember that, for both species, quantities of ice are required to prevent the fish from spoiling. It is remarkable just how quickly these species can go off if they are not properly iced. After all, it would be a shame not to reap the benefits of your Tight lines!!!