PIPPED at the post! That is all that can be said about the fate of the Bermuda team that competed in the Sixth Annual Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship tournament. This competition was held at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and was basically a release event with striped marlin the primary target species.

After a slow start, they fired on all cylinders and going into the final day the Bermuda team, consisting of Bobby Rego, Danny Fox, Buddy Sowers and John Domanic, held what seemed an unassailable lead. Would this be a repetition of their 2003 glory? Sadly, it was not to be.

The team that had qualified by winning the Miami Beach Mayor's Cup tournament came out of the blue on the final day catching eight striped marlin and one tuna. Starting out in seventh place on the final day, the billfish put them on a level footing with the Bermuda team and the tuna, a 42-pounder, gave them the edge that moved them into first place.

As is usually the case, there was an ironic twist to the proceedings. The Bermuda team had a billfish release disqualified when judge Peter Wright ascertained that one of the hooks used was offset. The likely explanation was that during the course of a battle with a fish or during the process of removing the hook, it got bent and that was that. Three hundred points lost and with them, first place overall.

Third place went to the Islamorada (Florida) Presidential Sailfish Tournament team.

This event itself is an interesting competition. First off, in order to qualify for an invitation to the Offshore Championship, it is necessary to win one of the Rolex/IGFA?sanctioned events held worldwide.

This year saw 70 teams from 31 countries taking part; each fishing on a different Cabo-based boat each day for the four day duration. Just think, Bermuda could not round up that many boats even if we had to! More amazing is the number of fish that would have to be found. The final tally at this year's Offshore Championship was 503 striped marlin, 14 sailfish, 11 dolphin, six wahoo and two yellowfin tuna. While this was a record for the tournament, it is still an awful lot of fish. Cabo must really be an angler's paradise.

All the non-believers should by now have realised that summer is officially here. May 24th has come and gone and in just a few weeks it will be the summer solstice after which the days will start to get shorter again. Talk about tempis fugit! In short, this means that it is time to cash in on some of the action. The wahoo action is really pretty good although it can be on again, off again. Over the course of a few days things seem to balance out and there is the perpetual problem of someone locating a concentration of fish one day only to have everybody and his brother trolling alongside them the next. When this happens it doesn't matter how many fish there are, everyone is going to have to settle for a share of the overall. While this might still be pretty good, most skippers do like to have it all to themselves. Fishing is one game where greed really does rule.

Most boats are managing five or more on a full day. Some of the charter boats such as Capt. Alan Card's and Capt. Allen DeSilva's have done considerably better. On occasion, they have not only gotten into double figures but 20 or more has not been unheard of. Most of the best action has come from the western Edge and the Banks but there have also been consistent reports that the southeastern point off the East End has been producing as well.

Best of all, the fish have been showing some good quality with the average fish probably close to 30 pounds. Considerably larger ones have also been caught and a day's haul should be more than enough fish to stock any amateur's freezer for the season.

The slight change in the weather early on in the week probably accounted for the tuna bite going off a bit. With the sheer quantity of bait on the Banks, it is simply not likely that the tuna have departed. They will go off their feed at times and the bright moon may well allow them to feed at night. Lots of deeper water bait species migrate toward the surface at night and the tuna may be taking advantage of the moonlight to dine around the clock.

Small game is abundant. Mackerel, rainbow runner, all manner of jacks as well as bonita will please chummers as they await larger game to invade the chumslick. With the amount of flying squid around, the blackfin will be feeding on these as well, moving into the water off the shelf if needs be. Although the blackfin prefers warmer water, these too can be expected to put in an appearance in any chum line.

As might have been expected with the full moon, there has been an increase in billfish activity. Several have been hooked and lost and this while wahoo fishing. There can be no doubt that as soon as the wahoo bite eases off, the big boys will go in earnest pursuit of blue marlin and the numbers should start to tally up quite quickly. In addition to the local specialists, there is already some foreign competition in local waters and lots more expected to show up during the next few weeks. As it was last year, the yacht club will again be a forest of outriggers and tuna towers.

Weather permitting, this Sunday should see the first of the season's big events. The Bacardi Rum Annual Tournament is slated to be fished. The weigh-in is at Dockyard and usually draws a good crowd with this year promising to provide some good hauls for the shore-bound to see. In the event of questionable weather, competitors can call 234-2070. It should also be noted that should the tournament be postponed, the alternate is in two weeks' time.

Those with limited ability to get offshore should take heart. There is actually quite a lot of quality shore fishing that goes ignored. There are pompano (palometa) off the South Shore, some a lot larger than the new all-tackle IGFA record of a mere 1 lb 3 oz. There are numerous bonefish and barracuda over the sandy bottoms and grey snapper around docks and bridges. All are scrappy battlers, each worthy of recognition in their own right and all capable of providing some fun Tight lines!!!